Is the economy in recession? Experts say that we are in a recession already; others say it is coming soon, while others say our economic future will look different than since the Great Depression. These scenarios can be very worrying, but there are always opportunities to grow your business and prosper, even in difficult times. While your business strategy will likely need to change during a recession, the steps you take now can help you get ahead. It is never too late to plan for the future or to take advantage of what is already here.
Before we get into the details of how your CRM/ATS can help you find new business, we need to first identify some key components. First, determine which industries are thriving. The second step is to identify which drives you to have the most potential and the best resources. You might be able to do business in new industries or with industries that you are familiar with.
Here’s a list of high-demand industries to help you get started:
Food/Alcohol/Grocery
Staff for medical care
Medical Device
Pharmaceutical
Manufacturing
Delivery Services
Trucking/Railroad
Paper Products
Antibacterial/Cleaning Products
Administrative
Online Education & Remote Learning
Lifestyles of Health & Sustainability/Wellness
IT/Accounting/Legal
Printing/Publishing
Telecommunications/Cable
Do you see any new opportunities as you examine this list?
Searching for your ATS/CRM to help you find a new business
Once you have a list of industries to target, you can use the search capabilities within your CRM/ATS to find specific opportunities.
Search by Client Industry Code, Status, and Location
If you’re looking for staff in a particular area, the first and most basic search that you should do is by client industry code, status, and location. These codes are the ones you create in the software that is associated with each industry. It is crucial to know your situation. This will tell you if you are actively working with companies or not. You can perform both searches. You can find out if you have any current clients that you could reach out to. Next, search for ‘inactive clients.’ These clients could be people you have lost contact with or who have never been able to work with. You might also consider helping staff at local businesses. This can help you to narrow down your search to local companies. These searches can help you find potential opportunities.
A “full-text search” is another search option that your software may have. Full-text searches are an advanced search option that finds crucial terms within each client’s profile. If you search for “medical,” it will search every client that has the word “medical” in their profile. This could be in an email, text message, note, comment, or another format.
Search by Last Contact Date
You can also search for the date you last contacted a customer. This search can be combined with the previous search criteria. If you are looking for clients that you have been in touch with within the past six months, you can search by date. If you are looking for clients that haven’t been in touch for a while, you can explore outside this time period. This search is handy if you are trying to find inactive clients that you have not reached out to recently. Perhaps they weren’t available for staffing when you last reached out, but they are now.
You can search by job orders.
You can also search for jobs by Job Order based on the industries that you have worked in. This will help you find opportunities that are relevant to your current needs. You may have clients that you haven’t spoken to in a while. Reach out to them to see if there are any jobs that they can fill.
Search for Candidates Employment History
A Candidate Employment History is another unique way to search. A candidate search can be used to target specific industries that candidates have worked in in the past. This will allow you to identify potential clients that you may not have in your existing database. Start by looking at the candidates that you have hired in the past couple of years. This will give you a manageable set of candidates to work with. You can then look through the clients who fit your industry and add them to your database. You can also use a “full-text search” to search the resume and profile of a candidate for critical phrases.
Create Favorites Lists
You can add clients to your favorites list as you search for them. Some software solutions allow you to add clients to your favorites list directly within the software. You can still create favorites lists in separate spreadsheets if you don’t have this capability. To ensure you don’t lose sight of clients as you search for them, you should add them to your favorites list immediately. It is a good idea to make a list of the industries you are interested in so that your calls are more organized.
The Special Offer
Now that you know your favorite industries and have a list of favorites, it is time to determine what you will offer them. What incentive can you offer the client to cooperate with your marketing plan? You may need different motivations depending on your industry. What can you offer clients that will make them choose you over your competitors? You might offer fixed rates, special subscriptions, or free training.
Divide and conquer
Once you have created your industry-specific targeted lists and a marketing plan, it is time to start calling! You will first need to decide whether you will reach all clients or if it will be divided up among your team members. It is easy to add clients to your software’s daily planner. You can also share the lists you have made with your team.
Following a call, send follow-up emails and text messages.
It is a good idea to follow up with each client by sending a text message or an email after you have called them. A follow-up message can be used to reiterate the conversation. You can ask prospects if they prefer to be contacted by email or text messages if you don’t know their mobile number. You can also ask them for their mobile number if they choose text messages.
You can make follow-up communications more efficient by creating email and text templates you can use for each client. Remember to personalize it to make it unique. This can be done quickly by including the contact name as well as the company. Software solutions may allow you to create templates directly within the software. The software will then automatically adjust the name, company, and other fields depending on who you are sending the message to.
The Candidates
Clients are just one part of the puzzle. It is important to remember that we must also find qualified candidates to fill the vacancies you have created. You must also start looking for candidates as soon as you market to clients. You can search your ATS by industry, job title, skill, and location. Don’t forget to use the “full text” search capability if you have it.
You can also search for “active” or “inactive” candidates. You might find candidates that you don’t currently work with but who are interested in a job or open to a new career. Start looking through your ATS to find suitable candidates and start making favorites lists. This will make it easier for you to call these candidates when there are new opportunities.
Follow-up with candidates is the same as with clients. Send them a text message, or send an email. Make sure you have your templates handy so that you can quickly send them a follow-up communication.
In Summary
There are always people buying in recessions, and there are always industries that are booming. It’s up to you to identify those industries and to target the ones that have the most significant potential to help you. Using the powerful capabilities of your ATS & CRM, you can then find these clients and candidates. Sometimes candidates and businesses are already available to you, so you don’t have to search the internet for them.
