Is it price or value that really matters today with your contingent staffing program?
As a twenty year professional in the staffing industry, I have come to understand that our customers are a reflection of what our industry has taught them. For so long staffing firms have competed on price and lower mark-ups. And filling requisitions was really the key benchmark. This is how we win anchor customers and gain market share or learn to serve a new vertical. We tend to buy our way in sometimes.
I propose that today’s business that chooses to utilize temporary workforce programs understands and is experiencing the complexity of managing all the facets of finding the best talent, managing vendor performance, and meeting mounting compliance standards. This complexity creates opportunities for the right firms to listen well and respond with solutions.
Don’t get me wrong, finding talent is a critical measure of success. Good talent in a timely fashion is always a requirement. However, for the right firms there are tremendous opportunities to respond and build new offerings that help a customer manage their overall strategy for talent.
I often hear that customers only want spend control or cost savings. I am not so sure. Perhaps it is that our industry must continue to invest and to risk in the notion that our service is more then just staffing up and finding talent. That we are selling what we put out there. And that we must sell and serve differently today.
At Placers, we call that selling from a Blank Sheet of Paper. Sometimes that empty paper drives an open dialogue about what could be. And as a staffing company we must decide if we can make the investment in the new solution. Will it be just for this company or will others want this new service. For our Outside-in companies we know we must innovate in product development and that the risk is not looking to create value.
Value can win out over price if that is how your firm is built!