Lessons from Drug Dealers on How to Beat the Reccession

By: Gregg Dourgarian
Date: 7/1/2008

The recession might be on big-time, but drug dealers are doing just fine, thank you. So, what can they teach the staffing business about how to beat the bad times?

Persist
You can have the best products in the world, but if you're not willing or able to persevere through the slow times, forget about it.

Drug dealers understand this perfectly well. "I don't see much difference between me and you preachers," a dealer told an inner city missionary, Rev. Ray Hammond, of Boston. "I drive a nice car; you drive a nice car. I wear nice clothes and jewelry, and so do you. I got lots of women, and I know you preachers do, too. If you're still here six months from now, I'll believe you're for real."

A recession is a best time to get a leg up on your staffing competitors.

Many of them are owned by national companies, where the threat of closing down hangs over them like a guillotine. Others will close shop out of exasperation. Now is the time to gain ground.

Be There
"90% of winning is just showing up," Yogi Berra said. Another anti-drug crusader, Rev. Rivers, attests to this. Shortly after moving to the Dorchester section of Boston, he became friendly with a young drug dealer, Selvin Brown. Brown grew to trust Rivers over time and confided in him. Rivers asked Brown why drug dealers were more successful in winning over youth than the church. Brown replied, "When Johnny goes past my corner on the way to school, I'm there, you're not. When he comes home from school, I'm there, you're not. When he goes to the corner store for a loaf of bread, I'm there, you're not. When he leaves to take it home, I'm there, you're not. I win, you lose." Get out there and prospect. Your competitors are letting go of their sales people. Now is the time to get out in front of their customers. More job orders are won by simply being at the right place at the right time than by any other method.

Create Trust
Trust underpins all successful business relationships. Successful drug dealers get this. They structure their deals in simple terms. They say what they do, and they do what they say. They become part of the trust relationships - the gangs, the clicks - that young people depend on. They leverage their carefully nurtured dream clients into yet more profitable relationships. How about you? How careful are you about making trust the core of each business relationship?

Gregg Dourgarian is the CEO of TempWorks Software. He can be contacted by email at greggd@ tempworks.com. You can read his blog at http://staffingtechnology. blogspot.com. TempWorks provides staffing software and outsourced business service solutions for the staffing industry. Now you can get a FREE trial edition of the TempWorks Enterprise software system - sign up at www.tempworks.com.