Selling Competence

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Selling Competence

• Organizational Marketing and Networking

Presented by Tammara Geary Trainer and
Consultant
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People with Disabilities

• Working in a variety of jobs
• Earning competitive salaries and wages
• Having benefits as part of their compensation
  packages
• Learning and developing
• skills for the changing workforce
• Building careers
• Making decisions

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And Yet.

• The unemployment rate of people with disabilities
  continues to hover around 70.

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Keys to Success

• Finding Hidden Jobs
• Discovering Opportunity in the Community
• Creating Jobs both wage employment and
  self-employment fitting the Ideal Conditions
  of Employment

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Selling Competence

• Competence of the Jobseeker
• Competence of the Organization

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Community Image, Marketing,and Job Development

• Community Image is Basically How Your
  Organization is Perceived and Valued by the
  Public
• Marketing is Promoting the Services and Products
  Offered by the Organization
• Job Development is Finding or
  Creating Jobs to Meet the
  Needs of the Jobseeker,
  the
  Workplace, and the Funder

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Community Image, Marketing,and Job
DevelopmentGo Hand-in-Hand

• All Three Contribute to Finding Jobs and
  Producing Quality Outcomes.

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Making Community Connections

• Community Connections and Belonging are Critical
  Both for the Individual and the Providers of
  Support

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Business Councils and Organizations

• Rotary
• Chamber
• Business Leagues
• Business Support and Assistance Groups
• Business Advisory Councils

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How Most Jobs Are Found

• Employment Agencies 12
• Answer Want Ads 14
• Networking 63
• Other 11

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Networking is Key

• Become Part of Your Community
• Help People Become Part of the Community
• Participate and Contribute
• Network, Network,
  Network

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Social Capital

• The Value of People
• People with Disabilities
  Typically Have Little
  Social Capital
• Scarcity v. Abundance
• Griffin-Hammis

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Fear

• 2/3s of Americans believe Crime
  is out of control
• 90 of Americans believe the Drug Problem is
  ravaging the country
• The News is filled with stories on Cancer,
  Obesity, Heart Disease Flesh Eating Bacteria
• Our schools are filled with Teenage Time Bombs
• Griffin-Hammis

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Reality

• The Crime rate has
  consistently fallen since 1990
• Drug use has decreased by over 50 in the last
  Decade
• Life Expectancy Doubled in the Last Century
• You are 3 times more likely to be killed by
  Lightning than by a Student
• Griffin-Hammis

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What Can You Do?

• Start at Your Front Door
• Circle the Neighborhood and Beyond
• Inventory People, Interesting Places, Jobs or
  Parts of Jobs, Things to do or that Need Doing
• Stop and Chat
• Ask for Help (The Majority of Americans Want to
  Help!)
• Griffin-Hammis

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What Can You Do?

• Poker Night
• Darts at the Corner Bar
• Neighborhood Pot Luck
• Scrap Booking
• Cruising
• Going to the Movies.
• Griffin-Hammis

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What Can You Do?

• Church
• Service Clubs
• Intramural Sports
• Health Clubs
• School/Classes
• Work.
• Griffin-Hammis

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What Can You Do?

• How do we find out about it?
• Where is it?
• How do we get there?
• How do we get in?
• Whats needed to participate?
• Who can help?
• Who needs a partner?
• What will we say?
• When can we start?
• How much is too little activity? How much is too
  much?
• Griffin-Hammis

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The Network

• Inventory your personal and organizational
  networks.
• Inventory the jobseeker and his/her familys
  networks.
• Record the network.
• Systematically build and maintain established
  relationships.
• Monitor opportunities gained via various
  connections.

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Considering Your Network
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Strategies for Enhancing Community Image

• Target Your Audience
• Word of Mouth
• Presentations
• Events

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Brochures

• Glossy, Professional, High Impact
• Must Answer the Question - Whats in It
  for Me?

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Brochures

• Target Your Audience NOT all audiences in one
  piece
• Static, Unchangeable, and Can Easily Become Stale
• Expensive to Produce

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Fact Sheets

• Inexpensive
• Easy to Change
• Can Easily Target Audiences, Including Specific
  Industries or Even Specific Businesses
• Print on Letterhead (no copies)

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Fact Sheets

• Should Be Neat, Concise, Easy to Read,
  Jargon-Free
• Leave White Space!!!!

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Fact Sheets Should Include

• Brief Description of Services and How You Satisfy
  Needs
• List of Businesses (with permission)
• Testimonials
  (with permission)
• Contact Information

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List Two Strategies You Can Implement
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Tammara Geary
Trainer and Consultant804-304-6583tammarag_at_ms
n.com
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When is Marketing Most Needed?

• When there is no perceived utility, or
• When supply for a product is greater than demand,
  creating competition among suppliers.

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Marketing Planning

• Marketing planning encompasses selecting and
  analyzing the target market and creating a
  marketing mix that satisfies the needs of the
  target market and your agency.
• A marketing strategy a plan for the best use of
  the organizations resources and tactics to meet
  its objectives.
• Do not pursue projects outside the agencys
  objectives or that stretch its resources.

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Marketing Planning

• Set your goals and objectives
• Define audiences and research their needs
• Determine message based on their needs
• Develop tools to communicate the message
• Test tools
• Evaluate results

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Setting Goals and Objectives

• Sample Mission Statement
• To support people with disabilities to become
  contributing and valued members of their
  communities and to help them realize their
  desired quality of life
• Sample Program Goal
• To support all individuals served to pursue
  satisfying career paths
• Sample Program Objectives
• To place and support 20 workers in one year
• To have 95 employee and employer satisfaction
• To increase average wages of workers to 8 per
  year

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Exercise Setting Marketing Objectives

• Sample Marketing Mission
• To develop relationships with key audiences that
  lead to 20 jobs per year for people with
  disabilities
• Overall Marketing Goal
• Write a sample marketing goal related to getting
  interviews.
• Marketing Objectives
• Write 2 sample marketing objectives from the
  list below.
• 1. Employer contacts
• 2. Job Bank
• 3. Business Feedback and Advice
• 4. Employer Recognition of program
• 5. Employer references
• 6. Positive employer attitudes

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Setting Marketing Objectives

• Sample Marketing Mission
• To develop relationships with key audiences that
  lead to 20 jobs per year for people with
  disabilities
• Overall Marketing Goal
• Increase job interviews so that each person
  served has an interview within 45 days of
  starting a job search.
• Marketing Objectives
• Increase the of employer contacts from five to
  twenty per month
• Add five employers per week to job bank
• Develop ongoing communication with at least six
  employer advisors
• Increase local employer recognition of program
  from 5 to 50

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Marketing Planning

• Set your goals and objectives
• Define audiences and research their needs
• Determine message based on their needs
• Develop tools to communicate the message
• Test tools
• Evaluate results

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2. Define Audiences and Research their Needs Who
are the audiences in Supported Employment?

• Families
• Job Seekers
• Funders
• Schools
• Adult Providers
• Staff
• Boards
• Policymakers

• Employers
• Size
• Type
• Established
• Growth
• Location

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Learning about the Business Audience

• Get the general employer viewpoint.
• Establish credibility by understanding the
  business climate, news and issues.
• Obtain company specific literature.

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Market Research Findings

• Harris Poll of Employers
• -Reports that employees with disabilities
• worked as hard or harder than other workers
• were as reliable or punctual or more so
• produced as well or better
• were not harder or costlier to supervise
• often encountered discrimination
• demonstrated average or above-average leadership

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Disability Awareness Survey

• Has your business been approached by a service
  provider agency? ___ No
  
• 71
• If yes, did you meet with them? ___ Yes
• 94
• Your impression of the agency? ___ Favorable
• 74

January 1995
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Disability Awareness Survey - Part 2

• Have you hired anyone with a disability the last
  3 years? ___ Yes
• Yes 38
• Did that individual contact your business on
  their own or with the assistance of an agency?
  ___ With agency
• With agency 16
• Which was a bigger factor in your decision to
  hire?
• Individuals qualifications
• 86
• Sense of community obligation
• 9

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Disability Awareness Survey - Part 3

• Overall effect of that hire on your business.
  
• Favorable
• 72
• Encourage other employers to hire? ___ Yes
• 87

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Able TRUST 2003 Employer Survey

• www.abletrust.org/news/study.shtml

Approximately 40 did not anticipate hiring any
persons with disabilities within the next two
years.
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Able TRUST 2003 Employer Survey
Familiarity with Programs or Agencies Related to
Employees with Disabilities
Not at all Some A great deal Welfare to
Work 35.6 42.1 22.3 School-to-Work
Programs 28.8 48.3 22.9 Supported
Employment 63.6 27.8 8.6 One-Stop Career
Center 48.1 24.4 27.5 Vocational
Rehabilitation 43.5 39.4 17.1 WOTC 51.9 37.2 10
.9
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SummaryEmployer Attitude Research

• Most important benefits of hiring people with
  disabilities are
• DEDICATON
• COMMUNITY IMAGE
• Most employer concerns are
• EXTRA TRAINING AND SUPERVISION
• LACK OF SKILLS
• WORK QUALITY

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Market Research on Specific Employers

• Survey business about their labor force needs
• Conduct focus groups
• Informal interviews
• Company literature

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Business Research through Personal Connections
(DiLeo and Langton, 1993)

• Investigate referrals from families and friends
• Start an employer advisory committee
• Tour local companies
• Participate in business functions

• Read local business materials
• Be familiar with services and products
• Understand local labor needs
• Find the decision-makers
• Tap into your board of directors
• Talk to people your agency does business with

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Focus Groups

• A formal focus group consists of 5-15 members of
  your target audience. A leader meets with the
  group in a comfortable setting to ask questions
  and facilitate discussion.
• Topics can be whatever you need to know about
  that audience. Group members can respond to
  information you present or be asked to provide
  information.
• Some managers also use informal focus groups, in
  which they touch base regularly with members of
  the audience with whom they have cultivated
  relationships.
• Some uses of a focus group
• to get input on a planned marketing activity
• to evaluate an existing service
• to clarify specific needs of an audience.

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Employer Surveys
EMPLOYER SURVEY
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Marketing Planning

• Set your goals and objectives
• Define audiences and research their needs
• Determine message based on their needs
• Develop tools to communicate the message
• Test tools
• Evaluate results