The market for textile rental services in the CEE countries (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania) achieved impressive growth of 15.8% last year to a volume of €526.6 million. According to a study by Interconnection Consulting the market shows a further increase of 5.6% for 2024, which indicates an increasingly dynamic and future-oriented market environment.

Poland as Market Leader and Romania in the Initial Stage

The market for textile rental services in the CEE region is showing impressive growth, with Poland emerging as the clear market leader. With a market volume of 232.5 million euros in 2023, Poland takes the top position. This makes it clear that the market for textile rental services in CEE is still in its early development phase and offers great potential for further growth compared to Western Europe. Romania in particular is currently in the initial phase of the market, with a comparatively low outsourcing share and only a few established market participants. The Czech Republic and Hungary follow with market volumes of 117 million euros and 88 million euros respectively, while Romania is still at the beginning of its market development.

Workwear Dominates the Market in CEE

At around 54%, workwear is the strongest product segment on the textile rental market in CEE. Companies are increasingly relying on high-quality and functional work clothing to meet the specific requirements of their employees and ensure professional standards. In second place is the linen service product, which accounts for around 14% of the market volume. This involves the provision of table and bed linen as well as other textiles for the hotel, gastronomy and healthcare industries. The mat service, which accounts for 10% of the market, includes the provision and maintenance of dirt catcher mats, but also anti-fatigue mats, which are of great importance both for hygiene and for improving the workplace.

Automotive Sector as an Important Customer

The industry, handcraft and trade customer segment is the largest customer in the CEE region. With a market share of 66.2%, this area dominates the market. The automotive sector is an important customer in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland. In comparison, the share of the hotel and gastronomy sector is 14.4% and the healthcare sector is 12.9%. Particularly noteworthy is the share of industry, handcraft and trade in the largest submarket in Poland, where this sector accounts for 74% of the market volume. In the Czech Republic, on the other hand, the health sector is particularly well represented, with a disproportionately high share of around a quarter of the total volume.

Major Players come from Western Europe

The main competitors are Elis (France), CWS (Germany), Lindström (Finland) and Salesianer Miettex (Austria), which together have a market share of around 54%. Study author Laszlo Barla comments: “The textile rental market in CEE is on an impressive growth path. The region offers enormous potential for companies that want to enter this dynamic market or expand their market shares.”

The market for external personnel service providers in Austria experienced a slight setback last year, as indicated by a recent study by Interconnection Consulting. After two consecutive years of double-digit growth, the overall value of the market decreased by -1.7% in 2023. Although growth in 2023 was conservative, increases in value are expected in the coming years.

In 2023, the market for personnel service providers in Austria generated a total revenue of 203.5 million euros. Despite this solid result, it failed to reach the remarkable previous year’s level of 207.0 million euros with a double-digit growth of 20.9%. Staffing services saw a lower decrease in value, while quantitative growth (number of filled positions) declined significantly by -8.5%.

This discrepancy can be attributed to increased placement fees charged by personnel service providers, partly due to salary increases resulting from inflation (placement fees are typically tied to the salary of the placed candidates), and partly due to increased staffing efforts.

IT and Telecommunications Remain the Largest Occupational Segment

Despite the overall negative growth in 2023, some professional groups experienced positive developments, while others faced challenges. The tourism sector saw a notable increase of 6.2%, making it the sector with the highest growth rate. The IT sector maintains its leading position with a revenue share of 22.0%, showing high potential for future growth. Particularly promising is the growth potential in the engineering sector, with a projected growth rate of 5.0%.

In terms of the number of placed individuals, the entry-level sector accounts for 15.1% while in value it represents only 7.0%. Executive search accounts for 44.9% of total revenue but only about 20.4% in quantity, illustrating the significant variation in placement fees between the areas.

Importance of Direct Sourcing is Increasing

Direct sourcing is becoming increasingly important in the industry, while traditional portal searches are losing ground. According to recruiters, portals rarely deliver suitable profiles, especially in the specialist area, which is described as partly dried up. Therefore, there is a growing reliance on direct sourcing, even in the specialist recruitment sector, which was previously mainly associated with executive search. Companies are increasingly relying on active sourcing to counteract the shortage of skilled workers.

Since many companies do not have a sufficient pool of applicants and still primarily rely on online portals, the demand for external support from recruiters will remain high. In this context, the focus of consulting is increasingly shifting towards quality. The quality of applicants is still more important than the speed of filling positions.

The Top 5 Companies Account for 27% of the Market

The leading personnel service providers in Austria, alphabetically listed, are Deloitte, Egon Zehnder, epunkt, ISG, and Michael Page. These companies account for approximately 27% of the total market, with epunkt playing an outstanding role as the market leader, especially in the IT sector. The top 50 players have a combined market share of 75.7%. The industry remains dynamic and, despite short-term challenges, offers promising opportunities for the future.

Inflation rates around 10% were considered “extinct” in our regions, and I recall that about two years ago, there were a series of articles by highly esteemed professors explaining why high inflation could no longer occur. A major misconception.

In reality, prices in certain product categories are increasing by 20 – 30% annually, potentially leading to a doubling of prices within two to three years. This has dramatic implications for marketing. In marketing, it’s not about determining the price based on cost considerations; it’s about how the price is perceived by the customer: Does the price align with my positioning? Is it perceived as fair? Is the price still recognizable at all?

In fact, consumers are facing a significant challenge now. Unconsciously, individuals store a multitude of prices for everyday products in supermarkets, services like haircuts or internet plans, as well as benchmarks for car purchases, televisions, or package holidays. This wealth of price knowledge is, from the consumer’s perspective, painfully devalued, undergoing a process of relearning and being unconsciously repositioned within mental frameworks. Prices that were once considered luxury now fall into the middle class. Entry-level prices have shifted upwards, and these changes are sometimes dramatic, while in other cases, they are not evident at all.

Before introducing two tools that you need right now to assess your pricing competitiveness, let’s briefly discuss your scope for action:

Variant 1: Do Not Change Prices

This sounds fair and enticing if you can afford it due to a high margin or minimal cost pressure, or if volume increases compensate for the lower contribution margin. However, its feasibility cannot be determined without additional data. Lower prices are often associated with lower quality, and if the price changes in the opposite direction for the product group, you may alter your positioning, potentially shifting from a premium to an undesired middle positioning.

Variant 2: Keep Prices the Same – Reduce Quantity
This strategy also assumes that customers do not want change. It shares the same disadvantages as Variant 1, with the additional risk that reduced quantity may lead to a loss of trust. This strategy is known as “Shrinkflation”, and being a pioneer in this trend is generally not advisable.

Variant 3: Increase Prices – But by How Much?
In reality, this is the question for 90% of companies. There are often limited opportunities and constraints, both contractually and practically, to change prices. The adjustment must be such that the contribution margin does not decline in the medium term. This can only succeed if customers accept the new price without delaying purchases or switching to competitors.

Every strategy is doomed to fail if you don’t know two things:

• What price will be accepted?
• For which features are customers willing to pay more?

For this, there are two excellent tools:

Which price will be accepted?

For pricing market research, it is generally acknowledged that naive queries like “What is the maximum acceptable price?” or “Would you buy the product at this price?” are a waste of resources, as they often yield meaningless and inaccurate responses. Surprisingly, many institutes still recommend these approaches in practice, often selling them under the guise of a method. In reality, meaningful insights into price behaviour are obtained through implicit methods, where the respondent does not recognize the objective of the questioning.

The classical implicit method is the Implicit Association Test (IAT), which has recently been highly successful in pricing and has shown excellent results for many products. The method is quickly explained:

Reaction time measurement is a proven tool for capturing automatic, unreflective attitudes and associations of consumers. This computer-based method dictates specific association tasks, through which a range of attributes, such as expensive or affordable, are assigned to a product. Participants assess the price of a product within a very short time frame, ensuring a quick, unreflective, spontaneous response. This method helps avoid response distortions due to social desirability or a tendency to choose the middle option.

In practice, the use of reaction time measurement in product pricing adds value, as it enables the determination of the ideal product price on an implicit level without cognitive distortion.  With the IAT, you can quickly and at relatively low costs test whether your product is considered price-worthy compared to the competition.

For which features are customers willing to pay more?

The price always represents a sum for a bundle of product features, which customers often do not perceive separately. The brand alone embodies a bundle of trust and quality promises, alongside considerations like packaging sizes, delivery times, etc.

To determine the actual importance of individual product features from the customer’s perspective and, more importantly, their contribution to customer willingness to purchase, you can employ Choice-Based Conjoint Analysis. Traditional market research tools quickly reach their limits when it comes to identifying which features customers are willing to pay more for. Direct questions about the importance of product features using rating scales, rankings, etc., often yield limited answers. Responses frequently indicate that everything is important. Direct questions about price willingness are also prone to failure as they fail to provide valid data. Modern, innovative, and preferably implicit methods are needed to achieve reliable results, and that’s precisely where Choice-Based Conjoint Analysis comes into play. It simulates real purchase decisions by repeatedly asking respondents to choose between various product bundles, encompassing the examined product features, especially brand and price.

The results, the relevance of individual features, their impact on price willingness, and ultimately the optimal price, are not derived from direct inquiries. Instead, they are calculated based on product selection decisions. Additionally, the tool allows market simulations, providing insights into the percentage of buyers choosing your product, how much your market share changes when altering your product and/or price, and the contribution of individual product features to price willingness. It also reveals the potential upward price flexibility compared to competitors. Ultimately, Choice-Based Conjoint Analysis represents the state-of-the-art method for measuring buyer preferences and optimizing prices. It offers insights into customer behaviour with a level of validity and depth unmatched by any other market research tool.

Author: Dr. Frederik Lehner

Impulsive decisions are risky even in times of economic downturn. However, it is periodically essential to consider whether to enter new market segments or explore new international markets. There is a systematic approach for this, which we will outline in seven steps here. We are happy to provide detailed elaboration when it comes to implementation. In reality, this process should be accompanied by workshops and market research to achieve meaningful results.

1.Definition: Determine which product/service will be introduced into new segments or markets.

Exercise caution in this step, as companies must adapt to the world, and the world does not adapt to us. It’s crucial to leave some flexibility initially: With which core product idea or expertise can we address new segments? It should be clear that after selecting the segment, product requirements need to be re-evaluated. Therefore, the term “definition” should be broadly interpreted.

2.Definition: Identify countries or segments that are ruled out based on general considerations.

Currently, there are 195 countries globally. In each market, there are numerous segments. It significantly simplifies the process to predefine which target markets will not be addressed. Reasons can be practical (too far away), fundamental (no direct sales), or political (avoidance of crisis areas).

3.Focus: Define 7 to 12 criteria determining the attractiveness of target markets.

Allocate a day with your key team and a professional moderator for this, as it delves into the details. What are the criteria that make a market attractive, especially more attractive than others? Beyond logical factors like market size and growth, you’ll soon get into soft facts (existing business contacts), philosophical aspects (German business culture, low corruption), or pragmatic factors (key customer on-site, major competitor not on-site). It involves an extended discussion process, and initially, you might come up with quite a few criteria, which then need to be reduced to a maximum of 12; otherwise, a criterion lacks substance and isn’t deemed important enough.

4.Weighting of these criteria.

Once you have the relevant criteria, start with an even distribution and adjust the weighting through discussion if necessary. This happens in the same workshop, ultimately creating a scoring model. When the workshop concludes, you know what you need to know…

5.Data collection through market research.

…and will pass this data requirement to a market research institute because rarely do you have, in your drawer, the data on business law, growth of specific segments, analysis of distribution structures, etc. After about 6 weeks, it’s time for…

6.Result determination and sensitivity analysis.

The market research partner presents the results, meaning the data has been integrated into the scoring model, revealing a “winner” — a particularly attractive target market. The model itself provides the rationale for why this segment is so attractive. If the result is close, you can easily adjust the weights and check if the ranking remains the same. At the end of the process, you have a segment or a country market to conquer.

7.Market selection and determination of the necessary detailed data for market entry.

Before entering the market, further in-depth market research is necessary: analyses of market size, competition, customer behavior, and distribution channels should form the basis for a clear strategy and potential adaptation of the offering.

Author: Dr. Frederik Lehner

Advertising with testimonials is not popular with all “If you can’t think of anything else, use a celebrity or try sex sells” are quite common criticisms of the concept that advertising has been using since time immemorial: A well-known celebrity recommends a product and because of his or her credibility and fame, the consumer is supposed to do the same. Despite all the prophecies of doom: if it is done well, it works very well. The rise of influencers among young target groups in particular shows that the concept works even when it is clear that the brand recommendation has been bought.

Here are a few – very brief – rules on how it works. This applies to both testimonials and influencers.

1. Celebrity Factor

Testimonial is the nice advertising term, but it is a celebrity, a hero, a star for the respective target group. That is what’s important. It’s not about some notoriety, it’s about the fact that a person, because of their life story, provides an identification figure for the consumer, who must be a real fan. Of course, this celebrity factor is very much dependent on the target group: 15 – 20-year-olds trust influencers in their purchasing decisions that 30-year-olds know absolutely nothing about. It is also important to understand that it is not “cheaper” to take the N° 3 or 5, only the real role model will bring about change.

2. Image Fit

A testimonial usually only has a perceived competence for a limited area and their image values are what make them valuable to the brand. Thomas Gottschalk stands for a family-friendly sense of humour and can thus recommend gummy bears wonderfully, but he would certainly be far less suitable as a testimonial for an insurance company. Influencers build up their competence in a very targeted way, match the products to their own staging, but there are also testimonials whose competence is not clear. That has to be tested in the target group. There are surprises.

3. Exclusivity

Often, only the size of the jersey is the limitting factor for brands that an athlete represents. You can’t hold that against them, but it’s probably not as ideal for the brands being advertised. Good testimonials are expensive, exclusivity then almost unaffordable, and yet it is important to only let testimonials appear who definitely have no second client in the same product family. However, it is based on the human attention economy that the brand that has the better fit of its image to the testimonial or influencer used will ultimately win, since the brain quickly forgets or does not even take in incongruous variants. Therefore, exclusivity is important, but the image fit is even more important.

4. Story Telling

A celebrity holding some product up to the camera and says that it’s really great is sad. Since this was handled very well in a film in “Lost in Translation”, this sadness and senselessness is also in the general memory because this film – like every good film – does what advertising also has to do with testimonials: Tell a story. The brand and the celebrity have to be linked with a story in such a way that the two images reinforce each other and the hero is the brand. The sentence was written quickly, to implement this is damn hard work and for this, advertising agencies are worth any money.

5. Duration

If your budget is only enough for a few spots in the summer, then leave a celebrity alone, the money will fizzle out into nowhere. Even if the fit to the brand is perfect and the story is memorable, the bond between testimonial and product has to be maintained over a certain period of time so that the image transfer is sustainable.

6. Scientific Support

This sounds complicated now, but the message is simple: all of the above criteria can be measured with state-of-the-art methods and they should be, because these costs are the lowest in the project “Advertising with Testimonials and Influencers”.

We start a project based on a multi-client study and test testimonials, influencers, their image and awareness in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Before we start, we are also happy to record your testimonial or brand.

The success of an advertising campaign depends on knowing the buying motives of the customers on the one hand and serving them with targeted communication on the other.

Conventional market research methods aimed at analysing the impact of advertising campaigns are mostly based on so-called “explicit” survey methods. These include, above all, interviews. The advantage is that there is always a result. The disadvantage – the result does not correspond to reality. If you base your marketing on this, you burn money.

Where conventional market research reaches its limits, implicit methods bring to light unconscious motivations and emotions of potential customers when looking at advertising.

These implicit methods from neuroscience reveal the unconscious emotional and motivational processes of potential consumers when analysing the advertising impact of campaigns, which include advertising videos, online banners, print subjects or radio spots. These reveal how purchasing decisions are made and how advertising affects the target group.

The neuroanalysis for measuring the advertising impact of advertising media consists of apparative neuroscientific and psychological measurement methods and combines electroencephalography (EEG), eye tracking and the facial coding method.

The combined use of these three methods makes it possible to capture the impact of advertising implicitly in the best possible way, as both the emotional effect of advertising and the motivational factors, which are demonstrably decisive for the purchase decision, are recorded. With the help of neuroanalysis, the success of advertising campaigns can be reliably recorded and predicted in real time (to the second). Applications: Advertising impact measurement of video, audio or print advertising.

Eye tracking

Eye tracking is a procedure that records the attention courses and gaze intensities of consumers in order to reveal unconscious cognitive processes. Eye-tracking measurements are indispensable for reliable advertising research, as visual perception has a strong influence on our cognitive processes, such as memory and thinking. After all, only what is perceived can ultimately penetrate the consciousness. Using an infrared camera, mobile and stationary eye tracking systems record the eye movements of consumers and provide answers to the questions of which areas, for example of a print advertisement or a commercial, are perceived more by consumers and which are perceived less or even overlooked. The results of eye tracking analyses provide valuable information on how advertising media can be optimised in terms of content and design. In the best case, the ideal design variant can already be identified during the conception phase of the subject.

EEG

The electroencephalograph is an established neuroscientific procedure that records electrical brain activity, for example, during the viewing of advertising. Factors relevant to advertising effectiveness, such as attention, memory and the motivation required for the purchase decision, are recorded validly and in real time. An in-depth analysis of the advertising media by means of EEG allows statements to be made about the impact of advertising. The findings are used to optimise the effectiveness of the advertising. Due to the high temporal resolution and the resulting second-by-second measurement, a dynamic analysis of advertising spots is possible. This makes it possible to determine exactly which scene of a TV commercial needs optimisation.

Facial Coding

When watching an advertisement or the brand and product placed in the advertisement, the emotional reactions to it often do not penetrate our consciousness and thus cannot be communicated via language. Emotions, however, significantly control our behaviour and memories and play a decisive role in the purchase decision process. But they can hardly be captured with conventional survey methods: Facial coding makes it possible to make human emotions visible by recording micro-movements of the facial muscles and coding them into corresponding emotions. This software-based method provides insights into the emotional states of consumers while viewing advertisements. Since this method not only differentiates between positive and negative emotions, but also identifies the six basic emotions (joy, fear, anger, disgust, sadness and surprise) more precisely, the exact emotions evoked by an advertising medium (such as an advertising scene) can be recorded. Success potentials of an advertising video can be precisely identified through the data generated by facial coding and can subsequently be used to optimise the advertising medium.

By recording all three dimensions, such as attention, emotional activation and purchase motivation by means of eye tracking, facial coding and EEG, the advertising efficiency of the advertising media is implicitly recorded in the best possible way. If necessary, the communication media can thus be optimised precisely before they go on-air in a neuro-optimised way.

@ Magdalena Seidl / Interconnection Consulting | October 2022

Ms. Mag. Agha-Schantl, we are pleased to announce you as a speaker in Germany after your appearance at the Sales Excellence Congress this November in Vienna. You are considered a communications expert, are President of the German Speakers Association Austria and have been active in the field for 16 years.

As a successful keynote speaker on the topics of sales, communication and leadership, you impart your communication know-how, among other things. What do you mean by this in a nutshell?

This is my method, which has been helping salespeople and executives to communicate even more skillfully for over 18 years. We often lose customers because we ask clumsy questions, we ask too few or we ourselves seem unsure or neglect one or the other aspect. And this is where my Know-WOW DNA comes into play. It helps to react adequately to the situation in order to appear competent – even under stress. For this to really succeed, a lot of training and discipline is needed in communication, just as in sports. And the more often we practice the new behavior or new formulations, the more likely we are to store them on our Know-WOW DNA.

From the perspective of a communication scientist: What distinguishes successful communication in the areas of sales and leadership? Do you have a personal best-of?

It is not one thing, but rather a conglomerate of different competencies that everyone can actively train. These include, for example: An active winning mindset, a consciously controlled sovereign body language, a convincing voice control, skillfully used power wording and individual performative methods. If you are good at this, you can steer your effect purposefully – you must never again hope for luck, rather you will use your acquired abilities skillfully! And here, too, I recommend: You can’t invest enough in yourself, because investing in your own knowledge yields the highest interest.

On the subject of women in sales and distribution. You yourself are a successful entrepreneur in areas that were, at least for a long time, the domain of men. Has much changed in this respect, or has the role of women in sales changed in your opinion? What is it like to work as a power woman in sales? How can you attract and retain women in sales?

Women are great communicators, sensitive and emotional, which can be very advantageous if she knows how to use these skills proficient. I accompany numerous power ladies in leadership and sales to success, I am glad that there are finally more and more. And I wish that women would appear and become even more self-confident, here we can actually learn a lot from the men. Oftentimes I experience much greater self-doubt in comparison, which absolutely does not have to be! Being perfect can still be achieved later. First do it, don’t overthink it and get started. This has also helped me a lot, because often one’s own perfectionism stands in the way. “Perfection kills implementation”, which is not so much beneficial as it is blocking.

What can the participants of the Sales Excellence Congress look forward to in your keynote?

Concentrated inputs, full motivation, numerous WOW’s and AHA’s and certainly some of them will feel lovingly caught by some practical examples. I know from experience that my keynotes have striking after-effects that drastically change the way we think and act in communication and sales. These are clearly desired in this context 😉 I’m known for some bold presentations that are intended to be strongly thought-provoking. Because that’s what makes a good keynote for me. Inspiration that lingers and enriches my work and possibly contributes to a change to become even better!

Event Link:http://www.sales-excellence.eu/de

In the area of sales maximization, a lot of thought, money and training sessions are invested in order to optimize how something is sold. However, there are some optimizations that can not only be quickly identified with the three musketeers of sales analysis, they also make a much greater contribution to sales success. In the following, we will introduce you to one tool for each of the posed questions, although there are in fact several ways to answer these questions. We will be happy to show you which one is ideal for you after getting to know your individual situation.

1. What are the True Motives for Buying?

• Method of Analysis: Choice-Based-Conjoint

Companies often spend a fortune to equip a product with technical features, which are then prominently highlighted in advertising and in every sales pitch. But what if these features are of no interest to your customer, if you client is more interested in a speedy delivery or simply has developed high level of trust towards your brand, to name a few examples. Knowing which feature is worth how much to the customer means to have an extreme improvement, not only in your acquisitions, but also with your profit margin. Those who communicate the wrong product benefits close fewer deals and consequently have to lower prices in the end…

The simulation tool choice-based-conjoint determines the effective customer benefit of individual product features and services (e.g., delivery time or warranty period). In parallel, the significance of the brand, which often plays a central role in purchasing decisions, is analyzed. The surveyed customer-relevant factors are then emphasized in the sales talk or even in the general advertising of the product, which results in a higher closing rate!

The basis of a product simulation is never a simple survey of consumers (à la: “Which feature is of particular interest for you?”), since this method leads to almost no useful answers. Valid product simulations, such as the choice-based-conjoint-analysis, are based on a realistic simulation of a purchase decision. In this process, several different product bundles are proposed to the respondents, which differ from each other in terms of product features, services, the brand and the price. They thus have to weigh the different product features relative to each other and ultimately decide which option to select.

If all the product comparisons have been carried out successfully, it is then possible to calculate how important the product features, services, brand and price taken into account are for the purchase decision process. Consequently, it is possible to determine which features were especially important in the purchasing decision.

2. Who Decides When to Purchase?

• Method of Analysis: Choice-Based-Conjoint

In sales – both B2B, but also increasingly B2C – it is less and less clear which moment and which person are decisive for the sale. The customer first searches on Google, looks at a comparison portal, makes a phone inquiry and then goes into a store with a lot of knowledge just to clarify a few more things. Knowing how this process actually works and when it comes down to the “nitty gritty,” i.e., choosing a brand, is critical for salespeople and is changing every year due to the ever-increasing importance of the Internet.

Depending on the industry and product, the customer journey differs. Potential customers find out about products in advance on manufacturer websites, or rely on recommendations, for example from retailers. The recording and traceability of the customer journey is as interesting as it is decisive: on the one hand, the touchpoints with the brand and the product become traceable. On the other hand, it is easier to understand which optimizations need to take place at the respective touchpoints in order to promote decisions in favor of a particular brand or product.

By means of a customer journey analysis, a number of questions are answered: How and where did the customer obtain information before the purchase, who had an influence on the purchase decision, how long does the decision phase last, what information ultimately led to the purchase, etc.? Thus, the needs of the target group can be identified. Furthermore, you understand to what extent you can serve those needs in the buying process in order to optimize or redesign your touchpoints. Either way. In the end, the insights gained will favor the purchase decision in favor of your brand or product when implemented!

3. How to Optimize the Sales Process?

• Method of Analysis: Mystery Shopping

The quality of sales processes is crucial for sustainable business success. Whether in local stores or in online retail, the quality of customer contact points not only delivers enormous added value to customers, but also to the company.

If you want to be successful on the market in the long term, you need to know how customer-oriented your sales conversations and processes are and where your company really stands – also in comparison to the competition – from the customer’s point of view. In order to increase sales success and uncover potential for improvement, a quality check of these customer contact points is essential.

Mystery shopping enables an objective evaluation of the sales process from initial contact to conclusion. Aspects of service, sales and customer contact quality can be objectively analyzed in a staged purchasing process, e.g. through undercover calls, e-mails or in a purchasing situation directly at the POS.  Both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of service quality are taken into account in the analysis. In other words, both the hard skills (waiting time on the phone, speed of response to e-mail inquiries, length of offer, etc.) and the corresponding soft skills (preparation of the salesperson for the sales talk, empathy in the initiation, needs orientation, closing orientation, etc.) are analyzed.

The added value is clear. Based on the results of a mystery shopping analysis, not only can improvement potential be identified, it can also be sustainably exploited through targeted training and education!

Panorea Kaskani / Kaskani@interconnectionconsulting.com

How to Lead a Sales Department Optimized Towards Performance and Motivation!

People in proactive sales have their own DNA. Most of them are active, hungry and hopefully confident, but for the same reasons they are also not easy to lead. They often have their own opinions, a fact that not every executive appreciates. Sometimes they see themselves as a lawyer of the customer rather than as a defender of the corporate objectives (see pricing, goodwill, etc.).

Nevertheless, despite this common special DNA all are individually distinct. “Treat every person the same way as you want to be treated” goes the saying that we have heard so often. Applied to the leadership of people this is unfortunately a tragic error, since this would entail: All people are like you, everybody is “wired” as you, everybody is motivated just like you. But this is just completely and utterly… WRONG!

Leadership According to “Sales Maturity”

Although the maturity model by Ken Blanchard and Paul Hersey has been around for a lot of years and the consequent recommended “situational leadership” has been proven inconsistent by experts, we can still find the same approach in different categorizations and leadership recommendations. Therefore I want to present to you the most important approaches of the model…

How do I Lead Inexperienced Empoyees, How Experienced Employees? When Should I Lead Proactive, When Reactive? …

And: For Every Phase its Form of Leadership!

DIRECTING | Sales Maturity 1: Low Know-How & Low Independence

New employees as well as experienced employees that have been given a new field of work get added to the phase of Sales Maturity 1: give them smaller packages of work with individual working steps, add clear instructions and daily feedback (around three minutes). Create an allowing environment for questions, clear understanding and the possibility of bringing in own ideas. Once a week you should have a longer feedback discussion in order to discuss how accomplishments and failures have been experienced. These discussions are necessary for reaching the next phase and are also essential for communicating a company’s business and leadership culture.

• TIP: Also use these talks to encourage your new employees to compare their experiences at your company in contrast to their previous work environment. This is an effective lever against internal organizational blindness.

COACHING | Sales Maturity 2: Higher Know-How & Independence in Testing

In the phase of Sales Maturity 2 you furthermore hand over small but completable packages of work. You only communicate the working objective and let your employees explain their working steps to you on their own. You add what is missing and define feedback loops which now should be scheduled and adhered to by the employee. In this phase the feedback comes to you: listen very carefully and support wherever help is asked for.

• TIP: You can now see who uses their “freedoms” for independence and where the potential is hidden.

SUPPORTING | Sales Maturity 3: High Know-How & Low Independence

To this category your “problem children” are added. The abilities are strong, but the aspiration is weak! The attention of an executive is automatically guided here! (“You can do better! Why is nothing moving forward?”) A special problem here is when the aspiration was once rather high and has now faded away – but more on that later. At Sales Maturity 3 it is essential not to criticise the low motivation but to intensify your relationship and find the reason for the discrepancy. It is also important to have a sequential view: WHERE EXACTLY is the aspiration missing? Are we talking about single areas? Do you know your employees’ preferences when it comes to work? Maybe they are not working in a field that suits them.

• TIP: Show interest and find the reasons! Frequently the root of the problem lies within industrial hygiene factors (dissatisfiers like: regulations, checklists, personal “quirks”, personal conflicts or team conflicts). Oftentimes those problems are easily eradicated and the path is clear again.

DELEGATING | Sales Maturity 4: High Know-How & High to Highest Independence

In this phase projects are no longer delegated in single packages of work. Apart from the concrete task at hand the employee now also has to bear the full responsibility as well as the decision-making power (without a duty to consult for every minor decision, following the “task, authority, responsibility principle”).

Those are the employees we all want (and ideally right from the start)! Here we have no problems, those are our “workhorses”, …

But in all sincerity: these employees are extremely important. Oftentimes their progression is a long path – but it can yield a double dividend, since they are also able to support the team. They frequently function as an “informal” executive and thereby bear in them the potential of the entire team. Because one thing is clear: team members predominantly exchange views with each other rather than with their higher ups. It is therefore good to know if these employees are sympathetic towards you or not, because they will influence the entire working atmosphere – whether intended or not.

• This can be used positively if you want to promote certain changes in your team.

Employees in Sales Maturity 4 are also the ideal “godfathers” for new, unexperienced employees. They oftentimes have a role model function within your team.

But there are two sides to every coin… One problem for these routineers is that they seldom give feedback, because “everything is fine anyway”. Another problem is that they often take up extra tasks where others would object, since everybody knows they can be relied on – this can be very demoralizing. A third fundamental theme is that those highly skilled employees with a lot of know-how simply feel bored and can’t see any further development opportunities for themselves.

In my years long experience as a coach I have often experienced, that such employees go into “internal emigration”, which means they can slide back into maturity level three – when there is no aspiration “anymore”. Or they quit and the executive is completely dismayed…

• TIP: Increase your communication a little bit. Take time for feedback discussions, also if there is nothing to criticise! Use these talks as a chance and have your employees explain to you their success strategy. Who knows, maybe you will get a good tip on how to motivate your other employees?

• TIP 2: If there is little to no opportunity for a vertical career (only through your retirement), then maybe job-enrichment (horizontal expansion of ones field of work) or job-rotation (something new to try) could be a good fit.

The topic at hand goes way further than described here, so much is clear – e.g., HOW do you take along single employees with their emotional or psychological quirks? But that’s to save for another newsletter. See you then…

Get an individual consultation to establish a quote for your in-house leadership training with: Maurizio Nuzzaci / Nuzzaci@interconnectionconsulting.com

If you like to keep your eye on the big horizon, then it’s nice to say: “If you can’t find new employees, you don’t have a recruiting problem, you have a corporate culture problem.” There is certainly some truth to this and it does result in colossal consulting and change projects. But since the challenge is usually how to get the employees I need in a few weeks, we have summarised seven tips that can be implemented relatively quickly.

         1.optimise job ads – layout & messages

It still exists: the job ad. More often now on a job portal than on old-fashioned paper, but if we assume that the content is predefined, there are still gigantic differences in what content should be mentioned and how it should be placed visually. There are miserable methods and state-of-the-art implicit methods (i.e. those that the respondent does not see through). These are exactly the ones you should use. Details in the next article.

       2. My Home Is My Castle

If you don’t explicitly include “home office” in your job advertisement, you are simply foregoing half of the potential applicants in the white-collar sector, even before a potential interview that will never take place. It is not yet defined whether the home office will be available three times a week from day one or only once a month. Technically, since Corona, every company has the possibilities for this, and in terms of content, the only question is how much home office makes sense.

     3. Speed (S)kills

How quickly should you respond after an application? Simple answer: immediately. Immediately is somewhere between 30 minutes and a day at most. If you can’t do that, you’ll have to outsource the job with exactly that in mind. The first contact does not make much of a difference. You should conduct talks and interviews and give feedback with the same speed. It’s good that you can already do a lot online here. You don’t like that? Unfortunately, that is no longer the question: your target group likes it all the same.

      4. Find a Friend

Not long ago, I asked an employee of a leading job portal how one actually finds employees there. At the source, so to speak, where you can place as many ads as you want at no cost. The answer surprised me to some extent: employees are incentivised to persuade friends to apply. If a company that doesn’t have a shortage of job ads does this, it should be adopted as a blueprint. For 1,000 euros bonus, many employees can have very motivating conversations and will be careful not to recommend someone who does not fit the company.

      5. Tell a Story

The head of the Public Employment Service in Austria has written to the companies that they have to “dance”. This is a wide field, but ultimately an expression of the phenomenon that the labour market has turned around. It is no longer the employers who pick the best applicants from a wide field, but the future employees who look for the best employers and dancing can help a little. In concrete terms, you have to be prepared for questions that you used to like to ask yourself: “Where do you see your company in five years?” will be the new classic and in this race, the winners will be those who have a good story to tell that motivates and carries you along. This can also be trained and optimised.

       6. Find those who are not looking

Why are so many more employees suddenly changing jobs than a few years ago? There is a simple reason: Because even the most loyal souls suddenly get very concrete offers via Linked-In and similar platforms several times a month, which at some point you no longer ignore and which are in any case there to reconsider your own market value. Everybody does that! If you have been searching only through job ads until now, you are narrowing down the market to that segment that is actively looking. In fact, you need to approach people well in advance. Your competitors do the same with their employees

       7. Globalisation is the engine

The labour market, measured in terms of the number of people employed, has been growing non-stop year after year for 60 years. The main driver for this in the last 10 years has been migration. Strictly speaking, those who are shy about taking on foreign employees may not feel a shortage of skilled workers at all. The question is often rather whether one should not recruit directly abroad or delegate this task to professionals. Depending on the size of the company, you have to think further and move entire departments abroad. This is quicker and easier than some people think, although one should have no illusions that skilled workers would be readily available “abroad”. In fact, there are only a few islands left where a large supply of skilled workers meets a weak economy, and there you can quickly build up local companies that can dock quickly thanks to digitalisation.

         8. Digitalisation can be an option

So far, digitalisation has created more workers than it has saved, which is one reason for the shortage of skilled workers. For the individual company, however, the situation is different. There are many areas where you can also replace workers through digitalisation, and these are rarely jobs that anyone is crying over. The longer the labour market is affected by staff shortages, the faster digital models will take hold. In Japan, you can see pretty well how robots, telemedicine and self-check-ins are simply replacing staff in an ageing society.

       9. Forming and binding

If you are not 100% satisfied, try 80%. That used to be a passable joke, now it’s a reality in the labour market. Don’t just look for immediate performance, look for potential. In our culture, unfortunately, degrees and titles are still valued more highly than universally applicable skills. Define what you can teach someone in two to three months and what basic skills they can have to do that. You expand your target group and can also retain employees who will then be available to you for a long time.

       10. Full-time hurts

We are slowly getting onto thin ice, where not every employer can keep up, but the reality should not be concealed. Full-time is certainly still the ticket to a great career and a fatter wallet, but the ideals of Generation Z look very different and the work-life balance asks for part-time. Economically, this is a disaster in that a high proportion of part-time workers that exacerbates the labour shortage, as more people are needed to fill the same number of vacancies. Nevertheless, this phenomenon will remain. Here we have reached a point where many companies cannot change anything quickly. Step one – and this much flexibility is required of every company – is to introduce a flexitime agreement, then you can at least agree on flexible working hours. With further concessions, one has to weigh up – as with all offers to new employees – to what extent the same goodies can be given to the permanent staff.

Qualified employees are fiercely contested today – a fact that most employers have become painfully aware of at the latest since the emergence of the pandemic. The change in the talent market from an employer market to an applicant market is due to various factors. But whichever way you look at it, this change is here to stay. More and more – especially, but not only – young job seekers prefer flexible working hours, home office and overall shorter working weeks, while also accepting pay cuts in favour of more free time. The shortage of skilled workers, which has been going on for months, naturally plays into the hands of these demands. A circumstance that poses great challenges to the business community today.

Employer Branding & Brand
Employer attractiveness as the new non-plus-ultra

Job boom and shortage of skilled workers, two factors that are interdependent and lead to the also relatively new and yet already buzzing word employer branding. For some time now, companies have been required to compete for the best employees, and this trend is likely to intensify. Therefore, not only attractive offers are needed, but also sharpened employer profiles that are quickly and positively associated on the part of job seekers. In terms of data-driven decision-making, Austrian companies (only about 20% use it) are clearly behind other countries in the DACH region (according to “EB Now 2022” / Universum).

Apart from these data-based analysis tools and more investment in the marketing of one’s own employer brand, there are also other things that can be done…

The optimisation of the job advertisement 

Although the simplest way of finding employees is almost obsolete, this classic tool is still an active and attractive lever when it comes to getting noticed by sought-after personnel. But what makes a good or even better a perfect job advertisement?

It should contain the most important information in a relatively short space and be prepared in such a way that it stands out and attracts applicants – not just any applicants, but exactly the right ones. It is important to know which contents, such as salary information, benefits or the employer profile, are important for a certain target group or in general. What kind of salary information is preferred, how detailed the job profile should be, which key elements should be included or to what extent the design should be oriented towards a certain target group.

Market research can intervene to answer these questions and provide valid and accurate support for HR and recruiting!

The way to the perfect job ad
Job promoter score using implicit methods

Implicit methods such as Choice-Based-Conjoint or Eye Tracking provide very valid insights into the direct advertising impact and the decision-making process and thus reveal results that cannot be achieved by explicit methods such as applicant surveys.

Choice-Based-Conjoint allows the definition of realistic features as a simulation model, which provide insights into which elements and contents in a job advertisement represent the greatest benefit for the applicant and thus the advertiser.

In combination with eye tracking, additional clarity can be gained about the optimal graphic presentation or the positioning of individual text elements. Attention killers that distract from the essentials or attention catchers that lead to increased perception can also be determined in a targeted manner.

The Job Promoter Score, which is the result of these two implicit analyses, ultimately provides you with information about the degree of success of a job advertisement.

Have we aroused your interest? Panorea Kaskani will be happy to answer your questions on the topic!

IC Labour Market Outlook 10/22

Interconnection has examined the labour markets in a short “trend study”. Not surprisingly, the situation is currently very tense. The steadily increasing demand for labour cannot be met by job seekers and domestic workers alone, and even more so, the Austrian labour market would simply collapse without a qualitative influx from abroad.

The fact that the long-term growth of employees from abroad is considered secure is just as evident from the trend study as the fact that temporary employment can position itself as an increasingly strong job provider at home and abroad. Recruiting will be outsourced even more by Austrian companies in the future, and recruiting in foreign markets will also become increasingly important.

The wishes of young job seekers in particular for more flexibility, home office and generally shorter working weeks are still proving to be a major obstacle for Austrian companies.

In 2018, Facility Management achieved a market volume of €89.0 Billion, which is a 3.2% increase compared to the previous year. A CAGR of 3.2 expected by 2021, as shown in a new study by Interconnection Consulting.

The development in Facility Management (real estate services) reflects the economic situation of a region. In the Nordic countries, subsidies and investments in the energy sector and sustainability benefit growth, resulting in a growth of 4.1% across all countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland) in 2018. Italy, on the other hand, still faces stagnation and instability in the financial sector, which in turn affects spending on external facility services. Last year the industry grew by 1.6%. However, the development of new projects and regained confidence will enable higher growth prospects (+ 3.1% per year) until 2021. The Benelux countries have a stable market with the same growth. For the past three years, the market rose by an average of 2.9% annually.

Infrastructure Services Moving Ahead

The facility management services can be divided into three categories – technical services, infrastructural services (catering, security, reception, gardening …) and the commercial sector. Infrastructure services make up the largest share at 53.6%. Growth in this sector was 3.5%. In Italy especially, cleaning and security as sectors enjoyed strong growth rates of 4.2% and 4.7%, respectively. Overall, technical services account for 34.2% of the market. In the Nordic countries, the technical sector has a disproportionate share of 38.2%, due to the high importance of and dependence on fossil fuels in countries like Norway.  Commercial services hold a share of 12.2%. The best growth prospects are in the technical sector, which is expected to increase by an average of 4.1% for the next few years. The commercial sector however is faced with the bleak prospect of a 0.7% annual decline over the next few years.

The State Drives Business

Office space/department stores are the largest customer segment with a share of 18.4%, followed by government & education at 16.5% and industry at 16.2%. The state sector (government institutions, education, health care) is particularly strong in Italy and the Nordic countries and accounts for a total of €29 Billion in the countries we surveyed. The top ten companies retain a market share of 14.1%, which shows that there are many local suppliers in the game and that consolidation is imminent.

All That Glitters Is Not Gold

In 2017, recruiters found 10,248 permanent jobs for external clients within Austria. Total revenue in the personnel service sector in Austria reached EUR 131.9 million, making it the third year of growth in a row. Last year’s revenue growth was 5.9%. According to a study by Interconnection Consulting, the growth trend is expected to continue to 2021, with an annual plus rate of 5.3%.

Uneven Developments

Growth rates varied greatly according to occupation, but were positive overall. Although IT specialists are in demand, the number of actual job placements was lower than in the previous year. By contrast, engineers and technicians, likewise in high demand, showed much stronger growth. Commissions in this occupational sector grew 8.5%. Performance in the area of customer care was weaker, with a growth in turnover of only 0.8% over 2016. The most important client segment by far is finance/professional services, with a revenue share of 22.7%. However, vitality in this segment has cooled off somewhat, with banks especially slowing down their hiring. The occupational group engineering demonstrated very solid growth, reaching a growth in volume of 7.7%.

Top Positions Driving Growth

Turnover of job placements for managerial positions with a minimum annual salary of EUR 125,000 grew 7.9% this year, making it the fourth year in a row that the top salary bracket showed the greatest expansion. “The difference to less well-paid jobs has become minimal, however. Headhunting in individual sectors has definitely become a lot tougher,” explains Tobias Stickelberger, author of the study. 28.7% of the job placements fell in the segment between EUR 30,000 and 40,000, marking the first time this segment has grown in many years. In terms of volume, the salary bracket of EUR 75,000 to 100,000 led the field.

Hard-Earned Pay

Even though revenue in the industry rose sharply last year, recruiters’ expectations were not completely met. “Nearly all recruiters are reporting a difficult market on the supply side,” states Stickelberger. “They’re hesitating to accept new commissions because they feel the market for specialists has dried up.” Nonetheless, a few agencies with an especially strong network have managed jumps in revenue well above overall market growth. However, such has not been the case with the larger agencies overall. The market share of the top ten companies fell slightly to 37.8%.

The British market for facility management is expected to grow 3.1% this year, with market volume reaching EUR 130.8 billion by year’s end. The trend towards outsourcing has largely been responsible for fueling the growth. According to a new study by Interconnection Consulting, external facility management is currently growing by 4.0% in Great Britain, while internal services are declining.

Infrastructure Services On Top

External facility management had a total market share of 78.5% in 2017, a number that is expected to increase. By 2021, Interconnection is anticipating a share of 80.7% for outsourced services in the facility management sector. Infrastructure services represents the largest product group, with a share of 52.2%, followed by technical services and commercial services with 12.3%. Within infrastructure services, cleaning is by far the largest segment, with a share of 35%, followed by security services (27.8%) and catering (18.6%).

Low Market Concentration

Compared to other branches, the market concentration is still relatively low. The top ten companies have a share of 14.5%. The most important providers of facility management services in the British market are Mitie, Interserve, Sodexo, Engie, Servest, Compass Group, Serco, and G4S.

The market for facility management in Central and Eastern Europe (Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary) is currently benefiting from solid economic trends. In fact, the overall market for external facility management is set to increase 6.6% in 2018 over the previous year. According to a study by Interconnection Consulting, annual growth in this sector to 2021 is expected to be 6.8%.

In 2017, external services in facility management in the four countries studied garnered one-third of the market. This share is expected to continue to rise sharply in the upcoming years. Compared to the annual growth rate of 6.8% in external facility management, internal facility management will grow at only a rate of 1.2%. “It’s the recent investments by the automotive industry, such as BMW in Hungary and Jaguar in Slovakia, and also the commitment by international companies in other sectors that have been promoting the development of professional facility management,” explains Jan Hudak, author of the study.

Technical Services on the Fast Track

Infrastructure services represents the largest product group, garnering the lion’s share of the market (49.6%). Within infrastructure services, cleaning is the largest service, with a share of 35.5%, following by security (32.7%). The security sector is currently undergoing a tremendous technological shift on account of new monitoring methods that use technology instead of personnel. The second-largest product group is technical services, with a share of 37.6%, followed by commercial services with 12.9%. These two sectors will also be experiencing strong growth in the future since professional management will be required to accommodate the boom in construction.

Trade the #1 Customer Group

The leading customer group is trade, with a share of 29.5%, followed by industry (28.1%). Trade is actually expected to further increase its share in the upcoming years, whereas industry will be facing a slight decline. Strong growth is also forecast for sports & entertainment and hotels. “The government is also becoming a more vital customer as it attempts to professionalize and economize its services through outsourcing,” Hudak explains.

Fragmented Market

The market for facility management in the four countries analyzed is extremely fragmented. Over 40,000 companies are in the facility management business, which explains the very low level of market concentration. The top ten companies have a mere 7.8% share of the market. The leading companies are ISS, Impel, Atalian, Securitas, G4s, Sodexo, Compass Group, Mitie, Elior, Servest, Bilfinger, and Strabag.

Die gute Entwicklung in der österreichischen Facility Services Landschaft verfestigt sich weiterhin aufgrund der guten Wirtschaftsentwicklung. 2017 konnten landesweit 4,1% Umsatzwachstum in den Servicetypen Gebäudereinigung, Sicherheit, technische Services und Catering erzielt werden. Vor allem das Bundesland Tirol stieg zum Wachstumskaiser empor, wie die neue Regionalstudie, Win!Local-Facility Services in Österreich von Interconnection Consulting zeigt.

Die Regionalstudie Win!Local will den Entscheidern im Facility-Service fundierte Antworten auf die Fragen geben: Wo setze ich meine Ressourcen am besten ein? Auf welche Regionen soll ich meinen Fokus legen? Welche Kundensegmente bieten das größte Potential? Dafür hat Interconnection Consulting nun alle neun Bundesländer bis hinunter zur Bezirksebene genau unter die Lupe genommen.

Wien ist Kernmarkt für Facility Services

Tirol hat mit einem Plus von 5,0% am gesamten Facility-Markt die Nase vorn, was das Wachstum betrifft. Dahinter folgen Wien, Vorarlberg und Niederösterreich mit jeweils einem Wachstum von 4,7%. Insgesamt hat die Bundeshauptstadt mit einem Anteil von rund einem Drittel am Gesamtmarkt eine dominante Rolle am österreichischen Facility-Service-Markt inne. Mit etwa 1,4 Mrd. Euro Umsatz ist Wien als Markt für Facility Services, die klare Nummer Eins vor Oberösterreich mit 935 Mio. Euro. „In puncto Sicherheit, Infrastruktur und Leistbarkeit überzeugt die Bundeshauptstadt, so dass viele internationale Investoren dem Wiener Immobilienmarkt vertrauen“, erklärt Viorica-Maria Jeler, Autorin der Studie. Den größten Anstieg in Wien erwartet Interconnection im Sicherheitssegment mit 5,7%, gefolgt vom Reinigungssegment mit 5,1%.

Bundeshauptstädte profitieren von Neubautätigkeit

Zusätzlich erfreuen sich insbesondere die Bundeslandeshauptstädte vom neuen Schwung in der Neubautätigkeit von Nichtwohngebäuden. Das wirkt sich auch auf die verschiedenen Segmente des Facility Services aus. Im Reinigungssegment legte Innsbruck im vergangenen Jahr um 6,6% zu, Sankt Pölten gar um 7,9%. Im Bereich der Sicherheit ist Sankt Pölten mit einem Plus von 30,7% sogar an zweiter Stelle aller Bezirke österreichweit, nur geschlagen von Tamsweg (+43,7%). Auch Graz ist in diesem Bereich mit einem Plus von 12,4% im Spitzenfeld zu finden. Die Landeshauptstädte Innsbruck, Graz und Sankt Pölten sind es auch, die im Bereich Technische Services ganz vorne liegen. Im Catering sind es Innsbruck (+6,6%) und die Stadt Salzburg (+5,3%), die ganz vorne mitmischen, wenn es ums Wachstum geht.

Kundensegmente wachsen stabil

Im Kundenbereich zeigt sich, dass der Bereich Krankenhäuser ein stabiles Wachstum in allen Bundesländern aufweist. Wien weist in diesem Kundensegment mit einem Plus von 4,5% den größten Anstieg auf. Bei den Bürogebäuden liegt die Steiermark mit einem Wachstum von 5,2% im vergangenen Jahr in Front vor Tirol mit 4,7%. Beide Bundesländer profitieren von der starken Neubautätigkeit in den Landeshauptstädten Graz und Innsbruck. Bei den Industrie- und Lagergebäuden gehört Tulln aber auch Klagenfurt zu den schlechtesten Performern, wie die Studie zeigt.