GFC – Time to cut costs and jobs or time to invest in your business?
GFC – Time to cut costs and jobs or time to invest in your business?
(Source: Study by Bain & Company – Article by Robert B. Miller, Founder Miller Heiman.)
Robert says “A slow market is the time to consider doubling down on sales resources”
What can we do?
Please read the article, but the point I want to make is that there is still a market out there – GDP may shrink but it won’t disappear altogether. Neither will your market (unless you are very unlucky) so go and get a bigger share of it! Now is the time to be active and ambitious with your business’s sales effort.
I don’t just mean finding new customers (this is, of course, important) but also making sure you keep the ones you’ve got and maybe capture more of their spend or sell them something more often. Think about your customer service, about the quality of your products and services, about how everyone in your business interacts with your customers and potential customers.
This is nothing new – just more important now there is less of the pie to share around. Those who will fail are the ones whose businesses don’t compare well. When people have less to spend, they are more choosy about where they spend it.
Be the place they want to spend it and make sure they know that you are the place they should want to spend it!
Predictions
Watch for the disappearance from the field of play of companies that don’t provide a good service or that don’t take care of the customers - by providing good products and services, by paying attention to relationships (important word, that one) and by making sure that their customer are aware that they are doing this (marketing).
Watch companies that cut advertising and marketing spend, sales and customer service staff and who cut corners on quality make their own predictions of disaster come true as they lose market share to companies that do.
Watch for an increase in low-cost, targeted marketing.
Watch some new businesses appear and steal everyone’s heart by doing what some of the old one have been doing for ages only better.
What can you do?
Read our sales pitch below but…….
1. Go through your database of customers (please say you have one) and make sure they have all been called by someone in your business – to make sure they are happy with what they’ve been buying from you, to see if they’d like to buy something else and to make sure they know what you have to sell them (you’d be surprised how many don’t know your full range)
2. Tighten up your sales process and your sales team’s behaviour – do all your customers get asked if they’d like to buy something extra? (Think MacDonalds and their up sell questions – everybody gets asked three times). Work out an appropriate (and not annoying) way of giving them the opportunity to buy something more than what they’re thinking of right now and make sure they always get asked – a checklist is helpful.
3. Start using your database to remind people that you exist or encourage them to re-visit your business and buy again. Honestly, it is a mistake to think that, because they’ve bought once, you have their custom and loyalty for the foreseeable future – you don’t. Make sure your business makes contact with them and asks them to buy.
(Please read the above and understand that these communications need to use language and messages appropriate to your business and your market. We’re not advising you to look desperate or to make yourself or your salespeople feel like spivs – but you can send these messages in ways that your customers will accept. Call us if you want to discuss this.)
Written by
Jon Dale
GFC Time to cut costs and jobs or time to invest in your business - To learn more about this author, visit Jon Dale's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
The studies show that the companies that recover quickest from a recession are those that didn’t lay everybody off when the going got tough but that invested in their customer relationships and in growing their market share.
(Source: Study by Bain & Company – Article by Robert B. Miller, Founder Miller Heiman.)
Robert says “A slow market is the time to consider doubling down on sales resources”
What can we do?
Please read the article, but the point I want to make is that there is still a market out there – GDP may shrink but it won’t disappear altogether. Neither will your market (unless you are very unlucky) so go and get a bigger share of it! Now is the time to be active and ambitious with your business’s sales effort.
I don’t just mean finding new customers (this is, of course, important) but also making sure you keep the ones you’ve got and maybe capture more of their spend or sell them something more often. Think about your customer service, about the quality of your products and services, about how everyone in your business interacts with your customers and potential customers.
This is nothing new – just more important now there is less of the pie to share around. Those who will fail are the ones whose businesses don’t compare well. When people have less to spend, they are more choosy about where they spend it.
Be the place they want to spend it and make sure they know that you are the place they should want to spend it!
Predictions
Watch for the disappearance from the field of play of companies that don’t provide a good service or that don’t take care of the customers - by providing good products and services, by paying attention to relationships (important word, that one) and by making sure that their customer are aware that they are doing this (marketing).
Watch companies that cut advertising and marketing spend, sales and customer service staff and who cut corners on quality make their own predictions of disaster come true as they lose market share to companies that do.
Watch for an increase in low-cost, targeted marketing.
Watch some new businesses appear and steal everyone’s heart by doing what some of the old one have been doing for ages only better.
What can you do?
Read our sales pitch below but…….
1. Go through your database of customers (please say you have one) and make sure they have all been called by someone in your business – to make sure they are happy with what they’ve been buying from you, to see if they’d like to buy something else and to make sure they know what you have to sell them (you’d be surprised how many don’t know your full range)
2. Tighten up your sales process and your sales team’s behaviour – do all your customers get asked if they’d like to buy something extra? (Think MacDonalds and their up sell questions – everybody gets asked three times). Work out an appropriate (and not annoying) way of giving them the opportunity to buy something more than what they’re thinking of right now and make sure they always get asked – a checklist is helpful.
3. Start using your database to remind people that you exist or encourage them to re-visit your business and buy again. Honestly, it is a mistake to think that, because they’ve bought once, you have their custom and loyalty for the foreseeable future – you don’t. Make sure your business makes contact with them and asks them to buy.
(Please read the above and understand that these communications need to use language and messages appropriate to your business and your market. We’re not advising you to look desperate or to make yourself or your salespeople feel like spivs – but you can send these messages in ways that your customers will accept. Call us if you want to discuss this.)
Written by
Jon Dale
GFC Time to cut costs and jobs or time to invest in your business - To learn more about this author, visit Jon Dale's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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