Building Market Share In Troubled Times
Positioning your company for future growth is essential in today’s highly competitive business climate, especially in the background screening industry, which has never enjoyed more aggressive growth than the past several years. Factor in a current struggling economy, an upcoming change in the political climate and the country’s uncertain economic growth, and you have a volatile cocktail that does not bode well for corporate growth in the near future. Now is the time for a background screening company to pay careful attention to developing a marketing strategy that sets it apart from the competition.
Despite the state of the economy, background screening is still an essential service. With companies downsizing their human resource departments, outsourcing screening services makes perfect sense. Future growth is unlimited for companies ready to capitalize on this trend to create “well oiled marketing machines.” How does your business differentiate itself from other companies in the background screening industry? The time is right to analyze your marketing efforts to make changes where needed to gain market share.
Merely maintaining a sales department alone will not automatically increase your business. A great sales team is but one component of what should be your overall marketing strategy.
Branding and aggressive marketing campaigns are two vital components of increasing market share. It cannot be overemphasized that branding marketing materials is equally as important as marketing your brand; essentially, they are one and the same.
Branding
Branding consists of more than just a fancy logo. It includes creating a specific and unique identity through your logo; color schemes; textual components; and the messaging and layout of all company documents, including Websites, e-blasts, business cards, letterhead, newsletters, job announcements, presentations and advertising to name but a few. All correspondence, ancillary marketing and supporting documentation for sales should also be carefully monitored to ensure they are consistent with overall branding efforts, and that they send the corporate message.
A company brand that is compelling and well known to the mainstream background screening community is critical. For newer screening companies or those who do not have an in-house design team, contract the services of a professional design firm to assist in the creation of your brand, or to review and update an existing brand, particularly if the electronic medium (Website, etc…) needs improvement. The cost will pay for itself repeatedly as your brand and your business continue to improve. It will keep your brand at the forefront of the industry and reinforce to clients that the company is technologically sound.
Building emotional capital with your brand is paramount for future growth. Whether we like it or not, today every service company is driven by technology. Your willingness and ability to change with the times is essential to ensuring future growth.
Websites have become the “new first impression.” The importance of a solid, user-friendly presence on the Internet cannot be overstated. Is your Website easily found in a Google search? If so, is it one of the top three sites in the listings? Does your home page scream out your core competencies? Is it easy to navigate and does it represent your company’s branding across the board? Can clients quickly and easily request and/or perform background-screening services via your Website?
Remember, when it comes to branding, bigger is not always better. Quality is the key to anything you produce that represents your brand and the surest way to maintain quality is to build your brand consistently in the marketplace. End users don’t necessarily want bells and whistles: they want results. Does your website tell this story?
Consider your branding a work in progress. Each time you look at your Website or marketing materials, look as if you were seeing the brand for the first time. Then carefully review the sites of companies that you think are your top five competitors. What did you learn? Were you impressed with your site? How does your site stack up to the competition?
If your branding efforts do not measure up, it may be time to consider “re-branding” your company. All too often, owners build a branding scheme that is developed strictly to their personal taste, with no thought given to how potential clients might perceive it.
Web users today want solid information quickly and with minimum effort. Forcing a visitor to
your site to register in order to view company information will quickly cause you to lose valuable
potential clients. They will simply move on to the next company’s whose information is easier to
access. The easier you make it for users to find, access and navigate your site, the more
recognizable your branding will become.
Sales and marketing efforts
How well your company is identified in the marketplace is in direct correlation to your marketing and sales efforts. Are you the “best kept secret in town?” If you are not advertising, marketing or dedicating staff to sales, I suspect you are. With the increased competition, especially from national and regional background screening companies, it will be an uphill battle to increase sales by doing the same old things you used to do to build the business. If your marketing plan consists of waiting for the telephone to ring, you are indeed in trouble.
Without question, the best marketing tool continues to be an aggressive sales campaign. Why do the most successful background screening firms in the U.S. enjoy the market share that they do? It’s quite simple; they all have aggressive marketing campaigns and employ a sales force of trained professionals who have their finger on the pulse of the industry. They know their competition, constantly network with industry peers, and perhaps even more important, they self-generate leads for potential customers. By maintaining a strong industry presence “on the street,” larger background screening companies are continually reinforcing their brand name and reputation in the markets they serve.
Admittedly, maintaining a sales team can bring both complications and risks. Paying close attention to three areas can help mitigate those risks.
First, initially filling the position can be tricky. A carefully written job description is an invaluable asset and tool for evaluating potential candidates, as is carefully reading the candidates’ resumes to determine if past experience matches your company’s needs.
Second, what kind of individualized training do you offer the candidate? A candidate may be someone with outstanding sales experience, but may not have detailed knowledge of the background screening industry. By evaluating the candidate’s skill set up-front, you can design a training program to specifically meet the needs of the candidate and the company.
The third and most critical stage of the process is how and when you determine if the decision to hire was a successful one. Establish clear timeline goals for the salesperson to meet. By giving the salesperson achievable goals on a timeline, you give him or her the chance to meet or exceed expectations. It is a very clear method of determining if the new hire is a good fit. If goals and objectives are not met within a specified time, say the first three to six months, it very well may be time to cut your losses and begin the process again.
Hiring considerations and recommendations:
- Don’t insist on hiring someone from within the industry. Often you will be hiring retreads or those with potential issues such as non-compete clauses.
- A candidate with a strong sales background, especially selling in the fast paced service industry, can be quickly trained to successfully sell background screening services.
- Develop a detailed job description as well as a formal training plan.
- Set and monitor specific sales goals, particularly during the first year.
- Look for the red flags of failed performance and be prepared to take steps to rectify the situation (further training, etc…) or to accept the fact that a candidate was not the right choice, and move forward with selecting another candidate.
- It is not uncommon in the background screening industry to go through one, two or more candidates until you finally locate the right one. When you do, it will be worth the effort as the right person can quickly build market share.
- “Hire slow—fire fast” is a premise I live by and one that will lead to overall success when hiring a sales person.
Summary
Trade shows, advertisements in select industry publications and an active involvement in trade associations are also key components to developing a brand name in your service areas. But don’t act hastily to join and/or participate in associations or trade shows just for the sake of belonging. Instead, participate in carefully chosen events based upon your current business needs and marketing strategy, and follow this basic marketing principal: keep your brand name consistent and actively in front of clients and prospects alike.
Today’s clients are educated consumers, who perform the majority of their research via the Internet. It can come as no surprise then that most of what clients learn about your company, as well as their first impression, will come from a sound branding strategy. Without a commitment to developing a detailed marketing plan, as well as a carefully edited marketing budget, none of this will be possible. Don’t be left in ‘technological limbo’. Branding your business and creating recognition is a survival tool, not a luxury.
Gary H. Kuty is President & CEO of Kuty & Associates, LLC a management, marketing and sales consulting firm that specializes in the security industry. Additional information on the company can be found at www.kutyassociates.com.