Friday, 20 August 2010 00:00

As you begin to gear up for the new academic year you'll no doubt be reviewing the information you hold about employers. You'll probably also be thinking about the sort of information you need to gather to enable you to match what you do to employers' interests, needs and wants.

The chances are you currently input lots of information about employers into your customer relationship management system (CRM). You probably make sure you record the size of the employer organisation, whether the organisation exports or not, if it's got a high staff turnover and so on. Yet, very few providers log answers to a question that is guaranteed to help them to build strong business relationships, engender trust and encourage collaborative working with employers. They don't record the answers, because they don't ask the question. Is this a question that you ask your employers?

The most important question

The most important question you can ask of a business, and one that will help to differentiate you from your competitors, is a very simple question. It is: "What sort of business are you looking for?"

This question is so rarely asked that you might find employers truly surprised when you ask it. This question is a valuable one, because the answer will help you to understand an employer's business aspirations and key objectives. The answer will also be a lot more helpful to you than information about the employer's business plan or marketing strategy. That's because the answer is a succinct and clear indication of where an employer is taking his or her business. That's just the sort of information you need to know in order to target your marketing accurately.

Helping employers

There is, of course, a question hidden within this question that both parties understand. It's a question that focuses on helping the employer to succeed. If you seek out information about the sort of business employers are looking for, you'll be starting to position yourself and your organisation as advisers to the employer organisations you are hoping to sell to. You'll be taking on a new role, when you ask this question. Implicitly, you'll be offering to help to build the employer's business. Employers will appreciate your action because business success is what matters to them.

Of course, you'll need to record carefully the information you receive, and then act on it. You'll need to think about how you can match employers to business opportunities you hear about, and when - and how - you can make introductions to help your employer customers achieve greater success.

What's interesting is that if you do start to ask this question, and ask it regularly, you'll find that employers are more ready to speak to you, more ready to listen to you and more likely to do business with you.

It's no accident that expert business networkers, along with people with huge followings on Twitter and Facebook, position themselves as people who help others first and seek business for themselves second. In practice, of course, these successful business people understand that the two actually go hand in hand.

Add more value to employers

This September then, you can enhance your business prospects with employers without brochures, offers, prospectuses or any of the tactics you normally use to drive sales. You can ask this most important question often and make sure you use the answers to add value to employers by actively helping them to achieve their goals.

You'll find that their success leads to your success and that looking after your employer customers' interests is good for your business, too. That's really what makes this the most important question of all.

Margaret Adams is a consultant who helps provider organisations to do more business with more employers. She writes on employer engagement at: Attract More Business and Achieving the TQS


Read other FE News articles by Margaret Adams:

Are you making the most of Twitter?

Is it time to get rid of your prospectus?

Three reasons why you should double your employer engagement targets