Staffing Agency Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.

Direct competitors are other staffing agencies.

Indirect competitors are other options that customers have to purchase from that aren’t direct competitors. This includes online recruitment websites and in-house recruiting departments. You need to mention such competition to show you understand that not everyone with staffing needs will hire a staffing agency.

With regards to direct competition, you want to detail the other staffing agencies with which you compete. Most likely, your direct competitors will be staffing agencies located in your geographic proximity.

For each such competitor, provide an overview of their business and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as:

• What types of customers do they serve?
• What types of placement do they offer?
• What is their pricing (premium, low, etc.)?
• What are they good at?
• What are their weaknesses?

With regards to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective. And don’t be afraid to ask your competitors’ customers what they like most and least about them.

The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:

• Will you provide superior services?
• Will you provide services that your competitors don’t offer?
• Will you make it easier or faster for customers to engage your services?
• Will you provide better customer service?
• Will you offer better pricing?

Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.