I’m not an economist. But I am one who does have an incredibly keen sense of the obvious. And it’s obvious to me that IT is about to hit the fan. In fact, IT appears so eminent that this is the second time I’ve addressed this topic today. (See previous post entitled Crahin’ With the Wave.)
In the United States we have enjoyed more than a 25-year period of incredible prosperity. It now looks like that may be coming to an abrupt and possibly a disastrous end.
Oh, we have nobody to blame but ourselves. The seeds of IT were sown decades ago, well in advance of this latest round of rousing success. But it appears the piper is a callin’; the cock is coming home to roost; the bill is coming due. (Maybe it’s long overdue.)
Heard news last week that over 100 banks in the country are in danger of failing, and that is just the beginning. You already know the situation in housing, mortgages, energy and durable goods. You know that food prices are inflating rapidly.
What I’m saying is, we could be in for some very bad years and I want to know what you’re going to do about it. Because you’re only going to have a couple of choices. Fold your tent and go home – if you’ve still got one – or cowboy up and figure out how to survive and thrive anyway.
I’m not inherently a doom and gloomer. I’m not here to assign blame… although if we don’t want IT to hit the fan again in the future, figuring out what went wrong, who is to blame, and what to do about it in advance would be a good idea.
No, my purpose is to help you look at your own situation and help you figure out how to get through it in one piece. Maybe even come out stronger than you were when you went in.
You see, success in the last 25 years has been a relative cake walk. (You may be saying, “what planet did you wake up on, Ackerman?”) But it’s true. If you’ve succeeded, odds are it was far easier than it would have been at almost any other time in our history, whether you believe it or not.
Now I know this may be a jolt to you. You may be sitting there thinking you’re the master of your empire; Mr. or Ms. Hotshot Businessperson. You may believe you built what you’ve got with incredible ingenuity, insight, hard work and brilliance. Well that is undoubtedly partially true. Goodness knows despite the “good times” the vast majority of businesses fail anyway. But the truth is, you’re successful at least in good measure because the whole economy has been successful for an inordinately long time. Not just in the U.S., but globally. You’ve been riding a wave.
Odds are, you’ve been able to get by with less than perfect planning, less than the most effective management, and in particular, less effective, and in some cases completely ineffective, inefficient, misguided or even totally absent, marketing.
Those days are about to come to an end. (Dare I say a CRASHING end?)
Here is my point…
You can never save or conserve your way to prosperity.
You can only innovate and then SELL your way there. Or better said, MARKET your way there.
As bad things happen in the economy, money will tighten. People will have less to spend and they’ll be far more careful about how they spend it. You know it’s true. It’s already happening. You may already be tightening your belt and being more discerning in your buying, both individually and as a business.
When that happens competition will heat up – it must, as your competitors and you desperately try to survive. Because strategic thinking has not been part of the equation in the past, everybody will turn to short-sighted, quick fixes. That usually comes in the form of discounting and price-cutting to maintain market share. Of course, margins go down when that happens, further stressing the structure of everything. You may very well get caught up in this whether you like it or not, because when everybody else is lowering their prices, it’s very difficult to maintain yours. Many in your industry will go belly-up.
Again, to belabor the obvious, when everyone’s in trouble, everyone’s in trouble.
So, what are you doing today, to make sure you’re not one of the statistics? How are you preparing yourself to MARKET your way through the treacherous shoals of the coming recession – or even depression?
My suggestions…
1. Don’t wait till tomorrow. Clear an hour TODAY to begin looking realistically at your situation from a worst-case scenario point of view.
2. Take a look at the current state of your marketing plan. If you don’t have one, you’re in trouble. If you don’t use the one you’ve got, you’re in trouble. If it is based on false assumptions, you’re in trouble. If your plan doesn’t have aggressive strategies to differentiate yourself from the competition you’re in trouble. (I’m just getting warmed up here. I could go on but for the limitation of the word count.)
3. Take a look at your internal marketing resources, talent and education. I’m not talking about MBAs, I’m talking about practical application. I’m talking about real experience with getting people to buy. I’m serious. If all of your marketing people are highly educated brand builders, you’re in a world of serious hurt. You’d better find some people who know how to SELL! And that goes for your ad agency relationships, if you have them, as well.
4. Initiate an aggressive program of marketing preparation. Begin putting marketing contingency plans in place and give yourself a deadline for their completion of no more than six months to a year. If you wait until after the election in November to get these plans in place, it may be too late.
5. Get yourself educated in the areas of customer/client relationship building and retention, up-selling and add-on selling, referral systems, and direct response marketing, among others.
6. If you don’t have the kind of expertise to do these things, go out and find it.
By all means, don’t delay. There is a tipping point and it seems to me it’s approaching quickly. If you’re not prepared ahead of time, you may not have the ability to adjust fast enough to save yourself.
On the up side, preparation – even anticipation – is likely to bring you to the mountaintop. Historically, those who are prepared, and who aggressively “market on”
when IT hits the fan, come out the other side sucking up abandoned market share like crazy and prosper at levels they never dreamed possible. And that’s a place you do want to be.
And one super-colosal last thing. The place to go for the help you need is Ascend Marketing. In particular, take a good look at the Principle-Centered Marketing™ Coaching Program. Yes, we give you a 400% ROI GUARANTEE… Better than any guarantee you'll find anywhere. But what we really give you is CRASH INSURANCE.
THE END
EDITOR’S NOTE: Jim Ackerman is a Salt Lake City-based Marketing Coach, Writer and Speaker, and developer of the Principle-Centered Marketing™ Coaching Program. 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment