In as we speak’s aggressive staffing market, profitable and retaining purchasers is the secret. On this yr’s GRID Trade Tendencies Report, each profitable new enterprise and constructing relationships with purchasers have been listed as high priorities by staffing companies from around the globe. Whether or not you’re trying to appeal to new prospects or foster stronger relationships along with your current purchasers, the state of the trade requires a brand new method – and the trade’s high companies are giving themselves a aggressive edge with automation.
To unpack how one can leverage automation to construct relationships with purchasers, Billy Davis, Enterprise Buyer Success – Automation, AI, and Expertise Platform at Bullhorn, and Allegra Highsmith, VP of Recruiting at Goodwin Recruiting, led a highly-rated session this yr at Have interaction Boston. Beneath, learn 5 actionable methods you’ll be able to put automation to work to win new enterprise. Plus, for extra insights from trade consultants, try our Have interaction Boston Content material Hub.
1. Delivering higher outcomes
The quickest approach to construct a relationship with an organization is to ship the absolute best outcomes at each single stage of the journey – and automation supplies numerous alternatives that can assist you ship a constantly excessive stage of service. With automated communications, you’ll be able to share real-time course of updates throughout the gross sales and enterprise improvement processes as a lead turns into a prospect and as a prospect turns into a shopper. “You might have alternatives to maintain your purchasers within the loop about what’s taking place,” Davis mentioned, “so that they have that info, they usually really feel like that’s an open avenue of communication.”
Delivering higher outcomes additionally means offering higher expertise. You possibly can assist make sure you’re inserting the absolute best candidates by making ready them for his or her roles upfront. Automation might help standardize the knowledge they obtain, like offering an interview or placement guidelines, so you’ll be able to guarantee your expertise reveals up on day one ready and able to work. With automation, you too can leverage AI auto-match so you can also make higher-quality submissions and placements at scale.
Davis additionally advisable proactively advertising and marketing famous person candidates. Ask your purchasers what their excellent candidate is, after which arrange filters and notifications in order that if somebody updates their info and is a perfect match for that shopper, you’ll be able to ship them their approach. “We’ve had an over 70% success charge in presenting candidates proactively like this to purchasers even when there was no job alternative,” Davis mentioned.
2. Standardizing gross sales excellence
“I’ve by no means met a gross sales crew that wouldn’t like to clone their greatest gross sales reps,” Davis mentioned. “With automation, you are able to do simply that.” Start by understanding what makes your greatest gross sales reps excel. What are they doing from a methods and course of standpoint? Upon getting this commonplace operation process, you’ll be able to arrange notifications and reminders for the remainder of your gross sales crew to make sure they’re taking the identical actions on the proper time and getting the most effective outcomes potential.
You can even use automation to standardize excellence in your gross sales crew by constructing constant touchpoints and follow-ups with prospects and purchasers. Davis suggested to balancing automated and personalised communication on this outreach. There are some messages that lend themselves effectively to automation, however constructing relationships is all about constructing private connections. As you construct your automation workflows, be sure that to incorporate reminders for a shopper go to, a shopper telephone name, a LinkedIn message, or any avenues the place you’ll be able to deepen the connection by having a personalized effect.
3. Measuring satisfaction
How are you going to pinpoint areas for enchancment in your gross sales processes and enterprise improvement? It’s easy: simply ask. Gathering shopper suggestions by NPS surveys might help you identify your friction and ache factors and the place you’ve room to enhance. Don’t be afraid to ask a number of occasions, Davis mentioned. “I’ve seen customers enhance their completion charges by as much as six occasions simply by asking greater than as soon as to get the response,” he added.
You can even enhance completion charges by giving examples of suggestions you’ve acquired up to now that you simply’ve now added to your course of. Plus, with automation, if the person completes the survey or the NPS rating, they gained’t obtain additional follow-up messages.
4. Leveraging higher information
For those who’re trying to collect shopper and firm information, look no additional than automation. You need to use candidate information for enterprise intelligence, like figuring out which purchasers have the most effective ratios of submittals to send-outs, send-outs to interviews, and interviews to placements. You can even decide the common time to fill or the location retention in the event you’re engaged on the contract aspect.
When you uncover this information, it will possibly play an important function in your small business improvement efforts. “I believe that is form of the hidden superpower of the staffing house,” Davis mentioned. “Your purchasers solely have a window right into a slim view of a market, however you as a staffing agency have a a lot purview. Purchasers wish to know what you’re seeing from a development standpoint.” What do candidates need from their employer? What are you seeing when it comes to competitors in a particular vertical or talent set? You need to use the info you uncover to open the door with a prospect.
5. Specializing in funnels and pipelines
Automation might help fill any gaps in your pipeline at any level of the shopper journey – although it may be helpful on the high of your funnel. Davis highlighted a particular automation to assist generate a perpetual supply of heat shopper leads. You’ll find purchasers that you simply’ve performed enterprise with up to now that you simply’re not presently doing enterprise with and create a nurturing re-engagement marketing campaign with them. “Usually, in the event you do this in the fitting approach, you may get this trickle again in of heat shopper leads who you’ve labored with up to now,” Davis mentioned.
Automation may also assist rework outbound efforts into inbound alternatives. As a substitute of spending assets on chilly calls, create a drip marketing campaign of e-mail content material. Embrace thought management content material, success tales, or trade tendencies – something your viewers may discover priceless. As soon as a prospect interacts with that e-mail, that triggers a follow-up automation coming from a gross sales rep asking if the prospect desires to speak additional and alluring them to ebook time on their calendar. A agency that leveraged this marketing campaign averaged 15 to 30 inbound prospect conferences every week.
Consumer automations in follow
Incorporating automation into your workflows can have an actual affect on strengthening your shopper relationships. At Goodwin, Allegra Highsmith and her crew are nonetheless discovering new makes use of for automation to supercharge their efforts. “We use automation in so many alternative ways in which we hadn’t even began to consider at first,” she mentioned.
The crew at Goodwin finds worth in establishing and receiving inside notifications, like inside newsletters and product rollouts, to maintain them knowledgeable and engaged, aligning their day-to-day efforts with automation. “I believe generally we will assume that automation will make you’re feeling extra faraway from the communication or that your purchasers, candidates, and your crew may really feel extra disconnected if you’re automating,” Highsmith mentioned. “However I believe it truly brings individuals in and consists of them and makes them really feel a stronger sense of belonging.”
The crew at Goodwin has additionally seen big success with their drip campaigns for prospecting: 50% of their prospects that go to their web site and full a shopper kind have acquired certainly one of their drip marketing campaign emails. A part of this success got here from tailoring e-mail content material in these drip campaigns to particular verticals in order that they resonated with their supposed viewers; the crew additionally retains their outreach brief, personalised, and mobile-friendly to encourage engagement. Highsmith and her crew additionally aren’t afraid to experiment; she started including emojis to e-mail topic traces and noticed a ten% enhance in open charges.
For these beginning their automation journey, Highsmith gives two items of recommendation. First, make clear your targets and guarantee everybody in your group understands the “why” behind implementing and leveraging automation. “Just be sure you have that model continuity, your values, your voice, and your differentiators,” Highsmith mentioned. “You don’t wish to lose any of that by the automation course of.”
Highsmith additionally suggested companies to leverage the experience of automation distributors and to hunt recommendation from all through the trade. “You don’t know what you don’t know,” she mentioned. “And once we first began, we had plenty of issues to be taught, and we’ve realized plenty of issues alongside the best way.”
