In her recent webinar entitled The Brave New Way of Sales, Sue Barrett, the leading Australian expert in human-centred sales and communication, revealed a show-stopper. Consumers globally are shying away from big corporates.
Supported by big data and recent research conducted by Alex Fein of Redbridge, one reason for this is because they feel that Big Corporates are no longer as authentic as they once were (ipso facto, can’t be trusted in the way they once were).
The evidence seemed to me to indicate that if SMEs can deliver at the very least comparable products and services at a reasonable price and of the same quality, then they have a better than even money chance of securing more business. Why have SMEs suddenly become more competitive? It’s because of their ability to build relationships with people at all levels in organisations, which has led them to be regarded as more authentic than the so called ‘big boys’. People buy from people.
If this trend is legitimate, then when applied to the recruitment industry, it may open up more opportunities for the 1000s of small to mid-sized companies to garner a greater share of the market – a market they might not yet have.
And those who are only interested in making a placement for today, in my opinion, are doing a long-term disservice to this industry as a whole. Hopefully this is an opportunity for them to change their ways.
I also think this opportunity may be supported by the refreshed ‘Buy Australian’ initiatives that the federal government has recently announced.
The key to these opportunities will be in making potential customers aware of this trend, educating and then convincing hiring managers that they will be better off by building a long-term relationship with your company – which may be smaller, more agile, more relationship focused, more people driven and therefore, perceived as more authentic than the global corporates.
And if you gain that trust in the first instance and then deliver on it in a regular, consistent basis, then you’ve won them over. Thanks #SueBarrett for the tremendous insight.
Article image: Barrett Consulting team
Geoff Slade has worked at the forefront of the Recruitment industry for 50 years. He is the Executive Chairman of Slade Group and was awarded a Centenary Medal for services to the industry.
