It is not uncommon in any business in general, and recruitment agency specifically, to encounter a sales halt or a stale in conversion rate. That is, despite the stability of the leads stream holding at good generation rates with the quality of those leads are seemingly healthy, sales negotiations seldom yield a contract. This is a sign that you may need to revisit your sales pitch. A symptom that need to be revisiting your Recruitment Agency Value Proposition, so let’s start from the beginning and draw the canvas.
The Value Proposition Canvas
The Value Proposition for a Recruitment Agency
Your recruitment agency offers 3 distinct Groups of Value offering corresponding to 3 Groups of Requirements at the customer’s end. In brief, they are:
- Pain Reliefers to Pain Points, the basic tree of needs for any customer involved with the process of filling in a position or more, including job design, advertising, interviewing, etc.
- Job Specifications to Customer Jobs, the parameters of the task in hand and what does the customer need to do in order to fulfill the task. That includes the budget, timeframe, and particular processes were the customer needs to have input.
- Differentiation to Experience this is the trickiest part, defining why the customer chooses your agency as opposed to your equally paired competitors. Customer experience is a purely subjective response from the customer’s decision makers toward the entire engagement with your agency and how fit it is for the task.
How to pitch your Recruitment Agency Unique Selling Point
Let’s delve into each of them to see when and how to pitch the right Unique Selling Point.
Pain Reliefer to Pain Point
The customer has Pain Points for which you offer Pain Reliefers. In simple words, the customer needs to fill in one or several positions to satisfy a business need. This requirement, from the customer point of view, is not a core business process. You will need to emphasize on customer’s pain points particularly when the customer never or rarely uses sourced recruitment services. Hence, you may opt to emphasize the opportunity cost for the customer, for instance:
- Emphasize on the shortcomings of inhouse recruitment such as trial and error, high probability of delay in finding the right fit and even verifying that the candidate is, in fact, the right fit.
- The process may take long. From search, selection, induction, and finalization. Any delay is harmful to the Return on Investment in the job position. Whenever possible, do numerical examples. A simple example when hiring a Sales Rep, with a target revenue of GBP 10,000 a month, if the entire process takes 2 months then you have an opportunity cost of GBP 20,000. If you can cut the time to 2 weeks using your database of preciously assessed candidates and rapid process that has already run the course of the learning curve, the opportunity cost is cut to GBP 5,000 only.
- You need to follow up attentively to the customer as they are relatively new to the agency business and will likely have extensive inquiries, most are basic and frequently asked. Prepare your CRM and automate responses, be responsive as much as possible.
Job Specifications to Customer Jobs
Customers may be reluctant to use a service that will end up adding overhead to their operations instead of taking it off their backs. Here comes the role of your recruitment software. The last thing the customer needs is to spend further manhours to train staff to use manhour management tools. Customers are looking for convenience, sometimes, as a higher priority than cutting costs.
Your robust processes, easy and engaging interface, informative and insightful reporting will make all the difference. Always keep in mind that your agency is as good as the technology it is using. Chameleon-i is a fistful arm you can count on to make your and your customer’s job much easier, faster, and less costly.
Differentiation to Customer Experience
Build the right customer experience from your own end. Seek how your customers would differentiate your agency from competitors. Herein lies customer retention, here is where you keep your customers loyal and, even more, advocate. Customer experience constitutes the main basis upon which the word of mouth is generated. This is the primary focus for customers who regularly use recruitment agency services whether from your agency or your competitors.
- The simple approach is to look at your current customer database, ask your happy customers what makes them happy.
- Ask your happy customers to use their words in your websites. With their consent, quote them highlighting the successful engagement you had with them.
- Celebrate your success. Always.
- Make good efforts to show off your track record. Customers are encouraged to use your services if others like them used it as well.
- Keep your customers engaged, make it easy for them to share their experience.
- Keep your sales pitch relational rather than transactional. Meaning: listen more rather than talk, ask open ended questions and let your customer express their aspirations and concerns. Keep learning from your customers.
- Nothing will make any sense if you have no tools to analyze these responses. Make sure you have the right CRM that will help you gather the feedback and make sense and use of it.
The entire selling process starts with the Value Proposition and building your customer’s expectations. Revisiting your Recruitment Agency Value Proposition frequently is essential to keep your business up-to-date with the dynamic competitive landscape. The more Value you offer, the more likely the customer will buy and be willing to pay. CRM is always about your people, processes, and technology. With the right CRM and Recruitment Software, you can enable your sales and recruitment agents by building robust, insightful and easy-to-use processes necessary to leave the right impression on your customer. Not only making them buy your service, but also recommend it to others.
