At work... are you agonizing about reduced sales, lowered projections and the future in general? Fair enough; you're not alone. At vSA, we regard this era as the right time to make sure we (our clients and ourselves) are ready for whatever comes next for this economy.Marketing is much more than getting products and services in front of potential buyers, and now is an opportune time to step back, w-a-y back, in the process.
Perhaps you sell products for the building trades and business is terrible. Or you are a financial consultant, or an engineering firm.
Ask yourself some hard questions:
-Is business bad just because of the recession, or are there underlying forces at hand that go beyond economic cycles? Are our products still the best ones for the market? Are we delivering them well? Pricing them right? What’s our customer service like? What does the competitive arena look like now? Are people going to start buying this specific service again soon? Do we need to diversify? If so, how?
If these questions seem extreme, just imagine that you’re in the newspaper business right now. You’d be wishing you started responding to market change years ago! Hopefully, that's not you. Hopefully, you have the time and resources to do this work right now, while it’s quieter and the phones are not always oh-so-tiresomely ringing off the hook.
Some tools to employ:
Do competitive research. Is someone else getting ahead of you? Diversifying intelligently? Changing their business focus? What can you learn?
Survey your customers. They can’t tell you everything, of course. As Henry Ford once said, "If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse." (But at least he’d have known they wanted something faster.)
Do an environmental scan. What people and what processes can help you get where you’re going? Do you have the right staff, consultants, attitude? What needs to change?
Turn concern into proactive planning. Use this time for fresh thinking and an energized approach to the future.
Can we, as strategic planners, help? We welcome your questions and comments right here on the blog or through our office.
Sure, yeah, it's vital to revisit how we do business. What if we can't come up with ideas that are sufficiently inspiring and can generate revenue this year? Our sales are down over 30% - we need to bring them back up soon.
ReplyDeleteHi A.G.,
ReplyDeleteI don't know what your business does, but even some completely viable industries are hard hit right now.
You say you need to increase revenue fast. For starters, you may want to look at what HAS been working this year, and do more of it. For example, are you making a number of smaller sales? Perhaps that's a model that can work right now. Do you find that customers are responding to special offers or awesome service? Or maybe they buy only on Fridays. (Okay, I'm shooting in the dark here.) Anyway, the first baby steps in re-engineering can be as basic as building on minor successes. These baby steps can help build some sales and let you sleep at night. After that, look hard at where your industry and your markets may be headed in the next few years, and take action as needed.