How to win clients as a staffing agency

June 7, 2022
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Establishing good and professional relationships is very important for staffing agencies. Even just a few yet loyal clients can get the recruiting firm starting and eventually lead to long-term success. However, getting clients is a bigger challenge than it sounds.

Whatever stage you are in, whether you’re just starting or are scaling, finding new prospective clients, negotiating with them, and maintaining a good rapport with them are constant struggles that staffing firms face. If you want to stay ahead of the competition, we’re sharing 11 important tips on how you can win clients over.

Let’s start!

11 Important Tips to Win Clients for Your Staffing Agency

Maximize Job Boards

You’ll be surprised to know that job boards aren't just to search candidates anymore. They can also be leveraged to help recruiter agencies to find leads.

You just need to dig a little deeper when looking at job boards. Read through the job description of the job ad, look at who's recruiting, and check the company. From there, you’ll be able to see if they can be potential clients who will be interested in your services.

LinkedIn is a good place to start. There, tons of information is already provided. Plus, if you connect with the recruiter or if you are subscribed to any plans there, you will be able to message them directly and send a pitch.

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Prepare a Compelling Pitch

In addition to the point above, make sure that your pitch is compelling. What would a client want from you? What are the gaps that you can fill for them? Think about these and include them in your pitch deck.

First impressions last. Don’t appear as just another agency getting a lead. If you start strong and showcase your firm’s competitive advantage, they will be likely to be more interested in hearing what you have to say.

Here are a few reminders:

  1. Use a professional yet conversational tone. Don’t sound too serious and adjust your pitch per client. Otherwise, you’ll sound like you’re just “copy-pasting” a script.
  2. When sending a pitch, creating a deck that is visually appealing helps. Don’t make it too wordy. Use great images or even videos to hook your audience.
  3. Use statistics. Back up your deck with numbers that prove how successful your staffing agency is. Words may appear flowery, but statistics won’t lie!

Use Your Network

Use your network! Whether it’s a previous client, former colleagues, university friends, LinkedIn connections, or even people you met at work events, these people can be an excellent source for finding new clients for your business.

Not only will they be your direct contact, but the chances of having them on board will be higher because there is already built credibility between you and the person-- no matter how distant the network may be.

Don’t be shy to reach out. Who knows? They might also have something to offer that your company might be interested in. Business is all about negotiation and mutually benefitting from each other’s resources.

Ask for referrals

Aside from using your network, don’t hesitate to ask for referrals from previous or even current clients. Just because you have worked with them or are already working with them doesn’t mean that it ends there. You can build a rapport with them and ask for referrals.

Especially if you managed to make a good impression, they will gladly give you referrals that you can work with. These are powerful leads that can build your agency’s list of clients.

You can do this by sending them a “thank you” email and smoothly adding notes to your clients that you’re open for referrals for your services. If it’s in person, handing your business cards will be good, too, so they can pass it on.

Leverage Candidate Relationships

Did you know that your candidates can also help you win more clients? It’s true. You can leverage candidate relationships and get valuable insights.

You can ask them if they worked with a recruiter or if they were placed by a recruiter before. Why is this relevant to know? This can help:

  1. Sets the expectation on how you can help the candidate in their job hunt
  2. Identifies companies that work with staffing agencies

Here’s a scenario. You talked to Candidate A and he/she was placed at Company X by a certain staffing firm. Based on this, you know now that Company X is more or less willing or open to working with recruitment agencies.

Scope your competition

If you want to stay ahead in the competition, scope your competitors. Go to their websites and look at their current clients or companies that they have worked with. These can be your new leads.

Nowadays, it’s not rare to find companies working with several agencies at the same time. They do this so that they can fill job vacancies faster and better. Even if they already have an existing partnership with your competitor, who’s there to say that they are not looking for more firms to work with?

It’s better to try than give up the possibility of signing new clients.

Be an expert in your niche

Becoming an expert in a certain industry niche can be favorable if you want to win more clients.

The reason being is that you’ll be the go-to staffing agency for your targeted niche. Especially if you have proven successful in that field, more and more clients will seek your assistance to solve their hiring conundrums. 

You’ll be able to understand what they need better and provide answers that can truly help them in the long run. You can do so by focusing on the following:

  • What is their industry?
  • What is their company size?
  • Where are they based?
  • … and more!

If you focus on a certain path and even cater to the same type of clients, you’ll soon find yourself being an expert in your niche. This makes the hiring process faster and easier. It’s a long-term investment that you should consider.

Ensure transparent communication

If you’re easy to work with, it can lead you to more and more clients. Ensuring clear and transparent communication helps. Not only does this help establish credibility and trust with your clients, but it also, more or less, guarantees a lasting work relationship.

Think of it this way, the more you know about your client, the better you’ll be able to help them find the perfect fit for the job. On the other hand, it also allows the client to get to know you better and how you work.

You’ll be able to express your strategy and state stipulations such as estimated time to fill, service fee, and more. Because of this, you can negotiate better and manage expectations that are more realistic and doable.

This will let you stand out in the market. You won’t be known as a staffing agency that just “wants to get things done”. Rather, you’ll be known as a firm that tackles the nitty-gritty to provide outstanding and unparalleled service. That is one reputation you would want to have!

Value digital transformation

Sourcing for talents was very different before. From print to online, it has come a long way since. Integrate that into your hiring process.

If you want to remain competitive, it’s critical that you digitally transform your business operations—something that 80% of staffing professionals believe is necessary and greatly beneficial.

Digital transformation in recruitment means everything about your hiring strategy and client experience needs to be considered. You need to embrace technology and do more than just investing in staffing agency software.

It should be seamless and, ultimately, makes everything more efficient than before. Otherwise, it won’t be serving its purpose!

Manatal: Transform the Way You Recruit

Take Manatal for example. Our software has outstanding capabilities that will help provide end-to-end solutions for your hiring needs. Ultimately, we’re committed to simplifying recruitment through our leading sales pipeline.

We guarantee effectiveness and efficiency through our AI-driven software-- leveraging state-of-the-art technology to give recruiters what they need to successfully win clients and recruit candidates.

Not only do we offer an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) for your candidates, but we also have a strong Recruitment Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool for you. You can expect tons of functionalities that can be advantageous to your recruiting efforts. Too. These include AI-driven candidate recommendations, job portal integrations, and other recruitment tools.

It’s also value-for-money because we start at only $15/month/user!

(READ MORE: Want to learn more about our recruitment CRM? Here’s a complete guide!)

Have a strong online presence

With digital transformation comes having a strong social media presence. It’s not just about updating people on certain content, but it can also be a powerful way to drive new clients and successfully recruit candidates.

You can tap more clients by being strategic on social media. Where are your potential clients? Are they on LinkedIn? Facebook? Check your analytics and know this because it directs you to where you want to invest your time and effort.

For example, if your clients live on LinkedIn, you can create targeted ads to get them to notice your agency there. If it’s on Facebook, do the same.

Of course, you need to follow that up by having good content. After you locate them, it’s crucial that you have a nice pitch, as mentioned above, and have interesting posts that will grab their attention. Be sure this gives the impression that potential clients should work with you instead of other competitors.

Here are some tips on how you can strengthen your online presence on social media platforms:

Be engaging

Everything starts with a conversation. This is how most successful sales happen. If you manage to strike an interesting and engaging conversation, the chances of potential clients working with you are very high.

Understand the platform well

Each platform is different. You have to know how each platform’s algorithms work. What is given the greatest priority in the homepage feed? What activities draw the attention of your target audience to your profile?

Be consistent in your social media content

Don’t just do a one-hit-wonder post-- it will be futile. You need to consistently post good topics that will pique people’s interests. Not only will this be great for the platform’s algorithm, but it will show readers how serious and competent you are in your field.

Don’t be monotonous

Chatbots may be helpful, but don’t overdo it. People still prefer human conversations. When writing to someone on social media or replying to people on social media, your message should always read as you wrote it just for that one recipient. That’s what sparks engagement and conversation. By contrast, copying and pasting job descriptions or referral programs into a message feels completely impersonal to the recipient and so is highly unlikely to produce any engagement. 

Use Recruitment Tools

Social media can be a significant drain on your time. So invest in using tools that leverage your time investment and help you reach and convert more of your target audience in a shorter space of time.

Manatal is a great tool to have because it lets you do the following:

  1. Create a create career page
  2. Post job ads on social media platforms

(RELATED: 4 Ways to Create a Great Career Page using Recruitment ATS)

Nurture client relationships

Last but not the least, you need to remember this: you don’t only want to win new clients, but you also want to retain existing ones.

Having strong relationships with organizations is the bread and butter of your business. A single client that is loyal will bring more profit than clients that come and go. That’s why you need to work on how you’ll get them to stay working with you again and again.

One technique that you can do is positioning yourself as their business partner, and not just a client. This means you’ll be willing to do whatever it takes to keep them satisfied and give whatever is best for their business.

You can do this by, first and foremost, managing their expectations. Next, make them feel comfortable by giving constant communication and fully understanding their needs.

The first few phases of a client relationship are very important. This will set the tone on how they’ll operate with you, whether or not they will decide to stay.

Wrapping up

It takes a great deal of planning and careful preparation to source, negotiate and successfully win clients. Especially with the modern way of hiring, you need to take into account all the steps above if you want to have an edge among the competitors.

From using your network to leveraging candidate relationships, these will surely get you more clients on your books. You just have to be persistent and proactive in your efforts to yield rewards.

After reading this, it’s your turn! Are you ready to take your staffing agency to the next level?

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Bill Twinning
Talent Resources & Development Director - Charoen Pokphand Group
Manatal is the best ATS we worked with. Simplicity, efficency and the latest technologies combined make it an indispensable tool for any large-scale HR team. Since its adoption, we've seen a huge increase across all our key recruitment metrics. To summarize. it is a must-have.
Ahmed Firdaus
Director - MRI Network, Executive Search Firm
I've been using Manatal for the past couple of months and the platform is excellent, user-friendly and it has helped me a lot in my recruitment process, operation and database management. I'm very happy with their great support. Whenever I ask something they come back to me within minutes.
Dina Demajo
Senior Talent Acquisition - Manpower Group
Manpower has been using Manatal and we couldn't be happier as a team with the services this platform has provided. The application is extremely user-friendly and very well equipped with all the useful functions one would required for successful recruitment. The support team is also excellent with very fast response time.
Edmund Yeo
Human Resources Manager - Oakwood
Manatal is a sophisticated, easy-to-use, mobile-friendly, and cloud-based applicant tracking system that helps companies achieve digitalization and seamless integration to Linkedin and other job boards. The team at Manatal is very supportive, helpful, prompt in their replies and we were pleased to see that the support they offer exceeded our expectations.
Maxime Ferreira
International Director - JB Hired
Manatal has been at the core of our agency's expansion. Using it has greatly improved and simplified our recruitment processes. Incredibly easy and intuitive to use, customizable to a tee, and offers top-tier live support. Our recruiters love it. A must-have for all recruitment agencies. Definitely recommend!
Ngoc-Thinh Tran
HR Manager, Talent Sourcing & Acquisition - Suntory PepsiCo Beverage
I am using Manatal for talent sourcing and it is the best platform ever. I am so impressed, the Manatal team did an excellent work. This is so much awesome, I am recommending the solution to all recruiters I know.
Bill Twinning
Talent Resources & Development Director - Charoen Pokphand Group
Manatal is the best ATS we worked with. Simplicity, efficency and the latest technologies combined make it an indispensable tool for any large-scale HR team. Since its adoption, we've seen a huge increase across all our key recruitment metrics. To summarize. it is a must-have.
Ahmed Firdaus
Director - MRINetwork, Executive Search Firm
I've been using Manatal for the past couple of months and the platform is excellent, user-friendly and it has helped me a lot in my recruitment process, operation and database management. I'm very happy with their great support. whenever I asked something they come back to me within minutes.
Dina Demajo
Senior Talent Acquisition - Manpower Group
Manpower has been using Manatal and we couldn't be happier as a team with the services this platform has provided. The application is extremely user-friendly and very well equipped with all the useful functions one would required for successful requirement. The support team is also excellent with very fast response time.
Kevin Martin
Human Resources Manager - Oakwood
Manatal is a sophisticated, easy-to-use, mobile-friendly, and cloud-based applicant tracking system that helps companies achieve digitalization and seamless integration to Linkedin and other job boards. The team at Manatal is very supportive, helpful, prompt in their replies and we were pleased to see that the support they offer exceeded our expectations.
Maxime Ferreira
International Director - JB Hired
Manatal has been at the core of our agency's expansion. Using it has greatly improved and simplified our recruitment processes. Incredibly easy and intuitive to use, customizable to a tee, and offers top-tier live support. Our recruiters love it. A must-have for all recruitment agencies. Definitely recommend!
Ngoc-Thinh Tran
HR Manager, Talent Sourcing & Acquisition - Suntory PepsiCo Beverage
I am using Manatal for talent sourcing and it is the best platform ever. I am so impressed, the Manatal team did an excellent work. This is so much awesome, I am recommending the solution to all recruiters I know.

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