About the last thing any of us really wants to talk or think about right now is the potential for a recession. For most of us, winning has been hard enough with a robust economy. The thought of having to deal with a downward trend is downright depressing. So, here is some good news.
Getting tuned in can give you an advantage.
For those of you who have followed our writing here, you know that the Tuned In process we espouse is a simple, reliable way of connecting to what your buyers value most. We've found that it works in almost any industry, job and here's the best part ... in good times or bad. All that is really required is the right perspective and an understanding of what's shifted in your market.
Geoff Moore wrote an awesome book more than a decade ago about dealing with shifts in buyer behaviors in the technology industry. The book called Crossing the Chasm www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-Marketing-High-Tech-Mainstream/dp/0066620023, talked about the difficulty many technology companies had going from early stage to growth. The reason -- buying behavior shifted from visionaries (those who bought based on speculative outcomes and adapted incomplete solutions) to pragmatists (those who bought only complete solutions that were proven to deliver results). Companies who embraced and adatped to serving the needs of pragmatic buyers won big ... those who couldn't or wouldn't adapt began to thrash and ultmately fail.
We see any economic scenario or buying environment through much the same lense. The key is to get tuned in to the change quickly. So, if you are starting to see the onset of recessionary buying tendancies in your market, focus on the things that will matter most to a more pragmatic, conservative buyer, namely:
- Identify the urgent and compelling problem you can solve now for your buyers ... specifically.
- Narrow your focus to a particular type of buyer where the pain is greatest.
- Quantify the impact of the problem in terms that your buyer will understand.
- Expose the incremental gain that can be achieved with your solution.
- Tie the gain to something of tangible value in their business.
- Reduce the complexity of buying and implementing your solution to the bare essentials.
- Keep your message simple and pragmatic ... forget about breakthroughs.
- Eliminate hype and work with your sales channels to get real in all their interactions.
- Evaluate your portfolio against this filter and reprioritize your investments.
- Stay positive with your outlook and prepare to capitalize first when the turnaround comes.
You might say these principles are really not any different in good times or in bad. If you did, you'd be right. But, while you can get away with speculative investments and campaigns in good times, they can kill you in tough times. Being tuned in is your safety net.
We're not economists and we have no outlook to offer. What we do know from our research though is that the best leaders and best companies actually thrive more in bad times, growing their share of the market and establishing long-term barriers for competitors that are hard to overcome. The benefits of being tuned in really shine through.
