Workshops

Sales and Business Development

As we learned from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, absent a destination, any road will get you there. In the staffing industry, this idea translates into finding a niche and becoming an expert in that field.

Journey with recruiting executive Shel Hart as he explores the development of niche businesses and specialized practices and the important role they will play in the staffing industry over the next 10 years. Learn to take a consultative approach to your customers, providing them with solutions—not just personnel. Hart examines issues and practices that allow your staffing firm to thrive in a world of specialization, covering direct hire, health care, industrial, information technology, scientific, engineering, clerical, and professional staffing.

Hart is president of both the Day Group and RealTime Services Inc. The Day Group specializes in the recruitment and placement of high-quality medical personnel through a network of 25 offices in the United States. RealTime Services provides specialized financial services to independent staffing firms.

Relationship Selling: Take It to a New Level
Thursday, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

Relationship selling surpasses the sales routines of old, such as the "puppy dog," "alternate," and "silent" closes, to a new process that requires in-depth understanding of a prospect's needs. Go beyond relationship selling by offering methods that will turn cold calls into warm ones, shorten the sales cycle, and develop long-lasting customers for your staffing firm.

Sales and staffing professional John Rich will show you how to identify and target prospects that are desirable to have as customers and how to research them to gather critical data for optimal results. Learn about unique marketing programs, direct mail, use of the Internet, and telephone messages that bring results.

Rich has been in the staffing industry since 1992 and has been a professional speaker since 1999. He is a certified sales professional, certified personnel consultant, and distinguished toastmaster. He has owned and operated several successful companies, including a manufacturing company, a management consulting firm, a staffing service, and a professional speaking and training company.

Procurement Professionals: A Different Breed of Buyer
Thursday, 3:15-4:45 p.m.

If sales are the lifeblood of business, then purchasing is the heart of profitability for staffing customers. In contrast to the spending plans of other business functions, such as research and development, information technology, and marketing, initiatives in purchasing and supply chain management offer significant profit improvement at little or no risk. This workshop is for those who sell staffing services to corporate buyers. Learn how to see the world through the buyer's eyes, how the buyer plans, and how this planning affects you, the seller.

David Read and Maureen Grippa, CPA, take a view of business that is somewhat different from most. Their approach takes seriously the significant contribution to profit performance that comes with excellence in purchasing. They'll help you identify common problems for buyers of staffing services, what buyers need, and methods to counter buyers' negotiation techniques. Learn what to avoid if you want to keep the buyer happy. You'll take away a seven-point checklist for clinching business for your staffing firm from corporate buyers.

Read is CEO of Prestige Purchasing Inc. and has a wealth of procurement and business experience. He was previously procurement director for Forte PLC and Granada PLC—both large international businesses based in the United Kingdom. He then established Prestige, where he has led the delivery of world-class procurement in both the United States and Europe in such diverse organizations as Adecco, Gentiva Health Services, Kellogg's (Europe), and Newark Electronics.

Grippa is vice president of U.S. operations and business development for Prestige Purchasing Inc. and was formerly senior vice president of finance for Adecco.

10 T's of Customer Acquisition and Retention
Friday, 1:30-3 p.m.

The only way to grow a company is through the process of increasing customer acquisition and retention—you've got to feed customers into the top of the funnel faster than you're losing them out the bottom. Steven S. Little, business growth expert and Staffing World keynote speaker, will reveal the essential building blocks of any customer-driven growth initiative.

Through such concepts as "touches," "time bombs," and "telepathy," Little will help you rethink the best opportunities for improving customer retention and introduce you to the most efficient ways to grow your staffing business.

The former president of three fast-growth companies, Little has spoken at more than 200 Inc. magazine events since 1998. He also regularly speaks for some of the world's leading organizations, including UPS, Sprint, Bank of America, Microsoft, and Compaq, His style has been described as "real-world," "highly credible," and "uniquely engaging."

In his new book, The 7 Irrefutable Rules of Small Business Growth, Little skips theory and delivers practical and proven business growth solutions. His cutting-edge advice provides you with information and insight to reach new levels of business development.

Loyalty That Sizzles: Turn Customers Into Promoters
Friday, 1:30-3 p.m.

We all know that word-of-mouth marketing works best and offers the most trusted information. Are your customers just customers? Or are they promoters of your services? Would they recommend your company to another business looking for staff? Would yours be the first company your customers think of when trying to help friends find work?

Learn from Aaron Green, the CEO of a fast-growing company, how to cultivate relationships with potential customers in a way that creates long-standing loyalty. His strategy creates promoters for his business—and it will do the same for yours.

Green is president and CEO of Professional Staffing Group in Boston, a temporary and direct placement staffing firm that serves eastern Massachusetts. PSG staffs creative, office support, technical, and financial positions for customers, primarily medium to large businesses. Green is past president of the Massachusetts Staffing Association and serves as chairman of the policy council for the ASA professional section.

Customer Perception: From Good to Great
Friday, 4-5:30 p.m.

A landmark study recently conducted by ASA shows what staffing customers value most and like least about the industry.

Staffing industry executive Jim Lanzalotto will lead a panel discussion on the research findings and how to use them, as well as new marketing tools developed for ASA members, to grow your business and enhance customer perception of your firm and the staffing industry.

ASA executive Steve Berchem will kick off the workshop by presenting the research results. A panel of industry marketing experts will share examples of how staffing companies—including yours—can capitalize on the groundbreaking research.

Lanzalotto is chairman of the ASA industry marketing committee and vice president of strategy and marketing for Yoh Group, which in 1940 became the first company in the United States to focus on placement of technical personnel. Today, Yoh is a $415 million talent and outsourcing services company in the professional sector.

Berchem is vice president of the American Staffing Association. His executive responsibilities include oversight of the association's public relations, marketing, and research functions, including management of the market research featured in this workshop.

Sales Superstars: How They Achieve
Saturday, 2:30-4 p.m.

Discover how some of the staffing industry's top sales performers achieved soaring success in 2005. Veteran sales consultant and panel moderator Linda Zumstein says that success in sales depends on how you approach your customer. Discover the techniques used by the best in the business for planning sales, meeting with potential clients, and closing the sale.

Zumstein has worked as a sales consultant to many leading companies and "shadowed" professionals on sales calls as part of her training method. She is the author of the sales training manual 10 Principles of Becoming a Staffing Industry Consultant—Changing the Mind's Eye From Selling to Consulting and has had numerous articles published in industry magazines.