Don’t waste a crisis when you have one

Marketing   ·   February 7, 2009

As the business environment gets tougher your customers are going to get even more selective. In a world of shrinking demand, smaller margins, and scarce resources, managers have to figure out how to stand out from the crowd, how to stand for something special, how to offer a positive alternative to the status quo.

Customers want to do business with companies that share their values — and customers look to how organizations behave in difficult economic times as a test of how solid they are.

During last years, election campaign President Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, said you should never let a crisis go to waste. Meaning this is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before. He was talking about how governments must take advantage of our current economic crisis. However, the same idea applies to each of us, as individuals and as business leaders. In other words, do not waste this crisis.

It will be very easy for business decision makers during this present economic crisis to become afraid of taking any new risks and to focus entirely on cutting back instead of searching for opportunities to grow the business.

Whilst this is a natural response—it could be a huge mistake and in making cuts the direction and goodwill created with customers is lost amongst the menagerie of survivors left to run the business. This economic crisis has focussed our minds on expenses, labour costs, capital spending and marketing budgets.

When orders and income drops on the scale we have seen in the past few months then someone, something has to go. The only alternative is to lose money and dig deeper into reserves. Instead of all gloom, this can be a challenging time for the people left behind. Help them to be more creative and think of new ways to develop more sales by tapping into new revenue channels. Moreover, most important do not lose contact with your existing customers.

The good news is it does not have to be expensive or take a lot of time. A regular newsletter pointing out the new vibrant shape of the company, phone calls to the 20% best customers on a regular basis even if it’s just to say hello. You need not be selling the whole time, make an honest enquiry as to how they are doing. Is there anything you can do to help them get through the coming months – assuming it won’t make you go broke! People buy from people and a small gift, birthday card or gesture of goodwill is going to keep your customers loyalty. It is certain commercial suicide to stop selling and as the man said - don’t waste a good crisis when you have one.