Whether you're selling ice cream to the neighborhood kiddies or recruiting services to large and medium-scale firms, the principles for selling your products remain the same. The difference lies in how you develop them into working methods that maximize business. Clients in the recruitment industry have more complex demands . Unlike little kids who can be pleased with an icicle pop on a hot afternoon, your clients are on the lookout for a person with the right abilities, experiences, connections, traits and attitudes that best fit their company needs and culture. That's a lot more difficult than taking an icicle pop from the fridge . Let's take a look at these marketing principles and how you can create marketing strategies from them.
1. Create a niche market.
When you are a recruitment firm in a smaller community, you can easily get away with dominating the share of the market because there's less competition for clients. But let's say you operate in London. There are many thousands of recruitment agencies in the area, including the top multi-national firms with offices in the U.K. How can you possibly rise above this type of competition? The key is to get yourself a niche where you can concentrate on your offerings and specialize your recruitment services for a selected sort of customer . For instance, you may opt to set your sights on the health niche and provide staffing for clinics , clinics and other kinds of establishments in the healthcare niche . Potential clients may also include those in the financial, legal, manufacturing and information technology industries.
2. Get marketing consent.
Cold-calling is not anymore hot. At the very best this marketing method can get you around a number of new clients per each 20 calls; at worst, you can irk possible customers for barging in on their valuable time . To put it in layman's terms, gone are the days when recruiters can show up unannounced and still effectively win clients. Firms and the people who run them are busy. With so many advertising messages that continually batter the senses each day, how does one expect to stand out and be spotted ? Ask their permission . By providing interesting, , useful and engaging rewards, you win potential clients who have actively decided to hear what you have got to say. Rewards can be anywhere from a monthly industry newsletter, instant notifications about top candidates or free placement for one person .
3. Build and nurture client relations .
Traditional marketers work on developing the product. More advanced marketing experts work on expanding the concentration on the product to create more value for customers and establishing powerful and long lasting relations with them. Remember, it is six times dearer to win a new client than to keep an old one. Communication is a vital component in good client relations . It does not stop when you have made a placement. It keeps going, whether by phone, e-mail or in the flesh, and should strive to provide your customer with pertinent information beneficial to his business. A recruitment database lets you keep and organise all sorts of information about your clients and applicants . This can help you maintain a record of all instances of communication with them. Little things as well , such as mailing them a note for the holidays or sending thank-you gifts after a particularly successful transaction, also boosts customer satisfaction and loyalty.
4. Make your customers feel valued.
Your customers have many concerns to attend to and would only enjoy talking with you if you have something that can help them ease these concerns. Now isn't the time to pitch your services to your customers . Chances are that they have also heard the same from other recruiters . To make yourself stand out from the competition, you have to prove to your customers and potential customers that you're truly concerned about them. Open a meaningful dialogue with them and pose questions that will help you make the hardest impact for their business. Furnish them with novel and specific information that can help them to handle the challenges of their business. Existing clients also find handy information that educates them on how to use your services so that they can get the best out of them.
In the recruitment industry, people are your main concern. The objective is to shift attention away from you as a business and focus on interacting with people as clients and applicants . (One day, one of your applicants may become a possible client, so treat them all with respect.) The more they feel that you are listening to them instead of the other way around, the more they regard you as a partner for long term success as opposed to a one-time sales call.
1. Create a niche market.
When you are a recruitment firm in a smaller community, you can easily get away with dominating the share of the market because there's less competition for clients. But let's say you operate in London. There are many thousands of recruitment agencies in the area, including the top multi-national firms with offices in the U.K. How can you possibly rise above this type of competition? The key is to get yourself a niche where you can concentrate on your offerings and specialize your recruitment services for a selected sort of customer . For instance, you may opt to set your sights on the health niche and provide staffing for clinics , clinics and other kinds of establishments in the healthcare niche . Potential clients may also include those in the financial, legal, manufacturing and information technology industries.
2. Get marketing consent.
Cold-calling is not anymore hot. At the very best this marketing method can get you around a number of new clients per each 20 calls; at worst, you can irk possible customers for barging in on their valuable time . To put it in layman's terms, gone are the days when recruiters can show up unannounced and still effectively win clients. Firms and the people who run them are busy. With so many advertising messages that continually batter the senses each day, how does one expect to stand out and be spotted ? Ask their permission . By providing interesting, , useful and engaging rewards, you win potential clients who have actively decided to hear what you have got to say. Rewards can be anywhere from a monthly industry newsletter, instant notifications about top candidates or free placement for one person .
3. Build and nurture client relations .
Traditional marketers work on developing the product. More advanced marketing experts work on expanding the concentration on the product to create more value for customers and establishing powerful and long lasting relations with them. Remember, it is six times dearer to win a new client than to keep an old one. Communication is a vital component in good client relations . It does not stop when you have made a placement. It keeps going, whether by phone, e-mail or in the flesh, and should strive to provide your customer with pertinent information beneficial to his business. A recruitment database lets you keep and organise all sorts of information about your clients and applicants . This can help you maintain a record of all instances of communication with them. Little things as well , such as mailing them a note for the holidays or sending thank-you gifts after a particularly successful transaction, also boosts customer satisfaction and loyalty.
4. Make your customers feel valued.
Your customers have many concerns to attend to and would only enjoy talking with you if you have something that can help them ease these concerns. Now isn't the time to pitch your services to your customers . Chances are that they have also heard the same from other recruiters . To make yourself stand out from the competition, you have to prove to your customers and potential customers that you're truly concerned about them. Open a meaningful dialogue with them and pose questions that will help you make the hardest impact for their business. Furnish them with novel and specific information that can help them to handle the challenges of their business. Existing clients also find handy information that educates them on how to use your services so that they can get the best out of them.
In the recruitment industry, people are your main concern. The objective is to shift attention away from you as a business and focus on interacting with people as clients and applicants . (One day, one of your applicants may become a possible client, so treat them all with respect.) The more they feel that you are listening to them instead of the other way around, the more they regard you as a partner for long term success as opposed to a one-time sales call.
About the Author:
Jane
Clements writes for eBoss Solutions, a leading company in recruitment databases
and producer of eBoss recruitment software. For more information about how to market
and manage your recruitment firm, please visit eBoss Solutions or send an email
to jane.c@eboss.co.uk.
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