Tag Archives: jobs

Why it pays to know your competitors like the back of your hand

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With the Ryder Cup underway at the end of the month, what can we learn from the bi-annual golf competition?

 

The Ryder Cup is all about pitching the right pair to beat the opposing team. Put that into the context of business, it’s essential to understand the competition. Very few companies have no competitors, whether direct or indirect there’s always someone vying for the same customers.

 

Knowing your own strengths and weaknesses is just as important as knowing that of your competitors and can be the difference between winning business and losing out. Wallace Hind show you exactly what you need to know about your competitors and why.

 

Products & Services

For you to establish yourself as a market leader, you need to respect your competition and know what they are doing. Identify your competitor’s unique selling point(s) and pinpoint where your service is superior or on the other hand, what you need to do better to keep ahead of them.

 

What do you offer that’s better than theirs and why is it? Do you win on the range of products or RRP? Are you too high or low on price? If some of the information isn’t readily available to you, call up their office and pretend to be a customer looking for quotes.

 

The more you know, the better positioned you are to recognise how your company is unique, to spot opportunities for growth and identify areas for development.

 

Online presence

A company’s online presence includes everything from their website to social media accounts. It will inform you of their customers, promotional activity, what keywords they’re dominating the search engines, plus who they’re connected with locally.

 

Sign up to their newsletters and add yourself to their email database to be in the loop with everything new. Go onto their website and see how it compares to yours in appearance and brand image. Is there a lot of technical product information on their website? If theirs has been recently updated leaving yours to pale in comparison, you might want to put that as a short-term priority for business.

 

Social media is then the next place to visit. Check out their followers and what their activity is like. Are they popular? Have they built an online community? Does their Twitter double up as a customer service base? Are they on LinkedIn but don’t have a Company page? What are they doing that you should be?

 

Customer Service

Maintaining customer loyalty is difficult in a market with so many options. You can be certain that if one company isn’t serving their customers right, those customers will move their custom elsewhere – possibly even to you.

 

It’s advantageous for you to establish your competitor’s target market and their current customer base. This leaves you in a position to tweak your products or services to appeal to a new market segment but also aim to beat them on the level of service.

 

Are they offering enough payment options? Do they provide a way for customers to leave feedback or reviews? Is their service prompt and efficient? Are you considering linking your product pages with social networks so customers can share content?

 

Future plans

Slightly more tricky than the rest, but to really come up trumps you must continually look at developing the service you offer, staying ahead of the market.

 

Future events, collaborations and news releases provide valuable insight into where they’re heading, the kind of connections they have now and which circles they’re aiming for. Anticipate their next move and be aware of what new products or services they’re developing and their resources.

 

Scrutinising your competitors is crucial to progression in business so look at them first before highlighting opportunities for yourself.

 

Wallace Hind Selection goes above and beyond to tailor the right candidates for their clients, ensuring they stand above others. To benefit from our specialist recruitment services please visit our website to find out more and contact us today.

 

 

20 Years Young: Wallace Hind Celebrate their 20th Anniversary!

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Wallace Hind began life on April 6th 1992 when the 3 founding partners, Mike Horsley, John Gowen & Gerry Bell decided to set up their own business with the support of a business angel called Alan Hind.

As you can see in the pictures they’re holding, back then they had a little more hair!

Starting off in rented office space at a converted manor house in the village of Moulton they quickly established themselves as the `go to` company for sales recruitment in Northampton.

Having added current partners Tracey FitzGerald & Rod Plowe to the team they moved to new rented offices on Moulton Park in 1994 but rapid growth in turnover and the addition of three more consultants and an administrator forced them to look around for new premises less than 2 years later.

In 1996 they found an ideal base which would allow for future growth which was the Old Vicarage in Duston. They decided to buy the property rather than rent and extensively renovated the inside of the 18th century listed building.

Recruiting more consultants they added marketing to sales as a specialism and continued to flourish hitting £1million turnover for the first time in 1999.

In 2006 the company decided to change the way it worked moving to a retained business model and recruiting outside of sales and marketing. This change added to a new management structure allowed the company to achieve £1.5 million turnover in 2008.

This turnover has been maintained since despite the credit crunch and the company is now set to achieve its long term target of £2 million turnover in the next 2 years.

As it stands Wallace Hind now employs 18 consultants including the 3 original partners (who all still actively recruit) and in its 20 years has produced turnover in excess of £20 million, placing over 4000 candidates at all levels from junior executive to the board room in sales, marketing & non sales roles.

They are able to offer a UK wide & international full recruitment service to FTSE 100 companies and SME`s alike. (In the last 12 months they have successfully worked in France, Germany, Holland, The Middle East & South Africa)

Their strap line is “where experience matters” and in addition to the three founding partners seven of their consultants have become full partners or associate partners.

In total they have in excess of 200 years of accumulated recruitment expertise; hence they really live by their motto ‘where experience matters…’

Check out our Facebook timeline where you can trace back through the company history and see all key milestones and events; or just wish us a happy birthday! https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wallace-Hind-Selection-LLP/172866596152517

£126 million scheme to tackle youth unemployment…

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The Government’s Youth Contract Scheme has dominated the news lately, creating a considerable amount of backlash in response to Nick Clegg’s invite for employers to join. 

 

The £126 million scheme is set to tackle youth unemployment and forms part of the coalition government’s Youth Contract Scheme which was revealed in November 2011; addressing growing youth unemployment.

The scheme is targeting ‘Neets’ (teens who are not in education, employment or training), offering businesses and charities the opportunity to apply for funding for up to £2,200 to take them on as employees. The scheme is to include 160,000 job subsidies and an extra 20,000 apprenticeships, with at least 55,000 ‘neets’ – those who have no GCSEs at grades C or above – expected to benefit.

The initiative comes in the wake of the rise in unemployment figures for the last quarter in 2011 and Mr. Clegg’s backed plans to increase University fees across the UK, potentially having a serious affect on the graduate jobs market.

The numbers of 16 to 24-year-olds out of work soared by 22,000 to hit 1.04 million in December 2011.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has said: “Sitting at home with nothing to do when you’re so young can knock the stuffing out of you for years.”

“This problem isn’t new, but in the current economic climate we urgently need to step up efforts to ensure some of our most troubled teenagers have the skills, confidence and opportunities to succeed.”

Tracey FitzGerald, Partner – Wallace Hind Selection says…

“As part of their growth plans Wallace Hind have identified the need to enhance their administration team. In keeping with our commitment to helping the country tackle youth unemployment we have entered into a contract with Intec Apprenticeship Recruitment scheme to take on a young person to work as a trainee Administrative Assistant.

We believe we can offer a young person a structured and interesting entrance into the working world and our comprehensive training and development plan should ensure they are set up very well for the rest of their working career.”

How do you feel about the Youth Contract scheme – do you think it is a good idea and will it work? Would you consider attending University if the fees were not as expensive?