Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Made in the UK for HR consultants worldwide. You're listening to the HR Marketing Guys podcast.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: Hello James here, and welcome to this week's podcast. In this week's main event, I'm going to talk to you about a huge opportunity you have to offer business owners strategic support and a special HR audit. And in this week's thought of the week, I'm going to explain why I always say I have a vision and why I think it's really important for you to have one too. So let's jump straight in.
[00:00:36] Speaker A: This week's main event.
[00:00:41] Speaker C: I was speaking with a client yesterday. She's got loads of proposals out with some really hot clients, but they've all gone silent on her and it's been like this for a couple of months now. So she asked me if there was anything that she could do to get them over the line. So we went through each proposal in detail and nothing really jumped out to be a problem. They just seemed to be dragging their feet. I told her not to worry. I just think that the market is a bit rubbish at the moment. And I assured her that I'm having the same chats with consultants. Both sides of the Atlantic, consultants I speak to are just really struggling to get deals over the line and new work has slowed down or dried up. And there's quite a few reasons why. I think there's a lot of external factors going on that are making the market a bit slower than usual. And as a business owner, I think it's important to be aware of these things that could affect buyer behavior. And most importantly, as a HR consultant, it provides you with an opportunity to react to these conditions and offer business owners the right type of support. So going back to what's going on in the world and how this affects buying behavior. So years ago now, there was a big boot. So years ago now, there was a big hoo ha in the media about petrol prices. And at the same time, our sales had really slowed down. I remember my old boss saying it's because of the petrol price stuff. And I remember looking at him thinking he was absolutely crazy. But the older I get, I realize that this stuff has way more of an impact on market conditions than what you think, especially for the average SME owner. There's a market analysis framework called Pestle. It stands for political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental. And businesses will use this framework to better understand the big picture factors that could affect their business. So let's just have a quick look at political stuff. Right now in the US, you guys have got a very big election coming up which is dividing the country. I work in three different businesses that target the US. I speak with lots of consultants in the US and everyone just feels like they're waiting for the election to happen. Similarly, in the UK, we've just had a new Labour government. The media have got their claws out, as always, saying that they're doing a terrible job and we're being told that the public has already lost confidence in them. If we look at economic, both at home and in the US, our economies are struggling and then if we look at social, we're pretty much in the run up towards Christmas now already and businesses are maybe hesitant to make big decisions. And if we mix all of this together, there's a lot of uncertainty flying around. So it kind of makes sense as to why the market is a bit slow and why people aren't jumping to sign a lovely big retainer with you, as nice as that would be. So if things have gone a bit quiet, don't worry, you aren't doing anything wrong. I know it can sometimes feel like the world is conspiring against you. It's not. It's just that the market's a bit rubbish at the moment. And don't be so hard on yourself. But this doesn't change the fact that you need to keep the clients coming in and this doesn't change the fact that the market is a bit sluggish at the moment. So it's important for you to create opportunities for yourself to work with business owners. And as an HR consultant and strategic partner, there are loads of ways for you to help business owners. Right now. In the UK, the new Labour government have just overhauled the employment rights bill. There's a new sexual harassment duty change and the new budget is coming up at the end of the month. In the US, you have the big election coming up, inflation is sky high and there are loads of worker shortages. So just put yourself in the shoes of the average business owner right now. What are their worries, what are their priorities and what guidance they really need? This provides you with a huge opportunity to react and to provide them with the support that they need, which will hopefully spur them into taking action with you. So right now, both sides of the Atlantic, there is an opportunity for you to offer some sort of strategic support. And I think the key themes are around risk reduction and cost savings. Maybe they have a recruitment or retention need in there too, but this would completely depend on what industries you're targeting and specifically how business owners are feeling right now.
So the first thing you need to do is look at your current client base and then target market, if you have one, and figure out what's going on in their world and what they need most from you. You could then probably package this up as some sort of special HR audit, the outcome of which will help them to either reduce risk or save costs. And you'll use what's going on in the world as your negative trigger, so to speak. I sometimes refer to things like this as a time sensitive opportunity, and in my experience, time sensitive opportunities are awesome at getting some cash in fast. So to round this up the market is a bit rubbish at the moment. There's lots of reasons why. Don't get sad. Instead, use it as an opportunity to provide business owners with specialist strategic support. All of the S's, package it up.
[00:05:26] Speaker B: In the right way and reach out.
[00:05:28] Speaker C: To your network to see if you can help.
[00:05:31] Speaker B: So when you're busy delivering client work, it can be easy to forget about your marketing. But if you don't do any marketing and things do go quiet, you won't have any sort of pipeline to fall back on and your future earnings will be in the hands of the HR gods until you get a new referral. And that's really risky business. So that's why even if you're really busy with clients, you should always keep your brand awareness marketing ticking along in the background. Think about posting to LinkedIn, a monthly newsletter and a weekly email, for instance. This sort of marketing helps you to be seen and heard and will help you to keep a steady trickle of new business coming your way, which we'll really appreciate when things do go quiet. This is where the HR marketing box comes in. It's full of ready to use content and ideas to help you increase your brand awareness and get new clients. Using our content to springboard your own content saves you loads of time. It's a thousand times cheaper than paying for your own content writer and will save you loads of stress in the long run. Go to my website, the hrmarketingguy.com to check if your area is still available in the UK and USA.
[00:06:35] Speaker A: James thought of the week.
[00:06:40] Speaker B: So one of my favorite things to say when I'm being dramatic is I have a vision. So let me tell you a story. I had a hair transplant a few years ago. My parents blessed me with a terrible hairline, so blame them. Once it had all grown through, it looked great, but I was never really happy with the line. So a few months ago I went back to my surgeon because I wanted another one I braced myself for an argument because I knew he was going to say no. He said it looked great and that I didn't need one. Everyone I spoke to agreed. And most importantly, I knew this too. But I had a vision in my head which wasn't unreasonable or silly, and what I was seeing didn't match up with that. So I wasn't leaving the room until he drew a lovely new line on my head. Anyway, he agreed to it. I had it done two months ago, and I now feel a bit like an ugly duckling waiting for it to grow through, which will take about a year. So, yeah, what does this have to do with being a consultancy owner and running a business? Well, I think having a clear vision is so, so important. Business is hard. You have to be incredibly focused. You have to be incredibly tunneled visioned at times, and you have to be relentless in your approach to make it happen, even if people don't think in the same way as you. All of which is really difficult if you don't have a clear vision of what you want to achieve. So my question to you is, do you have a clear vision? Do you know what you would like to achieve in your personal life? Do you know what will actually make you happy? And do you know what you want to achieve in your business? You might have given this no thought, or you might have a hazy idea of what you'd like in either situation. I think it's really important to spend some time thinking about what you'd like and create a very clear vision for yourself. I want you to see it, I want you to feel it, and I want you to believe in it. So if I was to start consulting with you today, this would be the first thing that we'd discuss, because your life vision drives everything, and your business is there to help you create the life of your dreams. And I'm a really big believer in that. I know that thinking about what you want from life can actually be really difficult for some people. I get it. But I think everyone can daydream and imagine, and this is a great starting point. Maybe you're taking the dog for a walk, or when you're winding down before bed. Use this time to start to imagine and visualize what your perfect life would look like. Allow yourself to dream big, see what you come up with, and let your visions fuel you in every area of your life.
[00:09:04] Speaker A: You've been listening to the HR Marketing Guys podcast helping you to get new clients and create a life you love.
