Mass cold emails or messages that personalize only the name, company and industry no longer work. Frankly, a name and company are not personalization. True personalization goes much deeper - it's about truly understanding the issues, plans, and context in which a prospect or prospect operates. While large companies provide ample sources of information through press releases, interviews, reports, etc. (widely used in account-based marketing), SMB segments often rely only on a general understanding of the industry.
In a competitive business environment, understanding the pain points and needs of prospects is critical for sales managers, marketers, and business development managers who want to make meaningful connections. One often-overlooked way to gain this insight is to examine a company's job postings. Surprisingly, many do not take advantage of this obvious resource.
Job postings reflect a company's current needs and skills shortages. By analyzing these requirements and job responsibilities, you can gain a deeper understanding of the company's issues and gaps. Even a single job posting can be a key to identifying pain points, hypotheses, and triggers that can be used in the initial communication. For example, if a company frequently posts sales jobs, it may indicate a need to expand the sales team due to increased demand or high turnover. Similarly, job postings for development and programming positions (especially if the company is not primarily a development company) may signal a new direction in growth.
The following thoughts are based on what is in our area of interest - the promotion of large and complex technological and industrial solutions and products. We would be pleased if our thoughts and observations are relevant to the B2C market, as well as to products and services with a short sales cycle.
Information from job postings can also reveal the specific skills and experience valued by the organization, providing valuable insight into its strategic priorities and areas of focus. For example, a company seeking candidates with e-commerce experience may be signaling a shift toward online sales channels, indicating an opportunity for relevant service providers to offer tailored solutions.
Armed with insights into a company's pain points and needs derived from job postings, sales managers and marketers can tailor their marketing materials and engagement communications to address the company's specific challenges and goals. Cold outreach becomes more effective when it demonstrates a genuine understanding of the recipient's business context.
For sales managers, this might include developing presentations that directly address issues related to the company's job postings and positioning their products or services as solutions to those problems. Marketers can use this information to tailor their messages and content to the company's strategic initiatives, demonstrating their ability to support the organization's goals. Business development managers can use their understanding of the company's needs to propose partnerships or collaborations that directly address the gaps highlighted in the job postings.
Such targeted and informed outreach can significantly improve the chances of engaging decision makers and stakeholders within an organization by demonstrating active efforts to understand and address their specific pain points and needs.
However, there is another challenge - researching specific job postings is not a scalable approach. When scale is needed, labor market trend reports for specific industries can be helpful. While they do not offer the same level of individualization, they do provide key insights to make cold outreach more successful.
Here are some examples of how labor market trends can be used:
- Target Client Identification. Defining target customers based on labor market trends and industry knowledge allows for a more targeted and personalized approach to cold outreach. Understanding the specific needs and pain points prevalent in the market helps professionals identify and prioritize prospects most likely to benefit from their offerings.
- Target market identification. By analyzing labor market trends, professionals can identify industries or companies experiencing growth or facing specific challenges, enabling a more targeted and strategic approach to outreach.
- Personalized messaging. Labor market trends provide valuable insight into the challenges and priorities of potential clients. Incorporating these insights into outreach messages allows professionals to personalize their communications to directly address the specific pain points and needs of the target audience. This personalized approach demonstrates a genuine understanding of the recipient's business context, resulting in higher engagement and response rates.
- Strategic Alignment. Tracking labor market trends allows professionals to align their engagement efforts with current industry needs and developments. By demonstrating how their offerings support or leverage prevailing trends, sales managers can position themselves as valuable partners who are responsive to the evolving needs of prospects.
- Adaptability and technology integration. Job market trends often reflect changes in customer behavior and market conditions. Leveraging adaptability and technology integration in client engagement strategies enables professionals to continually iterate and refine their approaches, aligning their outreach with evolving market dynamics and client preferences.
- Tailor solutions to market needs. By understanding labor market trends, professionals can tailor their outreach messages and offerings to address specific industry needs and challenges.
- Strategic alignment with sales trends. By gaining insight into sales trends and market size, professionals can align their efforts with current sales levels and market needs. This strategic alignment ensures that engagement campaigns are tailored to the complexity of sales and market size, increasing their effectiveness.
In summary, job postings serve as a valuable source of information for understanding an organization's pain points, needs, and strategic direction. Sales managers and marketers can use this information to enhance their customer engagement efforts by aligning their offerings with the specific challenges and goals of the target organization. By leveraging this often-overlooked resource, professionals can refine their approach to prospecting and engagement, ultimately leading to more meaningful and productive business relationships.
Marketing ideas to help your business grow
Job postings as an icebreaker for cold outreach: A Method for Uncovering the Precise Needs of Prospects