Staffing is changing—and there’s no going back. In this must-watch discussion, Christopher Ryan, Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer at Avionté, joins Tom Kosnik, President of Visus Group, to explore the powerful trends reshaping the industry. From the rise of AI and emerging technologies to wage inflation, shifting immigration policies, and increasing client demand for consultative, project-based solutions—nothing is off the table.
The good news? For agencies willing to adapt how they sell, market, and deliver, the opportunities are greater than ever.
In this special edition of The Staffing Show, we’re joined by five seasoned marketing executives—Tom Kosnik (President, Visus Group), Michelle Krier (Head of Marketing, Advanced RPO), Austin Fowler (Director of Marketing, The Ash Group), Kyle Coughlin (VP of Marketing, The Reserves Network), and Amy Giessinger (VP of Marketing, Doherty)—for a deep dive into the current state of marketing in the staffing industry.
From crafting compelling content and campaigns that capture attention to evaluating the cost-effectiveness of retaining top talent versus hiring new staff, our guests delve into the strategies driving success in today’s competitive landscape. They explore the power of account-based marketing, share creative tactics for attracting candidates, and assess the return on investment in marketing efforts.
The conversation also covers the importance of aligning sales, operations, and marketing teams, and offers a glimpse into the future trends shaping the industry. Whether you’re a marketing professional in the staffing sector or simply interested in the evolving dynamics of marketing strategies, this episode provides valuable insights and practical takeaways.
For many staffing firms, the challenge of increasing sales feels like a constant uphill battle. You might hear things like “We just need better sales reps” or “Our team isn’t closing enough deals.” But these surface-level observations don’t pinpoint the real problem.
The most successful staffing firms—those growing between 4% and 15% annually—have one thing in common: they diagnose the right sales challenges before applying solutions.
Step 1: Identify the Real Issue
If your sales numbers are stagnating or declining, start by asking the right questions:
Do you have a structured hiring process for sales talent? A lack of consistency in hiring often leads to underperformance and high turnover.
How high is your sales team’s turnover? Frequent turnover means lost momentum, poor customer relationships, and wasted training resources.
Is your sales team consistently identifying new opportunities? If reps aren’t actively growing the pipeline, even the best closers will struggle.
How strong is your sales culture? A collaborative, team-driven approach leads to greater accountability and better results.
Step 2: Recognize Patterns and Trends
Once you assess these areas, patterns will emerge:
If hiring is inconsistent, you may need to formalize the process to attract and retain top sales talent.
If turnover is high, it’s time to evaluate hiring, compensation, culture, and career growth opportunities.
If new opportunities are rare, your team may need sharper targeting, better prospecting strategies, more effective use of data or stronger sales and marketing alignment.
If deals aren’t closing, the issue could lie in training, follow-up strategies, or even your proposal process.
Step 3: Apply the Right Solution
Many staffing firms fall into the trap of applying generic fixes—more training, more cold calls, more pressure—without truly addressing their weakest areas. Instead, focus on these targeted solutions based on the real root cause:
Challenge
Solution
Unstructured sales hiring
Implement a clear hiring process with defined criteria and stakeholder involvement.
High sales turnover
Improve hiring, onboarding, compensation, and long-term career paths.
Poor lead generation
Shift to a data-driven prospecting strategy instead of relying on intuition, and improve sales and marketing alignment
Weak sales management
Introduce a structured sales funnel, activity tracking and coaching to maintain pipeline health.
Inconsistent client retention
Develop a proactive strategy for maintaining relationships and growing existing accounts.
Where Do You Stand?
If you’re unsure where your biggest sales gaps are, take this free sales assessment. It will pinpoint the areas that need attention—so you can take action where it matters most.
Once you review your results, we’d be happy to connect and discuss the best path forward. Because solving the right problem is the first step to sales growth.
