Staffing is a LOT harder than it used to be.
The staffing and recruiting industry has experienced a decade-long boom, with plenty of job orders and placements for those who could recruit talent.
But have you felt the recent shift?
These days, selling staffing services has become significantly more challenging. As Mike Jacoutot from Butler Street states, “You’re going to have to work twice as hard for half the results.”
This downturn in the industry can be stressful and difficult, but this blog post series isn’t about the doom and gloom of the situation. Instead, this post will focus on how your staffing or recruiting professionals can thrive in any economic environment by improving your messaging and website.
Are you ready to LEVEL UP?
Related posts in this series:
12 Strategies To Level Up Your Marketing: Part 1 – Differentiating Your Company
LEVEL UP YOUR MESSAGING
Congratulations, you’ve built a rock-solid foundation with your MVV. Now what?
A well-defined MVV enables your team to clearly identify your ideal clients…and the value you offer to these organizations.
But what will you say to capture their attention and gain their interest?
For the past decade, if you could find qualified candidates that matched your clients’ job openings, that was sufficient. But going forward, being good at recruiting is not enough.
In a down job market, it is essential that you position your services in terms of the business problems you solve and the economic value you offer.
Whether you sell to CEOs, HR managers, department heads, or frontline supervisors, your clients need people who know how they can use staffing as a strategic tool to solve business problems and capitalize on market opportunities.
Your salespeople must be able to consult with your clients about how staffing can be used to control labor costs, improve workforce productivity, and mitigate employment risk. As an example, here are a few ways staffing can add value in a down market:
- Convert fixed overhead to variable cost
- Confidentially top grade weak performing individuals, teams, or departments
- Reduce or eliminate overstaffing (i.e., having more FTEs than needed)
- Accelerate project implementation to gain a competitive advantage
- Improve production quality and reduce scrap and rework
- Free key team members to focus on more strategic priorities
- Provide access to resources (people, skills) to pursue new market opportunities
- Reduce payroll administration and benefits costs
- Limit independent contractor and workers’ comp liability
Do your sales reps and recruiters understand the strategic value of staffing?
If not, it’s time for training.
Teach them how to ask questions that go beyond staffing requirements and address underlying business needs and challenges.
Show them how temporary staffing, temp-to-hire, and direct hire services can be used as business tools to drive measurable bottom-line results.
Coach them to assist clients with workforce planning and sell strategic staffing solutions.
LEVEL UP YOUR WEBSITE
In the past 10 years, staffing websites have come a LONG way.
Most staffing companies have sites that look good and offer excellent functionality.
But is your website optimized for response?
The average “bounce rate” on a staffing website is around 60% – meaning 6 out of 10 visitors to your website are going to leave without ever taking an action. They don’t apply for a job. They don’t contact you about your services.
It’s time for CRO – Conversion Rate Optimization.
CRO is the art and science of designing a website to get people to respond. It’s about gaining a deep understanding of three things:
1. Drivers
Who is coming to your site?
Why are they there (what information and outcomes do they want)?
Step one to maximizing website response is to think about all the different audiences visiting your site, their reasons for visiting, and they outcomes they seek.
2. Hooks
What do you offer, or more aptly, could you offer, to get more people to take action?
Here, you are thinking about all the possible calls to action (CTAs) that could be integrated into your website. This includes offers that are close to the sale, like “request an employee” or “get a free consultation” as well as offers that are intended to open conversations such as “download our free salary guide” or “subscribe to our monthly email publication.”
The more you understand about the visitors to your website and their challenges and interests, the easier it is to develop engaging CTAs.
3. Barriers
What stops people from taking action?
Does your site take too long to load? Does it lack clarity? Does it take too long for people to find what they want? Is it too hard to respond?
On the web, you have precious few seconds for people to understand the context of your page and find the information they seek. Your page design and content have to match the intent of your visitors. And you need to eliminate barriers to response!
Want to know more about CRO?
Watch our on-demand Webinar
Better yet, get a FREE CRO Review of your website!
www.haleymarketing.com/websitereview
Up Next: 12 Strategies To Level Up Your Marketing: Part 3 – Selling More Staffing
Don’t want to wait for the next post to publish? Download the entire LEVEL UP eBook here for free!
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