Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Made in the UK for HR consultants worldwide. You're listening to the HR Marketing Guys podcast.
[00:00:14] Speaker B: Hello James here and welcome to this week's podcast episode. In this week's main event, we're going to be talking about competition and how you can use your competitors to create a standout brand and an unbeatable usp. And in today's Thought of the Week, I have two bits of advice for you. If you wish more business owners owners knew what an awesome HR consultant you are. So let's jump straight.
[00:00:36] Speaker A: In this week's main event, I was.
[00:00:40] Speaker B: On a call with a HR consultant in the US the other day. She's just in the process of setting up her own consultancy and we were talking about all of the usual setup stuff and then she asked me if I felt that the HR market was saturated, as in do I think that there are loads of consultants out there offering the same service and would she find it difficult to win new clients as a result? Now this is a really interesting question. I don't have any hard stats to go by, but I have done a lot of list building in the US and I've spoken to lots of people about the independent HR market in the US and we all kind of get the same vibe. At the bigger end of the market there are lots of larger, more corporate style consultancies and PEOs that are targeting businesses with lots of employees. We feel that that end of the market is a bit saturated, but if we look at the smaller end of the market, there actually isn't that many smaller consultancies targeting smaller companies with less than 100 employees, let's say offering full spectrum fractional support. At the small end of the market in the US there seems to be more individual consultants offering specialized HR services like Culture and L and D who are contracted in by internal HR teams of larger organizations. Especially if you compare the geography number of businesses versus number of consultancies ratio to that of the uk. So for anyone in the US looking to start and grow a consultancy offering full spectrum HR support, I don't think the market is saturated, no. And again, I'm just going off vibe here and would love to get some hard stats to back this up. So why am I talking about this today? Well, even if the market was completely saturated, there is always an opportunity for you to stand out from the rest, find your own lane and be recognized as the go to HR consultant in your area or chosen industries. And as a consultancy owner, it's incredibly important for you to look at the other consultants around you to Compare yourselves and to create an unbeatable usp. And that's what this podcast episode is all about. I know lots of consultants who are worried about their local competitors and it's something that you can easily get stressed about. So firstly, competition isn't anything you should worry about or lose sleep over. When it comes to business, I try to have an abundance mindset and I think you should too. There's loads of work to go around for everyone and there's different horses for courses. If anything, competition is really healthy and it should be embraced. It can be a great motivator and it forces you to create an unbeatable USP which completely underpins your brand messaging and marketing. So instead of worrying about if the market is saturated or about your local competitors, I want you to openly embrace competition and use it to give yourself a competitive edge. Okay, so most consultants I know really struggle to create an unbeatable usp, and that's because they focus on their services. In the world of HR consulting, there isn't actually that much differentiation in the services you actually provide compared to another consultancy down the road. And this is where you can easily get stuck. So instead of focusing on what, I want you to focus on you, who and how. Okay? So the first and most easy way to create a standout brand and unbeatable USP is by focusing on you and your personal brand. You are truly unique. Your knowledge, skills, experience and personality cannot be replicated by anyone else. So the easiest way to create differentiation is by creating a strong personal brand and letting that cascade throughout your business and marketing. So here are my personal USPs that I try to focus on. So I'm the world's go to HR marketing guy. I've been writing marketing content for businesses since I was 21. So that's over 10 years now. I've managed huge product development, brand marketing and sales projects over the years and big teams. My background is in boutique management consultancy. I'm at the coal face of what's working right now. I demystify marketing and make it easy. I got hundreds of happy clients worldwide. The advice I offer is researched, field tested and approved by successful HR consultants. I have loads of testimonials, recommendations and case studies available. Personally, what you see is what you get with me. I'm honest, trustworthy and reliable. I wear my heart on my sleeve and I'm naively generous with my time at times. And I would like to think that I'm really fun to work with. So in the same way, an action for you Here would be to think about what makes you great as a person and HR professional. Write them down and weave them into your messaging. The next way to create a standout brand and unbeatable USB is by focusing on who you're targeting. Most consultants I speak to are scared to create a target market because they can work with anyone. So why would they want to restrict themselves? Well, in the world of brand marketing and sales, this sadly has the opposite effect. When you try to target everyone, your brand and USB becomes weak. You blend in and become unmemorable. So instead of trying to be everything to everyone, you can choose to become an expert to a selected audience. Now, I know that there's a process to go through here and I have created a podcast episode and webinar on it before, all about helping you to create a target market and the different target markets that are available to you as well. Because I think everyone thinks they just need to niche. They use that terminology wrong. It's scary and it's not the case. So if you want full perspective on the different types of target markets there are and how you can transition through those target markets as your consultancy grows and develops, then please drop me a message and then I can send you a link to all of the action sheets and webinars that I've done on this subject. And then the third way to create a standout brand and unbeatable USP is to focus on how you get the job done. So even though the deliverables of HR are quite similar, the way you approach your work is likely very different to other consultants and you should lean into this. Some consultants are very employer centric, compliance focused and have a no nonsense approach to getting the job done. Others are more holistic. They might take a people first or culture led approach. Some are coaching led, some are commercial and growth focused, while others are kind of data and systems led. There's no right or wrong way. It's about your way of doing things and being confident enough to own it. And an action for you here would be to think about what your approach to HR is. How do you work with business owners? Clarify this and weave it into your messaging. Okay, so what I've done here is given you a nice light way to think about your usp, which is something that you can do yourself, clarify and weave into your messaging. Now if we were to work together, the more advanced way we would do this and to create your USP is by using the Elements of Value framework. So this framework is created by the big consultancy company Bain and Company. It's based off Maslow's hierarchy of needs and lists over 40 values that people take into consideration when making a purchasing decision. Now, I love, love, love this framework and have used it and here are the steps that I would guide you through. So step one is that we would go through each value and give your business and your competitors a score against that value. Step two would be to plot the values and scores on a graph. Step three is to highlight the values where you outperform. And by plotting them on a graph, it's very visually obvious where you do outperform. Step four is to create specific messaging around these values and these actually become your USPs. And then step five is to weave those USPs into your marketing. So if this is something you're interested in, I've created an action sheet that I can work you through to do this. If you want a copy, drop me an email and I'll send it over. So brand strategy is something that really excites me. Actually, as you can probably tell, under the umbrella of business growth, the terminology can often be blurred. For me, brand is everything you need to have in place before you can actually start marketing. And the deliverables of brand are your brand strategy document and visual brand guidelines. And the two kind of go hand in hand. Once you have your brand, you can then actually start marketing. So this is how you get brand in front of people and the output of your marketing should be audiences and relationships. And then you have sales, which is how you convert those relationships into clients. So I have so much to share about branding and I'm going to be working on lots of resources to help you in the future. But in the meantime, if there is any way that I can help you to create a standout brand and unbeatable usp, then please get in touch because I'd love to help.
[00:09:02] Speaker A: James is thought of the week.
[00:09:05] Speaker B: I know lots of consultants that feel like they are the best kept secret. You're an amazing HR consultant. You've got loads of experience, you've been there, seen it all. You actually care and want to make a difference and you deliver amazing value. But as a consultancy owner, you can sometimes feel completely invisible and this is so, so, so frustrating. If only business owners knew how great you are and how much value you could deliver, your life and theirs would be so much better. I don't think you're alone in this. Getting new clients can be really difficult and frustrating at times. So from a marketing point of view, I have two bits of advice the first is to focus on increasing your brand awareness. So this is the stuff that takes along in the background to make sure you're consistently seen and heard. Think on newsletters, blogs, emails and social media content. So I would review what you're doing and I would times 10 the amount of content you're putting out there. Seriously, get so much content out there that it's impossible for you to go unnoticed. And the second piece of advice I have is to constantly educate business owners on the value that you provide. Do it so much that you feel like you're blowing your own horn. I know you don't want to come across as boastful or annoying, but what you're really doing is emphasizing the message that you're not just here to hire and fire people. The real value you can provide is as a strategic partner. And business owners don't know this. They don't understand this. And that's why you need to consistently teach them on how you can help and the results working with you will have on their business and personal lives. And that's why we created the HR Marketing Box to help you get as much content as you can out there. It's an online library full of ready to use content and ideas to help you increase your brand awareness and get new clients. The content is created by HR pros to make sure it's 100% right. It's edited personally by me to make sure that it resonates with business owners. The visuals are created by professional designers and everything is delivered to you via Canva, making it super easy to personalize. Visit my website, the hrmarketingguide.com to learn more and check if your area is still available.
[00:11:09] Speaker A: You've been listening to the HR Marketing Guys podcast, helping you to get new clients and create a life you love.
