Panning for Nuggets at the Job Sites

Home > Promote > Marketing > B2B

by Robert Spiegel

In business-to-business marketing, what are you really seeking? Companies with unmet needs. You find companies with unfilled needs and you propose your services or products to fill those needs. When you look through jobs sites, what do you really see? Companies with unmet needs. A business places a classified employment ad because it needs services, be they sales, software development or public relations. They may be seeking an employee, but what they're really searching for is a way to solve their marketing, accounting or communications needs. Service companies offering expertise in these areas can find a market of potential clients by searching jobs sites on the Internet.

Some of the prospective employers actually suggest they're seeking telecommuters, which makes them a easy target for service-company marketing. Others specifically request employees who will show up onsite and become part of a team. Those seeking onsite employees usually make it explicit in the job description. But others fall in the nether-world of companies that need services that could easily be performed by a vendor company. If you sell services, this group holds potentially ripe pickings.

One of the advantages of searching for clients through Internet job sites is that you already know the client needs your service. After all, the company posted an employment ad, right? Your job is to encourage the potential client to consider outsourcing and use your company's service instead of hiring an employee. Your leverage in this argument is that your services are more professional and less expensive than an employee. Plus, nobody has to manage your solution. The Internet job sites are easy to find.

A quick search from any search engine will pull up dozens. Some are online job postings and others are collections of ads from newspapers. Once at the job website, you can usually pull all the appropriate ads through a simple keyword search on your expertise, whether it is marketing, accounting or public relations. You can also search by date so each day you view only fresh ads.

Most of these sites offer an email option to respond to the ad. You can put your whole pitch in an email that explains the advantages of using your services. The email solicitation can also contain your company's resume, client list and references. The letter should be short and to the point, explaining that you would like the company to consider using your company's service as an alternative to hiring an employee. Explain that your service is high quality and that your turnaround is quick. Clarify that you specialize in this work and can offer more expertise than an employee could bring to the job, which means there will be no lengthy training period.

Also emphasize that you are available by phone or email throughout the business day. You can give a short example of how your service is less expensive than the overhead of an employee. Follow this one-page letter with your resume, client list and references, all in one email. It's a no-no to use an attachment when responding to a job posting. Make a copy of it every time you go online and send it along to all of the appropriate job listings.

For most services, from accounting to technical writing, you can usually find 20 to 40 potential clients per day. The process of finding companies and sending the email solicitations will only take 30 to 60 minutes. Since you're sending the same email to all of the companies you locate, this form of marketing is easy on the nerves and requires little concentration. You can do it while watching television in the evening. You don't need a high percentage of success to make this effort worthwhile. If you send just 20 emails per day and hit one half of one percent, you'll get a new client every two weeks.