Episode Overview

In this episode of the Staffing Buzz Network, brought by Ultra-Staff EDGE, host Bob Pettke chats with industry expert Dan Mori about overcoming challenges in staffing sales and the critical role of understanding a unique value proposition. Through engaging discussions and practical examples, they explore strategies for positioning staffing solutions effectively, whether competing on value or price.

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Episode Transcript:

Bob Pettke: [00:00:00] Coming to you from the Ultra-Staff Studios in Chicago. Welcome to the Staffing Buzz Network with your host, Bob Pettke.

Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Staffing Buzz Network. I am Bob Pettke, Chief Sales Officer here for Ultra-Staff EDGE. We’re a full-service front office, back office, ATM, I’m sorry, ATS CRM solution for staffing companies just like yours. And our Staffing Buzz Network, we’ve been doing this for a little bit, getting a lot of good feedback, keep that coming in.

We’re doing this in an effort to share very viable, very meaningful content. And Part of the staffing network. Part of what we do is we try to get industry experts on, and we’ve been successful at doing that. And so I do want to introduce our first or our only guest for today.

Today’s guest is Dan [00:01:00] Mori. Dan should be popped in here. Great. So some of you might know Dan from his Staffing Mastery, where he coaches and mentors sales staffing professionals. You might also recognize Dan if you attended. One of his keynote talks, he’s done staffing workshops.

Dan’s also the managing partner for the National Independent Staffing Association, also known as the NISA Dan Mori. Welcome to the Staffing Buzz Network

Dan Mori: Bob. Great to be here, man. Great to reconnect. And I am excited to just talk staffing shop with you.

Bob Pettke: No, Hey and, just to get into that.

Yeah. Before I came to Ultra-Staff EDGE, you and I worked together when I was still at another organization in a sales leadership role.

Dan Mori: Yeah.

Bob Pettke: And so I, I got to know the value that you bring to the table, and it was just a really, a tremendous [00:02:00] partnership. But I’m gonna just dive right into this here and just ask you, as somebody who is in one of the many hats that you wear.

As you’ve been the sales coach and this mentor for folks that are driving new business right out of the gate. Dan, what are some of the challenges and struggles you’re finding, not necessarily with sales as a whole, but with individuals? What are some of the hurdles or obstacles that some of those folks that are doing this trying to grow business? What are they facing?

Dan Mori: Yeah, that’s a really good question, and I like the fact that you actually. Want to push it right down to the producer level versus just higher review. Cause everyone knows staffing sales is really tough right now. But down to the producer level, the biggest challenge is that they’re facing Bob, and this is something that can and should be corrected.

This is something that any agency can actually solve, but it’s not knowing what their unique value proposition actually is and how the [00:03:00] organization they sell for backs it up. A lot of people look at the staffing industry, and if you’re in it, you tend to think that we’ve been commoditized, right?

You think about, there’s not a ton of brand loyalty. When we’re actually in selling situations, we’re oftentimes having to be compared or compete against somebody else. And a lot of times, what happens in that situation is the salesperson is left to compete on price. We get that objection, and I’m sure you’ve seen it.

You’ve been around the game a long enough time to know. The buyer will say, Hey, if you can beat or match my current price, I will give you a shot. And what that says is that the potential buyers only seeing prices, the value, not the actual deliverable. And unless that salesperson has a rock solid understanding of what that unique value proposition really is, meaning the value that they actually provide to a customer with the data and the messaging to back it up.

They’re stuck, and that’s really the biggest challenge that most salespeople are facing right now, especially.

Bob Pettke: Ironically, you say [00:04:00] that in, when I had spent this time, and I was driving sales and leading a team, one of the questions I would also often have my team ask their prospects was, rank for me from most to least important.

Is it going to be the quality of the person that you get? Is it going to be the quantity of the people that come? Or is it going to be the price? So those first two, maybe a little bit more reflective on value. But what are some of the things? What are some of the questions? What are you talking about, having a good value proposition? But let’s take a step back from that from a second.

How does somebody from the very beginning, from cold calling to maybe even landing that first discovery, how do they position themselves because it is a change of thought and mindset? How do they begin that process? Where does it start?

Dan Mori: So it starts further back than just picking up the phone?

One, it starts with the leadership of the staffing organization [00:05:00] that they report to. Like the leader of the organization is directly responsible for making sure that everyone in the organization clearly understands the target profile, the clients they serve, and the biggest challenges that those clients face as it relates to staffing.

And exactly how that their agency solutions solve those challenges and better positions, their clients for their successes, they define it, right? So that’s where it actually starts is having that concrete understanding and accountability to the value they provide. Then what has to happen is the salesperson has to really understand it, not just at a comprehensive level of yeah, I can read words on a page, but truly believe the value that they’re providing.

And have experienced it either through their own client relationships or maybe through the history of the organization that can actually share testimonials and things like that and say, Hey, this is how we’re actually helping. And they got to make it real and tangible and show that when [00:06:00] the staffing agency puts people on assignment at a location, that it boosts the productivity and the product and the output and the performance and all of those things that are client location.

And that generates tangible revenue and benefit. That company is in business to achieve. So like it starts with that level of understanding and mindset that’s what they’re selling is they’re sending, they’re selling the desired output or the desired result that the company they’re working with or attempting to work with is looking for, they’re not just selling staffing services.

Cause if you go into it with that mindset, You’re going to head right into the commodity zone.

Bob Pettke: No, I get it. And so I asked this question before. When I was telling you one of the recommended questions I have, my team ask is, what’s most to least important, and I named the three things.

So we’re going to do a role play, but it’s going to be me and me. So I’m going to be both. Yeah, but it’ll take us just a matter of seconds. And I want you to be the observer, and I want to get your feedback on what you would [00:07:00] do in this particular situation. I’m having a meeting with somebody.

A prospect trying to earn some business out of the gate, the conversation lends itself where I can ask the question, you know, Bob, what is most to least important when you’re partnering with a company like ours? Is it quality? Is it quantity? Is it price? Now, when that person is honest enough to really say Bob, it’s price.

How would you react to that?

Dan Mori: So let me preface this because every agency is going to have a different go to market strategy and a different business model. And there are some agencies out there. Their focus is being the low-cost provider. That’s their market strategy. There’s other agencies that want to be the premium value supplier, and they will literally not even work with companies that prioritize [00:08:00] price over quality because that will tarnish their brand.

And then, really, there’s like the 80 percent in the middle that just straddle, and they don’t really know how to sell either way, and they get defaulted into the price one. So, for this sake of argument, what I’m going to do is I’m going to give you two answers, double bonus. I’m going to answer it.

If I’m in the 10 percent that really understands the value of what they sell and they sell based on it. And then I’m going to tell you what I would say if I’m in the other end, that other 10%, right? And give direction there. So first and foremost, if I’m with an agency that prioritizes value over price, I’m going to ask again, I’m going to say, Hey, you could have picked any of those three things or ordered them anyway.

Why is price the most important thing to you, Bob? Okay. And I want to understand why they’re saying that, and if they’re like, listen, we’re in a low commodity business, we’re putting widgets in a box. We don’t have big margins. So we really just need to figure out the cheapest way to do this.

If I’m in that value piece, I’m going to say I don’t help my clients figure out the least expensive way to do their work product or to [00:09:00] produce their product or service. I help my clients find the right people that can actually produce their product or service at a higher quality and more efficiently.

So they will actually realize cost savings. Elsewhere within the operation that far outweigh my expense different from my cheaper alternative competitors, right? If you’d be interested in having that conversation and understanding how paying more for a premium service like mine is going to help you realize those cost savings in other areas of the organization, I’d like to have that.

However, if you only buy based on price, if that’s the only thing that really matters to you and quality and product and output isn’t as important, we’re probably not the right fit for each other, and that’s okay. And that’s really where I would leave it to them to want to explore it. And this is a technique where you’re educating about your value proposition.

You’re giving them a little bit of peer social proof, saying, Hey, I help these other companies realize this and realize these cost savings that they might be also interested in going after. But then you’re also doing the takeaway. You’re saying, Hey, but if it’s not for you, it’s [00:10:00] okay. And sometimes that’s a psychological motivator to get people to be like, maybe I do want to explore this.

So, if I’m in that upper echelon of like premium value providers, I’m going to answer it that way. Now, let’s switch hats. Let’s pretend that my go-to market strategy is to be the low-cost supplier of the market. If that’s the answer, I’m gonna say that’s perfect. Because we’ve built our entire organization to do exactly that.

Like we’re super efficient. We’re super streamlined. We don’t have a lot of the bells and whistles and the other costs additives that increase the price of staffing service. We’re incredibly lean because our product that we deliver is based on price. We will give you the lowest-cost staffing solution in the market.

That’s how we’re built. If that’s your top priority, we’re probably the perfect fit. And you shouldn’t look elsewhere because there can only be one of us that’s the lowest in the market. And that’s us. So if you look at anybody else, they’re only going to be more expensive. Okay. And in either scenario, just to put a bow on it, I know my value proposition.

I know who I am. I know what role I play [00:11:00] in the marketplace, and I know how to communicate that to the prospect.

Bob Pettke: Absolutely. And, know that you’re a big proponent of selling on the value and probably the big bulk of the folks that you work with. That’s the lesson to be learned.

That’s the obstacle to overcome. And the flip side, if you’re going to be somebody and let’s face it, they’re staffing organizations come in all shapes and sizes, and to your point, are efficient and can offer something. At a lower price point, but at that point, what is it that you’re really selling from a value standpoint, or are you just not even selling value at all?

Dan Mori: The value, so there is a value in a lower price point, right? There’s not, there’s no knock. If whoever is a low-price provider, that’s not a good or a bad thing. That’s just, that’s their strategy. That’s the value they provide to the marketplace. So the value that you’re actually typically going to provide to that client that prioritizes price over all else is a lower price.

And when you’re in the commodity game, that’s [00:12:00] where buyers buy. They just think if they can get this if two agencies are the exact same and one is a lower price, that’s the more valuable option, right? Cause they’re anchoring it to price.

So there’s nothing I don’t personally agree with this. That’s not my preferred business model, but there’s nothing wrong with it. Just because I don’t necessarily align with it doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. So that’s the value that you’re selling. But in addition to it, if you’re a super streamlined agency, you might be able to provide quicker and more broad access to talent, right?

Because all of the cost additives tend to be when you’re doing more screening or more hands-on, more QC in the process, and which is what delivers a higher quality candidate, right? But that also adds costs, just like any product or service. The more QC, higher quality of your product, more expensive it’s typically going to be in staffing is no different.

Bob Pettke: Okay. So we’re going to continue down this road, and we’re really going to zero in now. On the organizations where, and it probably is the lion’s share where they want to [00:13:00] sell on value, right? They believe that they have good systems in place, processes in place and they believe, I don’t want to say that, they charge a premium for it.

You could look at it that way, but they charge a fair market value for what they bring to the table. It could be the talent that they have in the office the tenure. It could just be the way that they go about recruiting and the marketing dollars that they spend in a world where you maybe we’re working with somebody and you’ve given them your value proposition.

And they’re on board. They’re like, Dan, this is great. Everything seems to be pretty good. And you start to get to that point at the end. Where, you propose to them, and now you’re at that point after this long battle, right? Doing everything right along the way to get you to that point.

And now they wanna play. Can you give me a discount? What have you seen or what’s worked for you or people that you’ve [00:14:00] worked with to navigate through that and come out on the other side with a wind?

Dan Mori: Sure. So, there’s a couple techniques that you can use here. And the nice thing about the first I’m going to share is you can actually use it in tandem or some techniques.

You got one shot, right? But the first thing to know and this is a super advanced technique. This one is really difficult for most salespeople to actually use. However, if you actually commit to doing your work and actually practicing this technique. Learning it and deploying it correctly, it will actually give you deals with better margins.

And it’s saying no very hard for salespeople to do, but if someone says they get you down all the way to the end and they strung you along and you feel like the deal is eminent and they’re like, Hey, this all sounds good. Can you give me a discount? No. And here’s why this works. One, If you’re really true and you’re authentic, which you should be, if you are selling a good product or service and you actually appreciate, respect and value your clients, you should never lie to them.

Like just [00:15:00] be authentic and genuine, which means if you’re selling based on value, you’re telling them what the reasonable price is. So if you just say, yeah, I can give you a discount at the end, that means you were overcharging them throughout your entire process. And I think that’s just cringy, right?

Just don’t do that, but don’t be that salesperson. It gives us all a bad name. The other side of it, some people will literally ask the question for two reasons that have nothing to do with actually needing to get the discount, right? One is, some people just like to negotiate. They like to feel like they win.

They like to feel like, Hey, I’m getting the best deal possible. And I’m going to ask you, can you do a little bit better? Cause that’s their way of negotiating with you. And if you just draw a firm line and say, no, I can’t, like, I’ve already shared all the value that we’re going to provide to you.

If what we can do for you at the price that we can do it isn’t meaningful enough or isn’t valuable enough to help your company out, maybe we shouldn’t work together, and that’s okay. And that’s standing on your value, right? The second reason that people might ask for a discount. Is because they don’t want to be sold, right?

A lot of people have been taken advantage [00:16:00] in their lives. They’ve overpaid for a car. They’ve overpaid for a house. They’ve overpaid for some widget gadget at a store that they don’t feel good about. Nobody wants to be sold because they feel foolish, right? No one wants that. So sometimes they’ll just ask, “Can I get a little bit of a better price?”

And all they’re doing is just checking you to make sure that they’re already getting the best price possible. And if you’ve been fair and authentic and genuine through the entire process, and you say, no, unfortunately this is the price. This is reasonable pricing for the value we’re going to give to you.

That gives them affirmation. They’re actually looking for a no in that moment where most people don’t realize it. They just want to be affirmed that they’re getting the best price possible. But if you give them a discount in that moment, if you cave, it completely will derail the deal because they will feel like you’ve been disingenuine and not authentic through the entire process. And they’ll be like

Oh, like they, they’ll feel a little bit off, and it could actually blow the entire deal up. So I would say, learn how to say no. First and foremost, the [00:17:00] second piece technique is go back to value. If someone says, Hey, can I get a discount? You can just simply ask, Hey, I appreciate that you’re asking me for a discount.

I’ve been pretty fair and reasonable and transparent through this. If at this point you feel that the service that I’ve shared with you and how we’re going to deliver it to help you solve these challenges, Is there something that I said or didn’t say that’s making you feel like it’s not worth the price that I’ve presented, right?

And get them to go back and anchor what they’re asking for against the value that you provide, right? That’s the safest way to actually sell based on value is to get your pricing to be aligned and anchored to the value that you’ve been selling them. So just ask them, like, why are you asking me for a discount?

Do you just not see the value in what I’m going to be doing? And see where they’re anchoring their value to ask for a discount. Either way, you’re going to be much better off actually negotiating that. And you’re more likely to not have to cave to a discount using those two things.

Bob Pettke: And then again, that puts somebody in a position. And again, salespeople driving sales, their [00:18:00] life, their livelihood, often depends on, what’s the next piece of business that they bring in. and it puts them I’ve seen it, I’ve lived it I think you have to o, where we’re in a position where we’ve got to play some hardball right we’ve got to put it all on the line you don’t want to hold em, fold em, walk away and run.

You know we have to lay our cards on the table, and some would say you risk losing that business after all this time invested. What are your thoughts on that? And is somebody who’s managing people like that? How would you manage, coach and mentor folks that are in the middle of that right now?

Dan Mori: Sure. First things first, you can’t lose something that you don’t have. If you haven’t acquired the business and [00:19:00] they’ve not actually spent money with you, you don’t have them, and there’s nothing to lose. Yeah. You might not capitalize on an opportunity, which can upset a manager, but if I’m the manager in that moment right there, and I see a salesperson and they’re standing on the value, I’m okay with that.

I’m going to celebrate that. I’m going to high-five them. And here’s why we’re very specific. We clearly define what good business is and what it is not. If they’re in that moment and they’ve actually basically qualified this prospect as being good business and they’ve presented a price point, they would also further validate it as good business that fits in the box, and they close it.

Awesome. But if they get to the point and the prospect is no, we’re not going to pay this. We’re going to pay lower. And now it takes them out of what we define as good business. And the salesperson won’t let them go there. To the point where they’ll even walk away. That means the salesperson is doing their job by not allowing bad business to come into the organization.

And that is just as valuable sometimes, even though it ends up in 0 dollars. It’s if you ever [00:20:00] watch sports and you hear the commentator say, Hey, these are those plays that aren’t going to show up in the stat sheet, right? That’s not going to show up on the balance sheet or the profit loss statement, or the gross margin report, like the clients that you turn away.

That being said, we live in a market. Where there are not enough people to fill all of the open jobs available. There is greater demand for our services. And there is supply of talent, which means we need to be selective, right? If you have one, a player to send out to a client, you need to be sending it out to the client that values that person and is going to pay for that person the most versus the person that’s going to value and pay for them the least, not only for your better margins and better commissions as salespeople but just for the better wellbeing of that person.

The company that actually believes in talent and they’re willing to invest in good staffing solutions that provide quality are more likely to provide a quality work environment for the person you’re placing there.

And then the last piece, and this is what I always say, salespeople, your biggest obligation is to get good clients and orders for your recruiters. That’s your [00:21:00] primary goal. So if you bring in bad business, you’re going to bring in bad orders, and the are going to have to work on those. And that’s not going to do you any favors, right? So just triage the business right there and stand pat on value, sell based on value. If I do see a salesperson struggling with that, I’m just going to reinforce how to resell. I’m going to look at the opportunities and say, Hey, how do we get a little bit better at selling based on value?

What’s the messaging that we can be improving throughout the process to maybe increase the close percentage? But my metric is not about how many clients you get. It’s how many good clients do you actually bring into our organization that match our good client criteria?

Bob Pettke: Yeah. And you hit on something, you bring something that’s potentially bad business, maybe a bad partner.

I always wonder, is it the right job? Is it the right pay? Is it the right location? Is it the right skill set? And is it gonna be the right profitability?

Dan Mori: Right.

Bob Pettke: And if you don’t check off all those boxes, and you know what those are as you’re going into it. You bring in bad business to your team [00:22:00], and there’s a ripple effect on that.

And it’s a negative one in that they might spend any time they spend trying to feel something that doesn’t meet that criteria. These are the criteria here, Dan, just in case you’re wondering.

Dan Mori: I was about to high-five the screen. I was like, this guy’s all right.

Bob Pettke: Anytime they, they spend doing that, and they’re not able to maybe fill those positions, and they’re sitting on business that they could fill all day, but now they’ve got this new business, and they’re gonna try to give it, everything. They’ve got to fill it; everything suffers.

Dan Mori: Yeah.

Bob Pettke: Not only that, but morality. The people are like, why the heck is this guy or gal bringing me this type of business? This is not in our sweet spot for one of those at least five reasons.

So I think that’s an excellent point. You know what I like is when one of my sales folks goes head to head with somebody who maybe hasn’t been performing. So you’re going in, there’s an incumbent staffing comp [00:23:00] any, and you might get to the finish line, and you’ve done a great value proposition, you’ve really talked that make your organization on special that very point in time ABC Staffing, and I don’t know if there’s a real ABC staffing out there.

Dan Mori: I hope not. I always use that example.

Bob Pettke: I hope not, either.

Let the record show that I’m just making that up on the fly. ABC Staffing is four points lower; what would be A? I see that all the time. What would be something that you would bring to the table on that?

Dan Mori: So then what I would actually suggest is I would look at them.

And again, you have to pressure test to see, are they commoditizing you, right? Cause if they’re commoditizing you, then they’re going to make all their value based on the lower price. And you need to know that as a salesperson, so you need to know how to adjust against it. So the first thing I’m going to ask is out of curiosity when you look at us, and you look at ABC Staffing. Does it really seem like you’re going to get the same quality and the same level of service from both agencies?

Bob Pettke: Sure.

Dan Mori: Cause if [00:24:00] so, you should definitely go with them because it’s four points lower, and I want to see where they’re at. Cause a lot of times, what you’ll hear is no, I like what you’re saying better. And I would rather work with you. I like your level of service, but my boss isn’t going to sign off on me going with someone that’s four points higher.

And if you hear that now, that you’re not in the commodity game. Now that you’ve got a chance to sell based on value, which is where I’ll take it because this is where I’m more aligned. I’m going to say, Hey, let’s take a look at this. What is really the difference of four points?

I will tell you that if you’re talking about going from 55 percent markup to 51 percent markup, or even 45 to 41 percent markup. It might seem big in that context, but when you actually apply it to spending, it’s not as much as you think. And I’ll literally show them what 4 percent of whatever their payroll per hour is.

And we’re like, okay, we might be talking about 40 cents an hour. So now let me ask you this. Would you pay 40 cents more per hour? If you were going to get a better quality candidate that could actually have higher levels of [00:25:00] production, it was more likely to get converted on your payroll after 600 hours or whatever your conversion is right, and you basically sell based on the value of the problems that you uncovered in your discovery session, right?

Or discovery portion of the meeting and say, would it be worth this tiny little amount more if they’re like, yeah gosh, when you say it that way, it would be like, I would pay 40 cents more an hour for a person that, you know, or 80 cents or whatever that number ends up being for a person, it’s going to be a better quality candidate coming from a more reputable agency.

And now I’ve just sold it based on value, and that’s how I would actually bridge that, that difference is based on the value that we provide and based on the sentiment that they feel about our agency.

Bob Pettke: Yeah. No, as you’re talking through it, now I’m having flashbacks to that time, and I’ll just share real quickly.

By the time you get to that point where you’re starting to talk about price, one of the things that I’ve seen my sales team doing we’ve done in the past because you’ve discovered the pain points that they’re having with their current provider if there’s a difference in the price, [00:26:00] you might say is your current provider doing are they doing reference checks?

And they might say no. Then you’ll say, would you agree by us doing reference checks, we can get more sticky people that are gonna be there and gonna stay to say yes? And you go through a list of those things. And to your point, you have a revelation, and you can say, can you see how what we’re doing does not compare and contrast with what your current provider is?

There’s value to it. So yeah, you’re going to see a little bit more money when it comes to how we do business. Yeah, no, these are excellent points and just a little commentary and sharing it at this point.

Dan Mori: Yeah, and also going back to that piece about some people just don’t want to be sold. They don’t want to be taken advantage of. They put the value. I hate to say it, but a lot of clients have been burned by bad staffing agencies out there that haven’t lived up to their promises, right?

So there’s a really high [00:27:00] level of buyer reluctance, especially right now with some unease in the market and trying to figure out if we’re going to have this soft recession landing that everyone’s hoping for. There’s a lot of reluctance. So in that same scenario, if you’ve got the ability to do this within your agency, again, this goes back to business model and pricing strategy, you might be able to say, Hey, I understand that you’re probably worried about overpaying for a service.

If I send you people like your current agency or your past agency, that might not work out. Is that right? Yeah, that’s right. What if I could do this for you? What if I could match that rate? But then I just increased my transition fee. That way, you pay me what I feel is reasonable for my service, for everyone that you convert, but you pay what you feel is reasonable for those people that you don’t get what we each want.

That’s a nice way to compromise and still. And again, if you’re good, which I will tell you this, the number one thing that makes sales a lot easier. Is having a great service that you can stand behind, right? If your agency is really good at doing its job and you’ve got the data and the testimonials to back it up, [00:28:00] then you’re going to be good offering that bet all day long, right?

Because you’re betting on yourself. And there’s something to be said for a prospect. When they see a salesperson, it’s willing to bet on themselves because now we’re vested. Right now, we’re vested in this process, knowing that there’s actually a multiplier or a step up in pricing value.

If we do our job really well, and that sort of alignment will actually help incentivize people to work with you sometimes.

Bob Pettke: No, no doubt about it. Let’s change the subject as we start to conclude here, but one of the things. I often talk about when I’ve worked with salespeople. I say there’s a couple of things that they are the most challenging for a salesperson.

One is listening, and two is documentation. I then usually repeat myself because you’re listening to tell me what you’ve seen as far as a level of importance. Because a lot of sales people feel like, Hey, I’m just so busy. I don’t have time to put stuff into the ATS or the CRM in this particular case.

Tell me what you’ve seen with that, and [00:29:00] stress the importance. Maybe if you feel that way on documentation.

Dan Mori: So I believe documentation is everything for a number of reasons. We’re in a highly regulated industry that has compliance scrutiny. So, even on the sales side, there needs to be documentation, right?

But I also believe In tracking metrics; my upcoming session at the staffing industry analyst executive forum here at the end of March in Las Vegas is all about the metrics that matter. Metrics are just the measurement of data, and data is the deliverable of the documentation in your applicant tracking system, right?

So your salespeople need to be doing this. They need to be tracking all of their activities, their calls, any touch. They have to be tracking it in there, and there has to be conversion data to see how many meetings are they actually scheduling. How many proposals are they sending out? How many contracts are coming back?

How many orders are coming in? How many contracts converted into billing clients? What is the revenue or margin that comes off of all of these things? You [00:30:00] need all of this sales performance data to build your sales plan, right? So documentation is really important. I’m a big believer in it.

That being said, I also understand that salespeople have a lot on their plate. They’re running there in a lot of different places. They’re not often sitting at the desk all the time unless they’re truly inbound. They’re going in a million different directions. So it is the responsibility of the leadership to actually streamline the process of the salesperson to make sure that they’re the most effective selling the service.

And then align the technology and the documentation tools to that process to make it as easy as possible. So if you have an ATS that you can click the dial out of or it’s integrated with a zoom phone service or something like that, if they click the dial, it’s going to log a call or maybe record if they, if it’s integrated with Gmail or Outlook.

It’s going to basically automatically record the emails and bring it in. So, it starts to automate some of that documentation for them. If it’s got calendar booking links, it may actually automate the meetings and how many meetings were scheduled [00:31:00] and where they were scheduled out of an email or off of a call, whatever it might be.

So you can actually get attribution data, and actually, proposals will automatically, hey, I created this here, and I submitted it. It’s going to recognize that, hey, a proposal was submitted and they can start tracking that. You as a leader of the organization, like you have to find the technology and the tools that are going to make your salesperson’s reporting very easy to do.

And this is the same for the recruiters. I don’t want them to have to do extra work either, but you like the tools are out there. If you’re a leader, just dedicate the time. I almost said, don’t be lazy, but just dedicate the time and look at the tools that you need to make this easy for your salespeople and all of your producers to track all the data.

And that will give you the information you need to properly plan. Your performance and your goals to achieve them.

Bob Pettke: And a great, great segue because, let’s face it, that’s Ultra-Staff EDGE is right here over my shoulder. That’s who we are. We have that integrated ATS CRM solution where, when used correctly, and not hard to use, we have all the metrics in place by the [00:32:00] time we’ve developed a little bit of business under our belt.

We’re able to see how many cold calls does it take to get a meeting. How many meetings does it take to get a contract, and how many contracts does it take to get a new account? So when we take that sample size, and we look at the metrics, we know it’s the closest thing to secret sauce, or a recipe for success that we have is utilizing those metrics for sure.

So again, if anybody’s listening and they want to know more about it, You hit us up here at Ultra-Staff EDGE. We’ll have it on our exits screen, how you can find us. But Dan, in conclusion, anything more that you want to add or share that’s going on in your world right now?

Dan Mori: Bob, I would be remiss if I didn’t promote the staffing sales summit.

Right now, we’re heading into a season of uncertainty and really strong headwinds when it comes to selling staffing services. It’s a really weird time too. This is a different market. This is not the last time it was hard to sell. Right now, we have incredible demand, [00:33:00] 10, 11 million unfilled jobs. We have incredibly low unemployment, sub 4%.

So it is really hard to sell. There’s never been a time where companies need our services more, yet they’re buying it less. There’s greater buyer reluctance. And that’s why I’ve created the staffing sales summit with some great founding partners to bring a sales staffing-only training workshop to the industry for two solid days. The industry’s best lineup of sales trainer coming to teach exactly how to sell in this marketplace.

It’s in Orlando, Margaritaville, from February 20th to the 22nd. So I would highly recommend taking a look at that. And I’ll get you the links you can have on your page for this, but look at that and go get trained to be selling staffing services successfully in 2024.

Bob Pettke: Yeah. And you’re going to be at SIAQ in Vegas at the end of March, right?

Dan Mori: Yes, sir. I will be on the stage talking about the metrics that matter and why all that data we just talked about is so important, and what you can do with it.

Bob Pettke: I’ll see you there. So I look forward to that, Dan. This was a good conversation. Went by really quick. [00:34:00] I enjoyed having you here, and I always enjoy having a good conversation with you.

So Dan, thanks for being here.

Dan Mori: Thanks a lot, Bob. Have a great day.

Bob Pettke: So there you have it. That’s Dan Maury, and, really well-known in the industry and, again, has a good following and doing some really good things to help our staffing community. So we’re just glad to have him on board here today.

And with that said, we’re coming to another conclusion here of the Staffing Buzz Network. I’ll ask you one more time, and I’ll ask this every time. Please make sure that if you haven’t subscribed, subscribe, you can subscribe. You can watch us on our YouTube.

You can hit us up on all of your favorite podcast platforms. Share this information with your friends. We’re going to continue to bring valuable content like we saw today in the effort of trying to leave you a little bit better than you found us. And like I said, Ultra-Staff EDGE it’s a leading ATS CRM front office, back office solution to Dan’s point.

[00:35:00] Got a tremendous, robust CRM solution. And I’d love to talk to y’all about it and give you a peek, give you a demo at it because, as somebody who was a former user of it, I saw firsthand how it could change the way you go to market. And then how you can hold yourself and your team accountable to metrics and activity.

With that said, you’ll find that information on our outro screen. And until next time, thanks again for joining us on the Staffing Buzz Network.