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The WIIFM Factor:
A
Powerful Approach to Marketing People with Disabilities
A common mistake among service
providers is spending 90% of their pitch time talking about themselves, or about
social causes, rather than what difference they can make for their employers.
Consider this pitch:
“We’re an organization that helps match persons
with disabilities with employment opportunities. We sincerely believe
disabilities should never be a barrier in obtaining meaningful work. We’re
looking for partner industries for this cause.”
Informative?
Sure. But will it catch the attention of a potential employer? Probably not.
One of marketing basics is putting yourself in the shoes of your target
audience. This is called the WIIFM factor or ‘what’s in it for me?’ More than
knowing about you and your organization, employers want to know how you can
benefit their bottom line. Will you give them what they’re looking for? Will
your proposal address what needs to be done? Can you help them solve a problem?
What’s the value that you can provide? Unless you can address these things, your
employers might feel that their time with you is not being used productively.
Consider this:
The Institute for Community
Inclusion and the Boston College Center for Work and Family held focus group
discussions to find out what makes employers knowingly hire people with
disabilities. Three broad categories surfaced and two of the categories included
concrete benefits for the company.
The first benefits were those
directly related to business objectives (e.g. hiring people with disabilities
meets the organization’s personnel needs by filling vacancies). Then, there were
benefits indirectly related to business objectives (e.g. hiring individuals with
disabilities benefits a company’s long-term viability and profitability by
enhancing the corporate image and demonstrating a commitment to the community).
Social corporate responsibility was the third category; employers hire
persons with disabilities because it’s “the right thing to do.” But, of these
three reasons, this seemed the least powerful in moving upper management. In
fact, by leading with ‘it’s the right thing to do,” you may be sending a message
to an employer that they are currently doing things the wrong way!
What
then is a concrete WIIFM strategy that you can use when marketing persons with
disabilities? Businesses understand profits and markets, so let’s start there.
Consider the following example:
What’s in it for you? A
significant chunk of the consumer market with spending power and market
influence.
• Persons with disabilities (PWD) comprise over 19% of
the general population! This doesn’t even include their families.
Across the country, they exceed the next largest minority group (Hispanics) by
5%. When you ignore persons with disabilities, you ignore a huge potential
market!
• This significant chunk of the population has spending
power! Here are the facts: 73% of PWD are head of households, 53% own
their homes, and 48% are principal shoppers. Combined, they have over $200
billion in discretionary spending!
• Hiring PWDs translates to
positive market influence. Caregivers or persons with disabilities make
decisions on services or goods based upon how businesses accommodate the family
member. If they know you hire PWDs, you already have 19% of the population at
least looking favourably at you!
How about the other 79% of the
population? A recent consumer survey showed that 92% of the general population
favour businesses that hire PWDs, with 87% preferring to do business with them!
And if that’s not significant enough, consider this: there’s an
extensive word of mouth presence within the disability community, with products
and services commonly referred between individuals. Once someone sees the value
of your services, it’s like marketing to three more!
Becoming the
supplier of choice can equate to positive business results. PWDs have a
significant ability to affect a business’s bottom line. Your approach matters a
great deal. If you observe the WIIFM factor when working with your employers,
you’ll likely cut back on the red tape you would traditionally have to go
through. Plus, you’ll be better equipped, saving you a significant amount of
time and energy.
Would you like to reprint this article?
You may as long as you include this blurb in its entirety:
Lisa Jordan
is a disability and workforce development expert. Lisa uses her keen
ability to
identify challenges and develop solutions so
that workforce development professionals can increase their comfort level,
productivity and effectiveness when working with a diverse clientele.
Download Lisa’s White Paper on 5 Easy Disability Tips to Immediately Increase
Agency Accessibility by visiting
http://www.human-solutions.net.
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