Monday, March 3, 2008

Crashin’ With the Wave!


Do you hear that rumble? Can you hear that crash? It’s the sound of the mighty economic tsunami come a-crashing to shore.

And with it the sound of panic-stricken business people afraid their enterprises are going to crash right along with it.

And you know what? In many cases, that’s exactly what is going to happen. And when it does, there are going to be hordes of stunned business owners looking around and saying, what do I do now, how could this happen, it’s the economy’s fault, it’s the President’s fault, it’s Congresses fault!

No it isn’t you whining snits. It’s your own darn fault.

You got all caught up in your own arrogance. You thought your prosperity was your own doing when all along you were only riding a wave.

You got in when things were good. You got in when you could make a killing in your sleep. You didn’t learn business and you didn’t learn marketing. It was all on auto pilot and now that – as they all do – the wave has crashed, you want to blame somebody else.

I’ve seen this in several business cycles. Nowhere is it more evident than in the mortgage lending business, although I must confess that this time it’s worse than I’ve ever seen it before.

Here’s the drill…

1. Interest rates go down. Everybody wants a loan and people flood into the mortgage business to make a killing.
2. Mortgage rates go up. Borrowing slows. The mortgage brokers and loan officers fold like a tent.

Only this time it’s worse. This time, the banks are folding their tents too, and that is killing the whole economy. Everybody loses.

Now the good news. There is still time for you to move to higher ground and save your business.

But if you think you’re going to sit on your duff and do nothing, and survive the coming torrent, there is no hope for you.

Back to the mortgage situation. There are still banks, mortgage brokers and loan officers who are staying in the game. There will be many who not only survive, but thrive through all of this.

And who are they? The ones who are built on a solid foundation and who have learned to consistently and wisely market their businesses.

Same is true for your business. If you’re founded on sound marketing principles, strategies and tactics, and if you’re committed to testing and tracking your marketing efforts to genetically engineer them for ever increasing success. If that’s the case, the coming crash will be a great opportunity for you to ride the next wave here in Utah.

But if you see it coming and you’re not prepared, it’s time to get humble in a hurry. It’s time to change your tactics. It’s time to figure out what you need to do and do it.

Here are some things to consider…

1. What are you doing to fully and consistently educate your EXISTING customers, clients or patients as to the full breadth of the products and services you offer and all the problems you can solve for them? If you have no such effort in place, you’d better get one going while there is still time.

2. As you sell to your current customers, clients or patients, what are you doing to ask them to buy more – in THEIR best interest – at the point of the original sale? Do you have a system in place for doing this? If you don’t you are disserving your clients and it’s going to cost you sooner than you think.

3. How are you cultivating your relationship with your current customers, clients or patients? If you’re not doing anything, again, you are disserving them and you’re going to lose them. When you do you’ll blame it on a lack of customer loyalty, but it will really be due to a lack of CUSTOMER LOYALTY on your part and you will have reaped what you have sown. You must have a systematic program in place to consistently educate and re-sell your clients, in THEIR best interest.

4. If you’re doing all the things above and doing them well, you’re probably on solid ground over all, and you probably have happy clients. That means you’re probably doing a good deal of referral business. Great. You won’t find any better insulation against tough economic times. But have you maximized your referrals by putting in place multiple referral-generating systems, designed to make referrals predictable, instead of incidental. If not, you should. And the sooner the better.

5. Is your product or service so pervasively distributed that you don’t care who buys your product or service, or where, or when? In other words, can your product be bought on virtually any street corner in any store, by any body? If not, stop worrying about “branding” and start focusing on generating a direct response from your marketing efforts. If you don’t know how to do that, find out. I can point you in the right direction, but whether you come to me or go elsewhere, you must find out. (And don’t come crying about needing to build brand. The best way to do that is by having tons of happy, satisfied, consistently-buying customers. Besides, anyone who says you can’t build brand while building a direct response is an idiot.)

What are you doing to advance your marketing education? I find many business people are so terrified by marketing they functionally put their head in the sand and hope it goes away. You may have been able to get away with that while the wave was building. But when it crashes, those who don’t know how to market will find themselves working for those who do.

When the wave is first swelling, you can come a little late to the party and still do very well. When the wave is about to crash, you have no such luxury. When the crest is upon you, you must recognize the situation and act quickly to avoid the wipeout.

The good news is, for those who see what’s coming, you’ll be able to surf the swell ahead of the crash and ride the prosperity you’ve earned to even greater heights in the future, while your less insightful competitors drown in the foaming aftermath of the economic deluge. But you’ll have to be swift and decisive. You’ll have to act to bolster your marketing system now!

THE END

EDITOR’S NOTE: Jim Ackerman is a Salt Lake City-based Marketing Coach, Writer and Speaker, and is President of Ascend Marketing, Inc. Jim will be presenting a series of FREE marketing seminars for local businesses in the coming year. Contact Jim at 800.584.7585 or email him at mail@ascendmarketing.com for times and locations.

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