Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Today it’s about you, and something that often goes unexamined in many recruitment organisations. That is the fact that you are appealing to an audience, and that is currently candidates, clients, and possibly talent that you want to bring into your organisation.
Therefore, if you aren’t doing that, how do you put yourself across in the best possible way so that people say:
- “Yes, they do what I want.
- What do I do now?
- Can they help me?
- How do I take this further?”
Your value proposition delivers the answers to these questions to the market.
Get Clarity on Your Value Proposition
The topic of value propositions has been coming up quite a lot with our new Circle members and people we’re talking to about joining Superfast Circle now as they plan to move their marketing forward next year.
What we notice is that lots of people are very unclear when it comes to their value proposition.
It’s very generic, there’s very little data, and there’s very little sticking to “This is who we are. This is who we serve.”
Now, I understand that many people want to keep generic, so they appeal to more people.
However, if you communicate your offer to your ideal market, you will be amazed at the difference that will make in that clarity because if you try and appeal to all of the people, you’re going to appeal to none of the people.
So much better to appeal to specific groups in the way you talk about what you can do for them, what you can do for their career, what you can do when you build their talent pipeline.
Before we jump into giving you five reasons why it is a good idea to revamp your current value proposition, let’s define exactly what we are talking about.
What is a Value Proposition?
A value proposition is a clear statement of tangible results that a customer, be that candidate or client, gets from using your product or service, and to make it powerful, backed up by reasons to believe.
That could be data that you have; it could be testimonials, it could be case studies, it could be years in service. How many candidates you have placed over the years.
Pretty straightforward: However, most people don’t seem to do it.
I was researching online before I recorded this podcast and checked a few different websites. It’s fascinating, but I probably came across seven or eight sites, and less than half of them had any form of this is who we are, what we do, and how we can help.
There was one particular website, which was for sales and marketing recruitment, that had nothing.
It just said, “We provide a recruitment service. We can provide sales and marketing people for your company.”…….. yes, buddy, and so can another few hundred recruitment companies.
They gave no reason why I would want to use them as opposed to anyone else, what skin they had in the game, and how long they’ve been around. Nothing like that at all.
Your Value Proposition Helps You to Stand Out
Let’s say that you are a sales recruiter, and on your website, you could have as your value proposition, “We recruit sales professionals for the South West of England for the automotive industry. We have got 15 years experience, and for every three CVs we send you, you will interview two candidates, and you will make an offer to one of them.”
Using that as an example, that’s quite clear. If I am looking for a sales job down in the South West of England, then I would know that this particular organisation is one that I should contact.
Now, this may seem simplistic. However, have you ever been onto a website and you’re trying to find something that you want, and you can’t work out, “Who is this website for?”
Because most websites don’t necessarily have recruitment in the title, they often can sound like a firm of solicitors or estate agents. Unless you can read on the home page who they are, who they serve, then it’s likely that you’re going to jump off the website.
If you can be clear, “We do X for Y, and we do it really well, and here’s some data,” that will make a difference because people will then actually start to look deeper into who you are and what you might be able to do for them.
If you need any more convincing about value propositions, then let me give you five very, very straightforward reasons why now would be a good time to review your current value proposition.
1. Do You Have a Value Proposition?
Do you have a clear value proposition on your website and social media and all your sales material?
Doing this will create some buzz in your company with the consultants you have, the marketers, and everybody in the team; you’ve got some new messaging because you’re doing something different. You’ve thought about who you are, who you want to serve, and how you communicate this.
As we know, sales and marketing are all about exchanges of energy. That energy that you bring to the whole event will make a massive difference.
When one of our Superfast Circle members has updated their value proposition, I always notice that they are sharing more.
I see them sharing their homepage everywhere, which is fabulous because they’re putting it on memes, they’re sending it out, they’re communicating, getting emails, and they’re communicating it on their social media.
2. Is Your Value Proposition UpTo Date?
Secondly, does your value proposition still communicate who you are and what you do?
Over the last couple of years, I know that some of the clients we’ve been working with, their actual recruitment product, their recruitment service, and who they work with, have significantly changed.
There’s nothing like a weird event like a pandemic in the world, a major crisis to make us all stop and think, “Mm. Am I working in the right sector? Could I be doing something else? Should I go to retained?”
Think about, does your message communicate what you now do?
It’s very easy to forget that you may have created your value proposition some time ago, and you haven’t been on your website and changed what you are now communicating to people on your home page about who you are and what you do.
Ensure that you do this, particularly if you’ve got a revamped offer or a revamped service, or you’re embellishing your recruitment service now, and you’re doing slightly different things. I know many people that we’ve spoken to provide a recruitment service and are also doing some consultancy. If that is all part of the mix, is that now being communicated?
3. Are you Differentiating Your Service?
Now, the third thing is we’re in a very competitive market at the moment. There’s a lot of recruiters around; we’re in a candidate short market. How are you differentiating yourself and your service compared to other people? You could say all recruiters are the same. Now, I know they are not; you know they are not, but sometimes clients and candidates don’t appreciate that.
Does your value proposition stand out and communicate what you do?
For example, we carry out a talent conversation and mapping with every client we work with. We do X with Y. If you communicate who you are and what you do, we will work with you, do X, and do Y. All of the different things you could potentially deliver for an organisation.
Are you communicating so that you stand out head and shoulders above other recruiters in your sector than the rest?
When I buy something, I look at all the different features and benefits, and then I make a value decision on who to work with.
“That one could do Facebook ads, and they could do Google AdWords.” Or, “Well, this one can’t do that,” or, “This one can only do retargeting.” I make that decision on which person should I be working with.
4. Create Your Value Proposition for Clients AND Candidates
Here’s something else you might want to consider. When you create your value proposition, you can create it for your recruitment brand, but how about you create your value proposition for the candidates you now want to attract? Maybe you are going to offer a career consultation. Perhaps you will represent them exclusively. Maybe there’s something else that you provide as a service for candidates. If that resonates with you, you should be communicating this out to the market.
Remember, your message needs to be communicated in absolutely everything you do. That might be your email footer. It might be the emails that you send out. It might be you’re your are sending out reports so that people are getting a consistent message time and time again about your level of service.
What is great in today’s environment is there’s nothing to stop you from doing that too. It’s very inexpensive to get your message and your marketing out onto social media and via email.
5. Does Your Messaging Attract or Repel?
Now, the final reason is messaging will attract or repel.
That is a good thing.
We talked about the biscuits in the tin before and that some recruiters don’t want to hedge any bets. They want an opportunity to work with anybody. When you’re considering this, if you’re going to work with anybody, you’re probably not going to work with anyone because your message is too dilute, and you’re not honing into the people that you want.
Make sure that you communicate your message clearly and concisely and speak into your ideal candidate or client avatar.
Earlier today, we worked with a marketeer around their avatar and business persona. We gave them some suggestions on certain age groups that would respond to different messages; they react to different platforms. Consequently, the message that you want to communicate to these people is different too.
Think about your value proposition related to the individuals that you want to attract, and of course, the ones that you want to repel.
Value proposition. People don’t spend enough time thinking about their messaging. My mentor often says to me, “Your offer’s great; what you need to do is think about how you are communicating it!”
How We Can Help
We have many clients on track for their best year ever because they implement what we teach and utilise the content and campaigns we give them. If you want a quick chat to see how Superfast Circle can work for you, book your call and demonstration here.
Thanks,
Denise
