Like any business, knowing how to approach and acquire new clients will be the key to your staffing agency’s success. But when you’re dealing with a globally interconnected marketplace and a mountain of competition, that’s always easier said than done. In fact, standing out from the crowd has become more difficult than ever. 

The honest truth is that it’s no longer enough to provide quality service and have experience in your niche, as this has become the standard basepoint. Older more brute force marketing tactics like cold calling may also struggle to find much success these days. To stand out in today’s market requires a more personalized, relationship-based marketing approach.

In this article, we’re going to talk you through exactly how you can do this.

1. Know your niche

Your niche, your chosen field of specialization, should have already been established when you set up your staffing agency. Whatever niche you’ve chosen, be it finance, accounting, manufacturing, or healthcare, make sure there’s a local demand for it and decent profit margins are achievable .

But ask yourself, how well do you truly know your chosen niche? Are you keeping tabs on current developments in the field? Do you have projections on how the needs of your prospective clients might change in the coming year? Are there any new technologies making inroads into the industry that are bringing about big changes? 

Effective marketing and sales outreach relies on establishing yourself as an expert in your niche; someone who talks the same language as prospective clients, and intrinsically understands their wants, needs, and pain points. So ensure you devote regular time and resources to stay in the loop with current trends in your chosen industry. 

2. Identify your ideal clients

Before you start pitching, identify who your “ideal” client is. Obviously, they should be within your chosen niche, but what else is it you’re looking for? Are they a small-to-medium sized business, or a large corporation? Where should they be located? How many temporary employees should they need and how often? Building a profile of your ideal client can go a long way towards narrowing down your search. It also tells you a bit about them before you’ve even contacted them since you can make some safe assumptions about their needs and ongoing issues.

Once you have a firm idea of who your ideal client is, start searching for businesses that most closely fit that description. Create a spreadsheet that can be filled in over time so you can create a more detailed profile on each prospective client. 

3. Identify the right decision makers in your target company

A successful client pitch relies on opening communication with the right people. Who is it that signs off on new hires? Is there a recruiter or HR rep you can talk to directly? Does upper management need to be involved? Each company may be different, so do your research to understand how their organization works and who needs to be involved in the hiring decisions and pay negotiations.

Correctly identify those individuals with the most influence who you can focus on. Do they have a LinkedIn profile or a company bio? Do as much research as you can on who they are and what they might be looking for in a staffing agency. The more you know about them, the more personalized you can make your pitch. Also, try and get their company email address so you can directly contact them. 

4. Open the communication and build a relationship

It’s no secret that business relies on good relationships. Getting to that means making a great first impression through a well written staffing agency-client introductory email. You’ll only get one shot at making a good first impression so use everything you’ve learned about the client to make your opening email as personalized as possible. Keep it short and to the point, if you send them a wall of text outlining your entire list of services, they won’t bother reading past the first sentence.

Here’s a template of a staffing agency introduction email to clients that you could use in just about any situation:

Hi XXXX

Finding the right hires is harder than ever. And a lot of staffing agencies promise the world, but then end up placing the wrong hires into positions, which just causes you more headaches.

At [agency name], we’ve put all of our energy into our talent assessment and vetting process, to ensure all our clients get the right hire for the right job.

Some of our satisfied customers include [client name 1, client name 2, etc]. And you can read what they have to say about us here [link to testimonial page]

As a specialist staffing agency within the [XXXX] industry, I wanted to reach out to you to ask about your company’s recruitment and staffing needs. 

I know a lot of companies in your niche have been finding it hard getting qualified hires in the current market. That’s why we’ve been investing heavily in our talent pipeline and currently have over [XXX] vetted and screened [XXXX] industry professionals on our books, available to start assignments this week.

If you would like to have more of a chat about this, just let me know.

Best regards

XXXX

Remember, your own introductory email should be more personalized. Include one or two lines relating to something you learned about the company or the individual you’re contacting. For instance, a current industry-related issue they might be dealing with or an op-ed article that was recently published and brought them to your attention.

The key thing is to not jump straight into making a business proposal. Mention you’re interested in one, so they know why you’re contacting them, but don’t get into the details of it until you’ve established an agreeable relationship with them. Your prospective clients will want to know that you understand their specific needs and concerns. They’ll need to know they can trust you before you can get to a business proposal. Be patient, these things don’t happen overnight.

5. Set Aside Time and Resources for Client Retention

The process of finding and acquiring new clients can be a time-consuming and costly one. You’ll want to limit as much as possible how often you need to do this by focusing time and effort on client retention. The most successful staffing agencies know that getting a single recruitment deal isn’t the primary goal. Instead, it’s about developing a long-term relationship that produces a steady stream of repeat business.

Final Thoughts

The staffing industry is a very crowded marketplace right now. Brute force marketing tactics just aren’t going to cut it anymore. To get ahead of the competition, you need to think of your marketing efforts as being about relationship-building rather than contract-finding. Clients prefer to do business with agencies they know and trust. If you can nurture trust, then the recruitment contracts will naturally follow as a result.