Sales & Marketing Tips for the Staffing Industry

What's the secret to growing your staffing agency?

(UPDATED: 7/10/18) - Is providing great "value" enough? Think about it through the eyes of your prospective customers - people who haven't worked with your agency yet. They don't know your sales reps from the next agency's, and/or who have NO IDEA how valuable your staffing services actually are.

Will they think that your value proposition is fresh and exciting? ... your textbook, cookie-cutter response of being a (fill-in-the-blank)? And, most importantly, is it true? IS your agency really all that different from the rest?

It happened again, didn't it?

A star performer just left your agency at the height of their development (and subsequent angst, apparently), and they either started a boutique agency or partnered with one, and they took their high performing relationships with them.

There are 20,000 staffing firms in the US today (source: American Staffing Association), and the number is growing, so you know this problem isn't going away on its own.

Now you're faced with the choice of whether to impose your non-compete (again) to slow them down. Conversely, you could put your energy into doing something totally radical and provocative... You could direct that energy toward fixing the problems that lead to these situations in the first place... and in turn do something that seems to have slipped lately - your ability to provide tangible value to your clients.

Looking for new, innovative ways to improve the sales outcomes for your staffing agency?

Check out this video we created showing you how to leverage VIDEO for garnering more job orders.

It's not often that you'll hear the leader of a marketing agency tell you that you can grow your business without wasting money on marketing, but I'm here to say it, and I'll say it again... from business owner to business owner...

DON'T WASTE ANOTHER DIME ON MARKETING! 

Trying to choose between business growth strategies for your staffing agency?

We know the struggle well. You're competing with younger, more nimble agencies (or yours is one). You're in an industry that has never shied away from aggressive sales tactics, and now the market is over-saturated with competitors WAY more aggressive and entrenched than you.

To top it off, you've never had to invest much into marketing, so even though you're starting to understand that it's time to go there, it's very difficult to understand where your efforts and money are going to be the most meaningful.

Your staffing agency isn't growing fast enough.

You're moving in a positive direction, but you want to grow at much faster rate, and the solutions offered by your franchiser are somewhat lacking.

What do you do?

It's time to g(r)o(w). Your staffing agency is stuck.

You're doing well enough, you suppose...  is resonating with your customers. Attrition is low, and satisfaction is high.

But you're not growing... at least, you're not growing as fast as you'd like, and you're looking for ways to fill the gap between your goals and reality.

Inbound marketing might be the answer, and it is something you can implement right now... It works in parallel with your existing sales and marketing plans, so it won't turn your world upside down. Additionally, it follows a proven formula. It's also typically cheaper and easier to accomplish through a turn-key agency. 

So, it won't tax your existing resources, require anybody to learn a new process, or disrupt your existing ecosystem.

The inbound marketing strategy PLUS

(updated 1/5/18) Are you trying to increase sales for your staffing agency? Is digital marketing something that interests you? If so, there are several directions you can go. I suggest using inbound marketing as your centerpiece. It is a widely proven methodology, and your industry is really missing the boat on it.

(see some case studies here: http://www.hubspot.com/customers#/f=recruiting)

To help, we put together a playbook that ties all the best marketing strategies for staffing agencies into a single resource. And this article is here to break them down for you.

Your sales teams work tirelessly to land each and every job order. Every once in awhile, they'll hook a whale - working with a fortune 500 company through the coveted Master Services Agreement (MSA). A single MSA could be worth HUNDREDS, if not THOUSANDS of job orders, and ultimately, millions in revenue each year they are properly serviced.

I personally know several agencies who built their entire company around a single MSA that landed in their laps and happened to be in desperation mode, so it was a feast from day 1.

But landing them isn't typically where the hard work ends... not by a long shot. Job orders come separately, and the challenges your recruiters and sales teams face are numerous. It turns out though, that marketing can actually play a significant role in MSA success, and I'm going to share with you exactly how your department can help.

Tired of procurement and HR blocking your ability to do your job?

When I was an Account Executive at an IT staffing agency, I landed an MSA (Master Service Agreement) with one of the world's largest tech companies in relatively short order. It wasn't easy (not even remotely so), but through a lot of careful and clever positioning, I was able to get it done.

When it comes to sales, staffing agencies, for the most part, are stuck in the 90s... and these MSAs tend to be some of the more challenging and frustrating landscapes to navigate.

This is how, against all odds (and the wagers upper management placed against me), I was able to turn that MSA into a cash-cow for my agency in less than a month... It's also how Orange Pegs has helped numerous other staffing agencies achieve the same exact results.

Industry outsiders will never understand you.

They don't realize how long it takes to build a book of business, or, conversely, how quickly it can all go away, like it did in 2009 due to forces outside ALL of our control. They don't comprehend how many moving parts there are or how much of what you do is purely a numbers game and hedging your bets.

One of the biggest challenges you face is that, in a lot of ways, working in your industry is like working in a fishbowl. Every single aspect of your business is under scrutiny, and every visible component will influence your growth AND attrition - not just your teams in the field... or your marketing team.

Everybody.