Luis Novo of Skore (Learning Platform)

Amit Mishra of iMocha (HR Tech - Skills Assessment)

Kate Graham of UNLEASH (Digital HR Publications & Events)​​​

Will Peng of Northstar (Employee Financial Wellness)

Evan Sohn of Recruiter.com (Recruitment Tech)

Sean Fahey of VidCruiter (Video Recruitment & Online Hiring HR Tech)

Melanie Wertzberger of Shaka (Employee engagement and retention HR Tech platform)​

Michael Yinger of The Sieve (Candidate Evaluation Platform HR Tech)

Hanno Renner of Personio (HR Software Company)

Claire Schmidt of AllVoices (Employee Reporting Platform)

Doug Strycharczyk of AQR (Psychometric Test Publisher

Noel Dykes of Frankly (HR Tech Platform)

Kristian Kalle of VideoCV (Recruitement Tech)

Sammy Courtright of Ten Spot (Workforce Engagement Platform)

Anthony Nitsos of Saas Gurus (B2B SaaS Finance and Admin Ecosystems)

Dmitri Adler of Data Society (Data Science Training Company)

Tim Sackett of HRU Tech (Staffing and Recruiting)

Brian McComak of Hummingbird Humanity (Diversity&Inclusion Consulting)

​

Should we be a specialist firm or a generalist HR firm?​

Julie Turney of HR at Heart Consulting (HR for HR Coaching)

This One Thing Will Improve All Aspects Of Your Marketing

Henry Goldbeck of Goldbeck Recruiting (Contingency Recruitment and Executive Search)

Jane Ferré of Jane Ferré Executive Coaching (Career Coaching For Senior HR Professionals)

Aaron Ross - Best-selling business author and speaker

As a podcaster and as a marketing advisor to HR-related companies around the world, I'm constantly talking to leaders of HR-related consultancies and HR Tech companies about how they help employers and what they're doing to grow the business.

​These are some of the topics I discuss on the 'A Better HR Business' show when speaking with HR business leaders:

• What does their business do and what are the typical outcomes clients get when they work with them or use their software?
• What changes and challenges do they see in business and in the wider Human Resources industry?
• What are their main marketing channels for getting new clients?
  
• ​What's their advice to other companies in the Human Resources sector on how to market their business and grow easier and faster?
• Their tips on interesting people, websites, tools, podcasts, or books that HR businesses should check out to grow faster.
  

In this summary ebook, I've collected some of the interview highlights.

​I'll continue to add more to this ebook so do check back in from time to time for the latest version.

If you would like some help growing your HR-related business, get in touch now.

You'll find me at www.GetMoreHRClients.com.

Now, let's get it and examine how to build a better HR business!​

Luis on how Skore won new customers (Episode 37)​

As a co-founder of an innovation consulting company, Luis already had the tools and resources to conduct market research. Together with his business partner, they spent six months interviewing people from across industries and letting them use the prototype they built. Later, their first three customers came from the companies they interviewed. The first customer was a retailer from Brazil which started using the Skore prototype platform in one store and then expanded to another 100 stores spread across the country. In the first three years, all their customers came from word of mouth.

In the fourth year, they decided to accelerate the growth through their own marketing efforts and sales team, because Luis considers a company can't scale word of mouth. It takes you up until a point, which is an awesome point, but from there onwards, you need to build your sales machine.

According to Luis, within the first three years, the company’s approach to customers was wrong. Instead of finding the customers that were data driven (in his opinion, this is the trait of a good customer versus the trait of a customer that wouldn't engage) Luis and his team would take the time to approach every company and try to sell their solution.

​Later, inspired by the Hubspot model, which educated their customers and made them see the value their solution will bring, Luis and his

team started a series of physical workshops, where they offered special Skore data & insights but only to potential customers (ie. not to just any company). This method was a complete success for them, as the conversion rate jumped to 30+%.

Luis opted for physical workshops (with 3-4 persons from the same company, no more than 5 companies, existing customers and prospects), because he wanted to experiment with the different phrases and concepts that create people’s reaction, because those are, in his opinion, the pain points.

​Ben’s Key Takeaways:

• ​When looking for new clients, narrow your focus to only genuine potential customers who are interested in your services/products. Study these types of companies. Conduct interviews, gather data, etc.
• The deep dive in-person workshops produced a wealth of sales insights (and sales too!).

Amit on the marketing engine developed by iMocha (Episode 39)​

​According to Amit, in the case of skill assessment software, pre-employment skill assessment, testing software, or digital transformation software, there are a lot of people across the globe who search for it, which makes it a discoverable product.

This discoverability can be set up either as a generic discoverability, where people across the globe are searching for “skill assessment software”, “pre-employment testing software” or as a specific one, with a set of keywords, like “business analyst aptitude test”, or “business analyst pre employment test”. For the 2000 skills they have identified, there are at least five keywords by which the skills are searchable, leading to 10,000 keywords which are discoverable. For almost all of those keywords, iMocha ranks if not in the top three, at least on the first page in Google searches.

​iMocha is using SEO and inbound marketing. Leads are generated through white papers, guides, case studies, research papers, etc. Amit says this process takes time, it begins with awareness, information and then the decision phase. They mainly advertise on LinkedIn, but also Capterra and Google.

Ben’s Key Takeaways:​

• Researching and writing for SEO keywords can pay off nicely.
• Use inbound marketing to generate leads but be patient as this process takes time.

Kate’s advice on growing an HR business (Episode 138)​

Kate Graham believes that each business should find its own differentiators and identify the key pain-points that it helps employers tackle. Identify which part of the employee life cycle (recruitment, selection, compensation & tax, onboarding, CV screening, skills assessment, etc.) the business can help with and how is that different to anybody else.

In order to grow a business, it is critical to be open with your customers, get their feedback, understand the pain points that you're trying to hit and solve, and then communicate as well as possible.

Ben's Key Takeaways:

• Find your differentiators. Focus on what you're really good at​.
• Get feedback from your customers, understand their pain-points and communicate with them.

​

Will on Northstar’s marketing (Episode 137)​​

When it comes to winning new clients, Will said there are many different ways Northstar finds companies to work with: some through their personal networks, others through referrals, HR consultants, benefits brokers etc. Will considers them incredibly helpful when advocating for Northstar, because they see the value of providing this service to their customers.

Also, several of their customers came in because of the content that Northstar have written. From Will’s point of view, the content Northstar provides is often standalone pieces that are valuable to the reader. Much of the content is actually written by their advisors, so the readers get a greater level of detail than they wouldn’t expect from someone who's not a financial advisor and who might just write a generic piece.

Ben's Key Takeaways:

• Good referrals are vital for your business in the early days and beyond.
• Create content that is valuable for your ideal customer.
• Create content that's unique and you can't find elsewhere.​

Evan on Recruiter.com’s marketing (Episode 120)​

Evan Sohn, CEO of Recruiter.com, considers that the goal of marketing, aside from making sure that people know who you are and have an awareness of your brand, is to make it really easy for the customer to buy your product. The easier it is for the customer to buy your product, the more successful you are. At Recruiter.com, the demand is generated through marketing, organic articles, salespeople, advertising, and through referrals (50% of their enterprise clients)​. ​

From a marketing perspective, a business should check the lead-to-opportunity conversion rate, then opportunity-to-proposal conversion rate, and afterwards, the proposal-to-deal close rate. Based on that, it should calculate the leads that need to be generated in order to move the numbers. In Evan’s opinion, a lead is really not just the name of a person, but the right person with budget, at the right time. One shouldn’t be afraid to say: “this is not the right time for that lead.”

​Ben's Key Takeaways:

• ​Make sure that your customers are getting the results that they are looking for: customer service as marketing.
• ​An expanded range of marketing channels has accelerated their growth.
• ​Look at the lead-to-opportunity conversion rate, your opportunity-to-proposal conversion rate, your proposal-to-deal close rate. What leads can you generate in order to move the numbers?

Sean on getting new clients for VidCruiter (Episode 118)​

Sean Fahey, CEO and founder of VidCruiter, recalls that their very first customers came “knocking on doors” and this got them initial feedback. Later, they focused on building a website where the concepts were very thoroughly explained and now most of their leads come from inbound and referrals from resellers and partners. Their website has great content and guides for those who are trying to make a decision and focuses on educating the public. Their ideas for content come from the clients and the challenges they are facing. At VidCruiter, they try to target every person, not only senior leadership. They have a holistic approach, trying to help everybody, writing content for applicants, for HR benefit and also for senior management. VidCruiter also has a very powerful reseller program. The partnership team is always looking for potential partners interested in their products and these partners are considered part of the organization.

​Ben's Key Takeaways:

• ​Produce content that helps those who are trying to solve their challenges and make a buying decision.
• Consider building a reseller or partner program as it's an effective way of extending your marketing reach.​​

Melanie on getting new clients for Shaka (Episode 107)​

​Melanie Wertzberger remembers that their search for new customers started with a tool called Apollo.io, generating leads that can be filtered by position, location, size etc. They also used email outreach sequencing tools to approach future customers. After a short review of what the pain points and challenges might be, they contact prospects with a solution and proposal for them.

Shaka is also active on Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups of HR leaders, in LinkedIn sales Navigator, and they attend different podcasts or events, online webinars, where they think the HR people will be.

Ben’s Key Takeaways:

• ​Use online tools or apps to generate leads.
• Conduct thorough use case review before approaching prospects.
• ​Find Facebook and LinkedIn groups with HR leaders and then contribute with interesting content.
• Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to find potential customers.
• Speak on podcasts, events, and webinars that you think your future customers might be attending.​

Michael on getting new customers for The Sieve (Episode 116)​

​Michael Yinger reveals they actively seek out companies through multiple channels and then keep in contact. In his opinion, the tough part when you're growing is getting the traction and reaching out to the right prospects. The Sieve also runs pilots with people who are interested, it appears at events to get the word out, and runs social media campaigns on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to remain continuously in front of people. As Michael says, "It takes six to nine times seeing an ad ​before someone pays attention to it."

To accommodate the new privacy rules, The Sieve has a team of sales development reps who uses LinkedIn Navigator and its search algorithms to build a list of prospects made from those who accepted their phone and email to receive more information and messages. Michael Yinger believes in being right up front and that means contacting the leads and presenting them a solution for their challenges or pain points.

​Ben’s Key Takeaways:

• ​Run pilots with people who are interested.​
  
• Use Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts to get the word out.
• It takes six to nine views before someone pays attention to an ad.
• HR Tech Alliance is a great place to connect and partner-up.

Hanno’s advice on acquiring new customers (Episode 30)​

According to Hanno, their strategy to acquire new customers started with referrals from their early customers. They also advertised on Google AdWords, where Personio appears for people who are actively searching for HR software. Hanno believes this worked really well for Personio because more companies now appreciate the value of digitized HR and this generates greater search traffic.

They also actively educate parts of the market that haven't been involved in this search process, both by doing events and conferences, but also by partnering with HR consultancies that talk to their clients about the need to digitize and help them understand the benefits of this change. ​Those HR consultants are helping the smaller and mid-sized companies go through the processes, optimizing their HR or even setting it up from scratch for the newer companies​​.

​Hanno’s growth advice for other HR Tech companies

As Hanno puts it, the focus should be on hiring the right kind of people and helping them develop, because people are the most important asset in any kind of business.​

People always refer to startups as moving very quickly because they don't have restrictive structures and that allows them to make fast decisions.

However, Hanno considers that if you don't want to diminish the agility of a startup, you should focus early on the different processes within the company, if you aspire to grow as fast as Personio did in the past couple of years. Otherwise, it would just explode, says Hanno. There are so many internal problems to deal with and this might dilute the focus on what makes a business grow and thrive.

Hence, Personio focused very early on building a scalable organisation structure, additionally putting in place an onboarding process that can now support 20-25 hires every month, and on having a very good and selective recruiting process.

Ben’s Key Takeaways:

• ​Educate the market through events and conferences, but also by partnering with companies and HR consultants who can promote your business.
• A startup should focus early on building a scalable organisation structure​ to enable sustainable rapid growth.

Claire on acquiring new customers (Episode 98)​​

In the beginning, word of mouth worked for AllVoices, with customers happily telling others about it. Later, the company started doing webinars to spread the word about what AllVoices is doing but also to highlight how other companies were creating psychologically safe work environments, in terms of diversity, equity inclusion, and culture. At the same time, the AllVoices team invested time and energy into generating content, because this helped their customers gain awareness of trends and best practices, but also to get familiar with what other HR leaders were doing in this space and how they were helping employees feel heard.

The webinars were a great success and involved a strong network of experts, including AllVoices’ advisory board, people with an HR background, and customers etc. The topics for the webinars were based on questions from the customers, trends in the HR world, but also underserved topics. ​

Ben's Key Takeaways:

• ​Involve leaders of opinion in your marketing strategy to spread the word about what you are doing.
• Use feedback from customers when choosing topics for webinars.

Doug on acquiring AQR's first customers (Episode 97)​

According to Doug, being involved in a governmental program in the first four years of business, helping start-ups, using their ideas and concepts was very helpful in the beginning. Later, bigger companies from the automotive industry and suppliers for that industry came on board. A major breakthrough was when a UK company asked AQR to assess 700 senior managers in preparation for a big change that was coming through, by incorporating the mental toughness concept and the mental toughness questionnaire into that programme.

In the early days of the internet, conferences used to be more significant events because they allowed you to meet other people and introduce your ideas to them. In many ways, social media has replaced a lot of that now.

AQR is focusing its marketing efforts in three directions: first, the company operates in over 80 countries, mainly through local partnerships. Once they find a like-minded partner, they conduct webinars and podcasts. Doug is usually running around 3 webinars per week.

Second, Doug considers that people value content and the more interesting and valuable content you produce, the better.

​According to Doug, “ we’re on a mission to educate the world, as well as get people to come to us, because we've got something that we know it works.”​

Third, AQR is using social media, mainly through LinkedIn or Facebook, depending on the country, in order to create awareness and interest.

Doug’s advice on growing a successful HR related business

Doug sees a growing interest in genuine evidence-based practice and his concern is that less than 50 out of 500 psychometric measures (personality measures available in the UK) are considered reliable and valid. However, people will go out and buy them, because there is a need for people to understand what works and what doesn't work and why it works.

The webinars and the web content inform and educate people by bringing the key issues to their attention​.

Ben’s Key Takeaways:

• ​Nothing is set in stone - select the marketing channels that drive the best results specifically for your business.
• ​Once you find a like-minded partner, conduct joint webinars and podcasts.
• Use social media to create awareness and interest.​

Noel on acquiring new customers (Episode 92)​

For Frankli, outbound marketing was very successful: investing in thought leadership and trying to educate the market on the shift from only setting KPIs to now asking formore feedback.

According to Noel, Frankli invested in creating content, in their CRM, and on LinkedIn outreach, since most of their target customers (HR directors or operations leaders) are there. Within the last few years, they've added the strategy of inbound marketing focused on engaging potential customers through relevant platforms such as Capterra.

They've continued to benefit from reviews, testimonials and case studies developed with their early customers.

Frankli’s strategy during the pandemic when the online space became “crowded” and “noisy” was to turn off all paid advertising, go completely manual and personalize their approach to possible clients. Another marketing channel developed by Frankli is partnerships with HR consultants, especially in international markets.

Ben’s Key Takeaways

• Use reviews, testimonials and case studies from early customers to create relevant content and to acquire new customers.
• When the online space becomes “crowded” and “noisey”, go "manual" and personalized your approach to clients.​​
  

Kristian on winning new customers (Episode 93)​

Kristian considers that honesty and a win-win approach are very helpful when trying to get new customers. At the same time, since this was a new product, asking for feedback, following up, working with clients, presenting used cases, and educating the clients became more valuable than the product itself.

In terms of marketing, VideoCV started with one person out of a small team of 4-5 people, fully dedicated to finding new channels, new information, writing, making videos and presenting the product in a way that is easily understandable for everyone. What worked for VideoCV was classic inbound marketing, educating the audience, helping potential clients realize what their problems were and how they could be solved.

According to Kristian, for a startup or a small business, use cases, good referrals, and positive testimonials are the most valuable assests.

Ben’s Key Takeaways:

• ​For new products, asking for feedback, following up, working with clients, and educating them became more valuable than the product itself.
• ​Quickly designate a person or a small team to work full time on promoting the product / service.​

Sammy on getting Ten Spot's first customers (Episode 145)​

Ten Spot has a sales team responsible for the majority of their sales and also a referral programme for their customers as word of mouth proved to be very helpful. Sammy shared that many inbound leads were generated through digital ads, SEO, and webinars.

According to Sammy, what brought teams together and established Ten Spot as a thought leader in the future of work space were ​press coverage, webinars, case studies, white papers and speeches. In Ten Spot’s case, thought leadership content proved fruitful for customer growth and engagement growth.

Ten Spot mails its database asking people to select the next webinar topics from a short list. People feel more invested in the topics covered and it also improves communication with the sales prospects. The webinars are short (30 min), with a co-host or a guest and are organized as a casual chat about the topic that has been selected. This generates much more engagement from the participants than the classical webinars and it's a great opportunity for companies to connect directly with prospective customers.

Ben’s Key Takeaways:

• Extend your reach with additional marketing channels such as digital ads and SEO to generate inbound leads.
• When organizing webinars, let the participants choose the topic to boost engagement.

Anthony Nitsos on the challenges of scaling up (Episode 147)​

​A company trying to scale up should re-evaluate its market strategy and try to find out if that is suitable for generating leads. Anthony thinks a company should add people and resources to the top of this system in order to create more sales at the bottom. Basically, a company should be able to get enough customers to show traction, to maintain investors’ excitement, and to keep customers on the back-end.

Anthony on how marketing fits the finance stakeholder ecosystem

Since each customer's journey starts with awareness, marketing fits into the ecosystem. A company should focus on how to track this process, from awareness until the sales point, by gathering as much information as possible, without being obtrusive. At the point where a lead turns into a sale, all the information acquired throughout this journey will already be available for the CFO. For a company that wants to scale up, the strategic plan should include a part on how to meld this together to support growth.

Ben’s Key Takeaways:

• When scaling up, a company should re-evaluate its market strategy to see if it can sustain the growth process.
• A company should focus on tracking the customer's journey by getting as much information without being obtrusive.

Dmitri on the marketing methods used by Data Society (Episode 143)​

In each industry there are marketing use cases with some specific questions to be answered: who's most likely to buy and what categories exist, what groups exist, what group is this most likely to be in, how much of something will happen, when will it happen, where will it happen and to whom? Data Society applied those marketing use cases to help healthcare organizations and financial services organizations.

According to Dmitri, the first few customers came out of some of the activities the co-founders previously had in healthcare and financial services. Being based in Washington, DC, “helped” them find another industry - the government and defense space.

As they started working with clients, they developed more and more expertise in working within a certain type of industry, certain idiosyncrasies that they had and therefore the company started to built up a credibility within those types of entities. Later, presenting the references helped them approach new clients. As Dmitri puts it: “you want to make sure you have a very precise target such that your level of effort of getting that next customer, that next client, is as low as possible. And you can only do that if customers almost already know they're going to work with you by the time you begin the conversation.”

What worked for Data Society was to create a network and to generate awareness through articles and webinars. In time, they optimized this by going to events with bigger exposure, to bigger conferences. In order to have articles with increased visibility, Data Society worked with PR companies, to get to widely read publications, with bigger audiences.

Dmitri also mentioned trying cold calling and cold outreach, but he considered them insufficient, as a potential client should have already heard about the company and its success as a tech firm, by the time of the call.

About Data Society’s partnerships

​Data Society is working closely with Nvidia, RStudio or Anaconda to teach people how to apply advanced AI techniques using their hardware and their technology. According to Dmitri, this is a great opportunity to get content delivered and to offer effectively free resources to their audiences.

Ben’s Key Takeaways:

• Have a very precise ideal customer target such that your level of effort of getting that next customer, that next client, is as low as possible.​
  
• Generate awareness through articles and webinars.
• Work with PR companies to increase company's visibility.​

Do you feel frustrated that, even though you provide excellent products and services, your HR business is still not getting the number of customers or clients you want?​

​Tim's advice on growing a successful business (Episode 155)​

​As Tim puts it, content marketing becomes really useful when a company is trying to scale up, after ​​building a brand throughout the years. The "​​shiny object syndrome" ​​should be avoided​, meaning new channels and features (talks, content for leadership, etc.) should be added in a thoughtful way. One should produce content that is valuable for the readers, without minding the numbers, because the quality and the sustained effort will pay results.

At the same time, content that proved valuable over the years can be re-posted and it will get more traffic, as it will reach new readers as well as those who saw it previously but didn't pay attention.

Tim's advice on ​sales and marketing

​​​For a new product, don't wait to sell it until it becomes the best. A company should be able to sell what it has developed at some point and later make it better incrementally. ​​Whatever your core product was that you developed, if you can't find a buyer now, it's pretty rare that you're going to add in features that are going to make people want to buy.​

Stop what you're doing in development, put all​ of your effort into selling it because ​what we know in our industry is there's a lot of really average ​or below average technology that is doing billions of dollars in revenue every year because there was a need and they were able to sell it even though it wasn't the best.​

According to Tim, great salespeople are going to create more of an avenue for success than the product itself.

​Ben’s Key Takeaways:

• Reuse content that has proven valuable or interesting for your readers.
• Don't wait to create the perfect product before starting to sell it.

Brian on building cohesive teams (Episode 148)​

​Practice the Pause is a framework a company can use to create a respectful dialogue. This means not to let the emotion guide a reaction in a certain situation, by not saying something that can't be taken back. "How do I walk that back? How do I apologise? How do I make it right? Practice the Pause is a way to just take a moment, to take a beat before reacting." Practice the Pause ​is led by five questions: Does it need to be said? Does it need to be said right now? Does it need to be said by me? Can I say it with care, love and respect? And can I say it in a way the other person can hear me? Practise the Pause it is a tool that helps avoiding creating moments that aren't intended or moments that provoke harm or pain or discomfort. Many leaders saw "Practice the Pause" as a suitable framework to lead and manage, because it helps them manage and lead better, and it helps them focus on being curious and on listening, on allowing space for the people that they're managing or leading. It helps teams to be better teams and leaders to be better leaders, as Brian puts it.​

Brian's advice on growing a business

I want to be able to say authentically, if I'm working with the client, that I'm doing the things that I'm suggesting you to do or challenging you to do. Brian considers that organisations have a responsibility to create environments that are respectful and inclusive to everyone. Business leaders have to make responsible decisions, both towards the stakeholder and the ROI. In a company with an environment where humans thrive, those humans will create success for the business and drive organisational growth, drive profitability, drive change that will be meaningful for the customers.

​Brian on getting new clients

​For Hummingbird, growth has been driven by Brian's network. In the same time, Brian considers that his commitment to help others make connections has served Hummingbird well, because some of those people came asking for help, or they've suggested to people in their network to reach out to Brian's team. Later, their clients have referred people in their network to Hummingbird. Nowadays, their online presence, along with their reputation and credibility in the marketplace are driving additional business development leads.

​Ben’s Key Takeaways:

• Use "Practice the Pause" framework to create cohesive teams.
• Organizations can truly succeed if they build ​​environments where all humans thrive.
• When the work is personal and emotional, you should set up a connection for building trust with your client.

​There are so many consultancies and tech firms out there competing for business in the HR sector. Could specializing be a way for you to get around this problem?

Specialization can be done by industry, roles, use cases, and more:

​There are so many consultancies and tech firms out there competing for business in the HR sector. Could specializing be a way for you to get around this problem?

Specialization can be done by industry, roles, use cases, and more:

​Julie's advice on managing burnout (Episode 130)​

Julie is very protective of her downtime and is often doing mindfulness exercises, going for walks, and she combines this with moments when she is doing nothing. Julie considers herself lucky for being able to work from home, four days a week. Friday is usually for embracing those moments of downtime and for spending quality time with the family. Julie uses remote work places such as cafes or simply places with good ambiance to write her blog posts or social media content.

Julie's advice on managing clients

​Julie uses Microsoft OneNote and Huler (www.huler.io​) to manage her clients along with a workbook that is designed specifically for them. She records all of her sessions and gave full access to her clients, so they can adjust, change, and work in that workbook in real time. Everything they could possibly need is in those workbooks, whether it's learning and development tools, reports, templates etc.

​Julie's advice for those thinking of launching their own HR related business

​"If you see a need and you have a way of filling that need, go for it.

​​"Be willing to embrace failure, be willing to embrace that as a part of your journey and don't be so hard on yourself, but just go for it if that's what you want to do. Believe in yourself, know that there's going to be support along the way. And if you ever need that support, I'm sure you can count on me or Ben to support you or the HR community at large, because there are so many amazing people in the HR space that are doing this and that can support you."

​Julie's advice for those looking to build a career in the HR

​"My advice is just find your niche, find your sweet spot. Whether that's L&D, whether that's culture or analytics, find your sweet spot. Determine what works best for you. If you like recruitment, then be the best recruiter that you could possibly be. If you want to be a great compliance person, then let me help you do that and be the best compliance person you could be. Understand the legislation for your country, understand that the policies you are creating are just guides and always try to find a way to create the best policy, the most human policy that you could possibly create."

​​Ben’s Key Takeaways:

• Be protective with your downtime to avoid burnout.
• If you start a business, be willing to embrace failure and always look for support.
• Find your niche, try to be the best.​​

Henry's opinion on what makes a Good vs Great recruitment business​ (Episode 91)​

According to Henry, the interesting thing about going into the recruiting business or into an HR business is that there's zero barrier to entry. Other than having a phone or a computer, anybody can go into it. The variations and the types of businesses are wide and the recruiting firms operate very differently. From a business point of view​, from a customer point of view, you have to provide value and you have to make customers and potential customers aware of the value and the service you provide that they need and are going to pay for.

​Henry's advice on winning against the competition

​What worked for Goldbeck Recruitment was digital marketing advertising from very early on - they get a lot of business from that. According to Henry, for a small business like Goldbeck Recruiting​, their marketing spend is greater than most. They also became effective at isolating SEO search terms where they can compete successfully.​

At the moment, they get a lot of inquiries and company inquiries through their digital reputation and through their digital footprint.

​On SEO and keyword search

​​​​​"You're never going to entirely separate candidates finding you versus potential clients finding you. How are potential clients going to find you? What search terms are they using to look for recruiting services? How can you compete? Can you compete on those search terms?"

Henry said there are ​​​​​700 different keyword phrases that will show Goldbeck Recruiting on the first page of a Google search. ​​​​​There's competition for those keywords and Goldberg Recruiting is constantly working on getting better in terms of ranking, checking constantly the terms that people are using to find recruiting services.

SEO as investment​​​​

For Henry, SEO is an investment. His budget represents 10%-15% of gross revenue, but that brings in 60% of the business. The company has also rebuilt its website with a simple structure and logical content related to the business. ​There has to be a customer journey on the website so that they stay on it and this journey ends up where there's a call to action. ​

At the same time, it should be considered as an ongoing investment. "Your website should never, is never going to be finished. Ever. So when you're planning your budget around it, it's less important what you spend to build your website than what you're going to spend on an ongoing basis to constantly grow, improve, adjust, add content to continuously build. That's what brings success. Spending too much on a fancier website and then not having a budget to continue that work is a mistake compared to maybe building a smaller, simpler website and then expanding it and growing it and continuously improving it again. What keywords can we be effective in? How can we do this better? How can we adjust that? Right now, most of our budget goes to content creation.

​Goldbeck Recruiting continuously makes structural changes to their website. They recently reorganized their areas of expertise, with fewer categories. More optimized content was added for each category to rank better on Google.

​​​Ben’s Key Takeaways:

• ​SEO is an investment. Goldbeck's budget represents 10%-15% of gross revenue but that brings in 60% of the business.​
• A company's website should be considered an ongoing investment and a continuous work in progress.

I'll help you choose the right marketing methods for you and your business.

I've helped hundreds of HR business owners around the world to build a better business.

I can act as your de facto Marketing Director to guide you as you design, launch, & run your 90-Day Marketing Plan.

You will know what you need to do and when you need to do it.

I will also give you clear instructions and advice on how to do it.

I’ll also answer any questions you have along the way.

• Want to produce thought leadership that attracts new clients? I’ll tell you how to do it.
• Want to advertise your business on Google, LinkedIn, or somewhere else? I’ll tell you how to do it.
• Want to contact prospective clients by email or LinkedIn? I’ll tell you how to do it.
• Want to start a podcast or make educational videos? I’ll tell you how to do it.
• Want to team up with another non-competing HR company in a partnership? I’ll tell you how to do it.

Whatever your marketing plan entails, I’ll guide you and tell you exactly what you need to do.

I’ll also answer any questions you have along the way.

Get in touch today at www.GetMoreHRClients.com/Services​

All the best,

Ben​

Jane on getting the first clients (Episode 89)​

Jane remembers following the advice of a consultant she met while working at British Airways and being a member of the judging panel for young entrepreneurs: "If you are a coach, it's all about relationships, because people need to know, like, and trust you, and they can't do that from a website. They can't do that from a post on LinkedIn. You need to be out there doing videos." So she started a series of 40 videos with the most common interview questions and suggested responses to them: "Tell me about yourself", "Tell me about a time when you have experienced conflict in the workplace", "Tell me about a time when you have experienced a knock back on the project"​. She posted the videos on LinkedIn, twice a day, for four weeks and this is how she got her first clients. ​She recorded the videos using a mobile phone, with no preparation, and this proved to her that the message was the most ​

important and she should focus on delivering the real message to the target audience.

"If you're thinking of setting up a business, just do it. The improvements will come. You are an expert. Just get your message out there. It doesn't matter how. And you'll get those people telling you to put subtitles, to get better lighting, to get a tripod, but just start."

​Jane's plans for getting new clients

What proved successful was the free five day challenges Jane initiated on LinkedIn, taking people on a journey for five days and then at the end having the opportunity to work with her. She is also preparing VIP coaching packages, working one-on-one, because she considers this as her "zone of genius for people".

​Ben’s Key Takeaways:

• ​A series of videos will help potential clients get to know, like, and trust you.
  
• Don't overthink things - just get started. You can make improvements as you go.

​​

Aaron's advice when starting a business (Episode 32)​

​"If you do want to start your own company, whether it's consulting or software company, be prepared for it to take longer than you think it will. If you are a software company or technology company, it could take two years." According to Aaron, the best thing you can do if you're currently in a job is to work on building your audience with people who know you and are part of your network. You can also build an audience by publishing content. "And the more that you can build your audience, the more of a running start you're giving yourself towards whatever you do on your own, whether it's consulting or whether it's a tech company or something different. It's hard doing your own company, and you want to give yourself every advantage."

​Aaron's advice on finding your niche

"If you pick your [radio] station and you broadcast clearly, it'll make it easier for the right customers to hear you. And if you have a sales team, it's the same principle. Sales people can get overwhelmed if you have too many products, too many types of customers. How can you make it simple for the people on your team to focus on the right customers who have the right problems with the right message? It's really about focusing this kind of antidote or this countercurrent against the overwhelmed."

"Nailing a niche means being very disciplined about the types of customers who need you the most, understanding them and being able to read their minds. Knowing them so you know what their problems are and how they think. And then that enables you to communicate to them in a way that is meaningful to them, whether that's through blogs, video, cold emails or any other kind of medium."

​"Salesforce.com always had a vision for business on the web, but their initial niche was salesforce automation and that's still the basis of their

success today. Amazon.com had a vision for global ecommerce and world​domination. Their initial niche was books. For Zappos it was shoes. So for a lot of the most successful companies, if you look back, they actually did pick one specific or focused niche to get started and then they would build on other layers. What happens is the old fable around a dog with a bone in its mouth who sees its reflection in the river. It wants both bones so it drops the first oneand loses both. So, what's your bone? Don't drop that."

​Aaron on the balance between inbound and outbound marketing

​"Ultimately you need both content marketing and outbound prospecting for most businesses, for any product business, for sure. There's not a simple answer around what's the right ratio of inbounds or leads or effort versus outbound. It really depends on the business and how effective each one is on longer term. SaaS companies and product companies usually end up with around 40% inbound for their business. New business comes from content marketing, inbound marketing, 40% comes from outbound prospecting and 20% comes from channels like referral partners and channel partners. That can vary completely from business to business. I would say the lesson is to focus on one outbound prospecting. That alone can take six to twelve months to really do it and do it right. The same thing with content, inbound marketing can take six to twelve months to really do it right. So just pick one when you're really trying to grow, pick one to nail first before you scatter your energy trying to do too much at one time."

Aaron speaking on the future of outbound prospecting

"I think outbound prospecting is actually growing faster than ever and the reason is because people see how directly it can drive revenue. I'd say for a lot of venture funded companies, some of the fastest growing companies in the world, one of the first things they do to drive growth is create an outbound prospecting programme. Now some things are on decline, for example email response rates. The world is always changing but there's other things that are getting better, like LinkedIn response rates and that's always evolving. So the bottom line for most companies, especially product companies, is outbound prospecting. This is something you have to do. You don't have to do it today but you do have to do it at some point if you want another channel. It's going to drive growth in a predictable way. It can be successful and can add a lot of revenue and predictability to your revenue model whether you're in Europe or in the States. Even with GDPR, people are still doing prospecting all the time in Europe.

​Ben’s Key Takeaways:

• ​When starting - find your niche and then build your audience.
• Outbound prospecting can be a successful & predictable channel.
  

I've helped hundreds of HR business owners around the world to build a better business.

I can help you grow your business faster and easier too​.

​Let's talk.

Get in touch today at www.GetMoreHRClients.com/Services​

All the best,

Ben