What the pandemic has done to the business landscape, among other things, is to add a variable layer to the quest for finding and maintaining quality employees. The pool of competent, industry-specific applicants was quite thin at the onset of 2020, but with millions of people losing their jobs in the months following the shutdown, one would assume it has reverted to a buyer’s market, so to speak.
This week’s look into the challenges encountered by our 2020 Elite Dealer roster include several examples of how they have fared in trying to find, and secure, talent that will help them move forward exponentially once the pandemic passes.
In the case of Millennium Business Systems of Livonia, Michigan, the dealer turned to outside help in its efforts to recruit and hire the right individuals. The company partnered with PathShare to train its managers on sourcing and hiring optimal fits.
“Their AVA assessments list ideal environments, coaching tips and valuable insight about the prospective employee,” Millennium reported. “Since partnering with PathShare, our employee retention has increased and our recruiting expenses have decreased.”
For Seattle-based Copiers Northwest, the hiring process is complicated by more than the pandemic. Within blocks of its headquarters sits multiple Google and Amazon facilities, with others still being constructed. Thus, the dealer is in stiff competition with players such as Microsoft, Intel, Facebook and various other technology-driven firms that boast the nationwide name recognition cache.
That has led Copiers Northwest to become more creative with its employee hunt. “This year, we became a gold level sponsor for the University of Washington’s sales intern program, with the hope of recruiting recent graduates,” the company noted.
With unemployment levels reaching all-time lows in its market, Greenville, North Carolina-based CopyPro found that its employee base was the best source of recruiting. Incentivizing the process doesn’t hurt, either.
“We offered a finder’s fee to our employees, which not only allowed us to locate quality employees, it gave our employees some ‘skin in the game’ to ensure that these new hires were successful,” CopyPro wrote.
When dealers on the West Coast opted to furlough some of its salespeople, Image 2000 of Valencia, California, found the opening it needed to bolster its account rep ranks. “We’re not sure why (dealers chose to furlough successful reps), but it provided an opportunity for us to hire a few reps that may not have been available prior to COVID,” the company wrote.
Winning Combination
When Advanced Imaging Solutions (AIS) of Las Vegas sought to better align its sales and marketing efforts, the dealer decided to integrate them into a single “smarketing” division. The group meets twice a week and allows the two departments to share marketing-connect efforts and learn how sales can leverage the content to simplify the selling process.
“We began training our sales team in assignment selling, too,” AIS wrote. “Assignment selling is the process of intentionally using educational content you have created about your products and services to resolve the major concerns and answer the burning questions of prospects, so they are much more prepared for a sales appointment.”
For years, Martin Group of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, has had its own shipping and receiving department to supply all of its clients, a functional but not highly optimized aspect of its business. Thus, the company decided to undertake a complete rebuild of its shipping processes. Visual guides now make it easier for quick references on the fly, and detailed, step-by-step instructions made training much easier. A dedicated shipping/warehouse employee was trained on the improved processes, which has made for a marked improvement.
“The new processes have also been an incredible help to not just the bottom line, but our inventory is the most accurate it has ever been,” Martin Group reported. “It took months and multiple revisions, but our team was awesome in flowing with the changes and helping to get to the improvement we are seeing today.”
Manufacturer Directs
The downward pressure brought by the pandemic has ramped up competition from manufacturers’ direct branches, and that has been the case for Centric Business Systems of Owings, Maryland. Direct reps are plying clients with low-cost hardware and cost-per-copy pricing. In such cases, Centric focuses on one of its bread-and-butter attributes: its value as a locally-owned company.
“Our decision-making is hands-on, flexible and prompt,” Centric wrote. “Our service teams are proactive, responsive, and equipped with the right parts to repair issues, should they arrive. We provide training at the time of installation and continue to offer ongoing training, either hands on or virtually for the life of the customer. We develop a partnership with our clients and we are involved with the communities we serve.”
The common task of converting to a work-from-home environment proved to be a fruitful and positive experience for Applied Imaging of Grand Rapids, Michigan. The dealer tasked NetSmart Plus, its network services division, with ensuring customer employees could operate from home without any disruption to the business. Client feedback was resoundingly positive. The foray into temperature-scanning devices turned out to be a lucrative venture as well.
“Selling over a million dollars’ worth of temperature screening kiosks was also a challenge and an incredible achievement since nobody had heard of the product at the beginning of 2020,” Applied Imaging noted.
