Competition is an integral part of doing business. How successful you become at competing depends on how you position your staffing firm in relation to your competitors. Standing out among your competition requires being able to communicate your points of difference clearly and effectively to your target audience; it means continuously making improvements to sustain a leadership position within your market.
Determine What Your Differentiation Is
What does your staffing firm offer to your clients and candidates that your competitors don’t? The first step in the process of differentiating your staffing firm from competitors is to identify what you believe are clear aspects of your business that fulfill the needs of your clients and candidates that your competitors are missing. From quality service to a highly defined target audience, find all the areas where your staffing firm is unique.
Avoid the “Me Too’s”
Did you just identify differentiation factors that are the same as other competing staffing firms? Avoid finding aspects about your staffing firm that are the same points of differentiation as your competitors. If you say that your staffing firm does the same as another, then that isn’t a point of differentiation. Find points of differentiation that only your staffing firm provides to clients and candidates.
Push the Differences You Have Identified
It’s important to not except that you don’t have any points of differentiation. Every business has a unique aspect that is marketable and serves as a way of differentiating your staffing firm from competitors. Push yourself to think of differentiation factors while avoiding any “me too” similarities from other competitors. One person’s weakness is another person’s strength. You are able to turn to weaknesses into strengths. Most likely you have been doing it for years.
Live Up to Your Points of Difference
Once you have established unique factors differentiating your staffing firm from competitors, you must be able to live up to it and back it up. Demand more of your team or more of yourself in order to live up to the necessary points of differentiation that are going to make your staffing firm stand out from competitors. By not living up to your points of differentiation, you are going to lose credibility among your target audience and not stand out among other staffing firms.
Key Takeaways to Differentiating Your Staffing Firm:
- Identify points of differentiation that you believe your staffing firm possesses
- Avoid finding points of differentiation from other staffing firms and saying your staffing firm does the same
- Every business has an aspect to their business that separates them from competitors
- Live up to the points of differentiation that you have now identified
About S.J.Hemley Marketing
S.J.Hemley Marketing is a marketing and sales consulting firm focused on driving tangible results for professional services firms. Brand matters, but not without ROI. With over 20 years of sales and marketing experience within staffing and recruiting, we have helped to drive successful branding, sales training, lead generation activities as well as defining marketing strategy for top organizations.