Marketing Tips for Job Developers or Anyone Else Having to Do that Job, because the Job Developer is Away Sick By Allen Anderson, Employment Management Professionals (EMP) Inc. Finding work for people with employment barriers is a tough job. The use of effective marketing strategies and techniques makes the task much easier and more successful. This article contains marketing tips from my practical job placement experience, as well as my training of job developers in marketing skills. These tips are both easy to learn and use. I still use them in my work and know that they can be adapted to most local conditions. Marketing is a common sense strategy. We all engage in it everyday. If you take how you influence others in everyday experiences and apply it to job development, you will be surprised at what you can affect. Marketing Tips for Job Development Professionals: 1. The exact cost of hiring an employee is unclear or unknown to many employers since many of the hiring costs are hidden in various budgets. Most placement services are less expensive in comparison to an employer’s customary hiring costs. Often an employer will not believe this unless he/she can see the actual figures. Cost out the employer’s hiring practice and then, in dollars and cents, show him/her how you are less expensive. Cost it out by listing all the things for which the employer must pay to hire someone. Examples would be: advertising cost, time to review resumes, supervisory interviewing time. Even though the actual costs of each item may not be known, the employer can see the expense from the length of the list. This balance sheet approach can be very useful. 2. Most employers will think your services are complicated and/or peculiar. To avoid appearing odd, it is important to be able to explain clearly and simply the benefits you can offer employers. People like secure, conservative, non-exotic, common-sense benefits to which they can relate. We only buy if we think we know what is being sold. We do not buy the unknown, the unusual. Nor do we often wish to be the adventurous first buyer. Do not sell the prospective employer on the idea that hiring your candidate is going to make a profound difference on the world or change the life of your candidate. It may happen, but to promise this is speculation that most employers will see as farfetched. 3. To convince new employers to hire, it is best to know the benefits that attracted past employers. Ask an employer within the first three months of hiring what made him/her choose your service? What did you offer that made your service attractive? From this information, enhance and improve those desired elements of your services. These desired elements can create your niche in your local employment market. Since most employers are attracted to the same benefits, by becoming known for these benefits you can secure a piece of the job market. 4. Most people say “no” five times before they say “yes” to a new idea or product. Your strategy when approaching employers must allow you to go back to them repeatedly after the first “no, thank you”. Only 20-30 % of people say yes in the first five requests made of them to make a buying decision. It is after the fifth request that most people finally make a “yes” decision. A strategy based on responding to employer needs will allow you to approach an employer as many times as you like. A strategy based on your needs or your candidates needs will allow you to approach an employer only once or twice and no more. 5. The key to successful idea promotion is to continually repeat your message. You will be bored silly of your own promotion long before your employers are really aware of you. Do not design your promotion to interest you, or to talk about yourself. Instead, design it to interest your employers and to talk about them. 6. It is said that people buy only two things. They buy either a solution to a problem or good feelings. Which of these are you selling? I have found that small companies tend to hire in order to solve problems, whereas larger companies tend to want a lot of good feelings involved with their hiring decisions. 7. Job placement success is in direct proportion to the amount of face time you spend with employers; more time, more jobs. The size of your labour pool also impacts success. The more candidates you have, and the diversity of their abilities and desires, gives you greater opportunity to fill jobs. 8. One-to-one direct selling is the most successful sales techniques. 9. Have more than one arrangement to offer when you see an employer. If you have in mind a full-time job for one specific candidate and the employer is not hiring you have let the contact time with the employer go to waste because you were only looking for one relationship. Remember, even if employers do not hire, getting them involved in another way (such as temporary work experience, receiving your newsletter, sitting on your employment advisory committee), will increase face time and produce placements. 10. Always ask for the business. Always ask the employers whether or not they will hire. Do not rely on the employer to tell you he/she wants one of your candidates. If you do nothing besides increase the numbers of times you ask employers to hire, you will place more candidates than you did previously. 11. Be yourself. Sincerity, integrity and confidence are your three strongest allies. If you honestly believe in what you are doing and believe you can deliver what you promise, then most employers will trust you sufficiently to buy from you. Doubting a candidate’s ability is the number one problem for job developers dealing with candidates that are less than the ideal worker. Concentrating on employer needs is the focus that gives confidence in candidates. The four criteria that determine a buyer’s selection for source of product are confidence, quality, service and choice, in that order. Yet without confidence, the other three criteria are regarded as near worthless. 12. Separate selling the concept from selling the candidate. Doing both at once is a difficult sell. Employers will not buy the candidate if they have not first bought the idea. Use the speaking circuit to sell the concept by telling employers why hiring people with disabilities is a good idea. Use one-to-one sales to expound on the benefits of the candidate after the employer has already bought the idea. 13. Asking for help can be an effective marketing strategy. If you are unsure of what to do, ask employers to help you solve your problem. You will be pleasantly surprised at the quality and quantity of help you will receive just because you asked for assistance. People like to help if they can. If you would like me to expand on any of the tips I have outlined here, please feel free to call me at (416) 538-3791 or by email at allen@employmentoutcomes.com. Good luck with your job development work. Employment Management Professionals Inc 470 Dovercourt Road Toronto, Ontario, M6H 2W4 Tel: (416) 538-3791 Fax: (416) 538-5786 Email: info@employmentoutcomes.com www.employmentoutcomes.com