How to Use Data to Build Relationships
The Workforce Innovation & Opportunity Act (WIOA) has an expanded role with respect to business engagement in several key areas including: 1) regional coordination via sector strategies, sector initiatives and delivery of workforce services based on data (e.g., labor market information); 2) a greater alignment with economic development and education to drive a collective response to labor market challenges; and 3) prioritization of an employer-centric system: employer engagement strategies to strengthen business services.
Each of these areas requires various data sets to support business engagement efforts. In this month’s B2B Engage Community of Practice (CoP) live webinar, Business U set the framework by discussing the four sets of data that are critical for business engagement.
Business U CEO and Co-founder, Dr. Christine Bosworth said, “Before you go out and start capturing data, do you have an articulated strategy that supports the “why” and “what” you are seeking to answer? Also, can your research be used to provide customer insight—sharing with your employers what you’ve learned so you can move from a high level conversation to one that is specific to their workforce needs; an important building block to begin the process of transforming your relationship?”
Here are examples of how to use the four key data sets strategically based on Business U’s customer-centric framework.
Industry Knowledge pertains to high growth sector trends and industry specific data about occupations. One hundred percent of CoP members polled during the webinar indicated that they use wage data to engage businesses in strategic conversations regarding how to attract and retain a competitive workforce. However, only 50% of the members polled review sector challenges with their customers—a missed opportunity to discuss salient pain points with a company about declining industry trends.
Company Specific data, also known as emporographics or firm demographics, are descriptive attributes that can be used to aggregate data from individual firms into meaningful market segments such as the number of employees, revenue generated, or types of products marketed, etc. Moreover, conducting company specific research prior to an initial meeting is a best practice for business engagement practitioners. And while 100% of CoP members agreed that they use Google searches as well as peruse a company’s website prior to a visit, only 50% examine their respective social media posts. Social media is often the number one communication medium available to uncover data points and relevant news pertinent to a company such as the announcement of a new product or service which may directly point to a need for incumbent worker training.
Customer Needs data is gathered from direct contact with a business prospect through a Needs Assessment—a standard set of probing questions to ascertain immediate and long-term needs of a company. Only 17% of CoP members polled use these types of tools. The power of a Needs Assessment is the ability for business engagement team members to aggregate responses from strategic conversations in real-time. This provides a business services rep with relevant customer insight they can discuss with a potential employer/business, for example: “Mr. Smith, of the 22 advanced manufactures we’ve worked with this past month, approximately 87% indicate that there is a lack of skills within XX occupation. What are the skill challenges that you are experiencing with your current workforce?”
Metrics & Scorecards that support business engagement tend to only include measures that are important for an organization to track for a funder. Don’t forget to ask company executives how they would define success as a result of your business relationship and the solutions you provide. And don’t forget to ask your business customers what metrics are important for them for you to track. For example, they may be very interested tracking turnover or retention rates. Acknowledge your customers’ metrics and you’ll gain the credibility you seek because you are measuring what matters to your customers, and not just your funders.
Contact Business U if you want to learn about our CRM platform that captures and automates business engagement metrics, or to join the highly interactive CoP discussions during our live monthly webinars.
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