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Transcription:
(This is a direct transcription please excuse any Typo’s.)
Today we are going to analyse a particular strategy technique that is used in manufacturing which when you review it and break it down, you appreciate that there’s a lot of gold in there that can actually be translated into the recruitment sector. You may or may not know but Sharon and I have been involved in sales and marketing for a long time. Recruitment building sales forces, training them and various things like that and that all happened within the manufacturing sector within the pharmaceutical environment.
There’s a great technique that manufacturers use that if you actually look at the concept of it, it can also be used in recruitment or any business to increase your profits and I think that is very appropriate at this time of year. Let’s get into it!
So what’s this technique/strategy that manufacturers use that can help you in your marketing? Well, this technique is known as value stream mapping. If you have never heard of it just google it. There is lots of stuff online about it. If you know anyone in manufacturing and you ask them about ‘sic sigma and value stream mapping’, they will all tell you how it works and what the basic premise is of value stream mapping.
As the name implies, it helps you to look at where the value is in your work flow and your work process. This is how it works in manufacturing. Depending on whether they’ve got a new product or service. They document it, they analyse how the different component parts work together, how the flow of information and materials will work together to produce a product or service.
Depending on the types of manufacturing, profits are not huge so it is really important that they look at where the value is in the chain and how they can make that work.
So how does that relate to profit and your recruitment company? Well, it comes back to good old marketing and attracting those leads into your business, because not all leads and not all clients are equal as we all discover when we start working with certain clients that we think “My God, this is costing me to interact with this client and there’s no profit.” If you’ve ever held your hand up, if you’ve ever been in a situation where you started working with a client and you think, “Hang on a minute here, I don’t think we are making any money here.” There could be another reason for that, which you underpriced. Let’s just talk about how value stream mapping can work in recruitment and how you can put that lens onto your activities when it comes to lead generation and attracting in the type of client you want.
About this time last year, I recorded a podcast around ‘Clearing Out Your Prospect Clutter” which relates quite closely to what we are going to talk about today. Today is about how do you identify those key clients that you want to work with? If you want your marketing to really work, the more specific and detailed, you can get who you want to attract, the better.
We always say to people around marketing – Who is it that you are targeting? Who do you want to attract in? Who is your ideal client? Depending on the level of the organisation, some people are very clear on it, other people are not. People talk about often and recruiters will say to them “We want everybody. We’ll take anything. We just want some jobs on that board. We want to get moving, have some momentum going.
Though I can appreciate that, having started in our business over ten years ago now. Then the risk can be a temptation to just take anything because it is cash flow but really you have to set your boundries and think about “If I am to look at a particular client, I need to make sure that I have a criteria in who I am going to work with, what value can I add and what value they are going to bring into my business.” I call this our client value mapping rather than necessarily the way that manufacturers talk about it.
What criteria could you have when you are deciding on clients? So it may be that you want to work with a certain size of organisation where you don’t have to have a preferred supplier status because that makes it easier for you. The structures are different. There could be more negotiation. You get to talk to people at a different level in the organisation. It does not have to go through a number of chains. That could be one criterion for you.
I am not saying that is right or wrong. I am just saying that that could be something you could consider. It could be around “So what’s the future opportunities here? Is this the growth market? Is this somewhere that I want to be? Is this somewhere that I’ve got some expertise? I want to set my stall out. Is that a potential for working with this particular client?”
What we always suggest to people is success leaves clues. I know this is more of a challenge for newer recruiters, but if you analyse where you have been successful, you analyse your clients where you’ve had a great success rate and let’s be honest about it, they are easy to work with, they pay on time, and you will find that these particular types of clients have attributes. They have certain ways that they do things and certain identifiers that you will be able to work out what they are. Those will be the types of clients that you might want to have on your target list.
Some people go into a way of saying “Type A clients, type B clients, type C clients…” which is a great way to look at it. When you have those different clients, once you know who they are and you’ll have your criteria for deciding on that, then you know how to market to them because they probably will speak a different language as in the words and phrases that they use, they may be a different sex. I don’t know! They could have a different mindset.
When you start to look at this in real detail it will really pay you dividends because then you can work out “So where can I add the best value here?” If you make a decision on, say going with a particular client fee structure that isn’t ideal for you, you will have a reason for doing that. It could be desperation or it could be “Hang on a minute here, this gives me good experience. I can get a good case study out of this.” It’s great on our website to say that we’ve worked with ABC organisation that will help us to bring in other people.
So that’s the subject of today’s podcast. It’s all around customer value mapping. Great time of year to do it as the year starts to draw to a close and you are starting to reflect “So what do I want to do differently in 2015? What sort of clients do I really want to be working with because I know I’ve got client A and B that really do not make my heart sing.” If every time you pick up that phone to a particular client and your heart drops, then that is not a good feeling to be having. You need to be thinking “Why is this happening? Is there somebody else out there that I could have a better value to.”
This is Denise from Super Fast Recruitment, talking about moving value stream mapping from manufacturing into the recruitment arena and how that process can help you identify the types of clients that you want to go for. This is Denise, bye for now!
Show Notes:
5 secs – What this show is all about
1:16 – Download our podcast
1:35 – What’s this technique/strategy that manufacturers use that could help you in your marketing?
1:43 – Value stream mapping
2:00 – What does value stream mapping do?
2:30 – Why is value stream mapping important in manufacturing?
2:37 – How value stream mapping relates to your recruitment company
3:13 – How value stream mapping can work in recruitment
3:30 – Clearing out your prospect clutter
3:55 – Who do you want to attract?
4:28 – You have to make sure you have criteria for the people you want to work with
4:40 – “Client Value Mapping”
4:51 – Sample criteria – working with a certain organisation size
5:19 – Sample criteria – future opportunities
5:45 – Clients where you’ve had a great success rate
6:30 – When you know the clients that you want to work with then you will know how to market to them
7:00 – Where can I add the best value here
7:18 – What it can give you
7:40 – Reflect on what you want to do differently in 2015
This podcast was hosted by Denise Oyston. Follow us on Google+
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