by Mick Spain* - Wednesday, 22nd October 2008 - (3) comments

You can never have too much guidance on ways to do well when times are tough, especially now Gordon Brown and Mervyn King have uttered the ‘R’ word.

We’re told that business are already suffering and that many them won’t survive the recession. But I don’t expect my own £3m-turnover business to merely survive the recession – I expect it to thrive.

Here’s the approach I’m applying:

1. Stop watching the television and listening to the radio
Everything you watch or listen to is more doom and gloom about the economic situation. We’re being brain washed into desperation. Listen to this stuff and it paralyses you. You need to understand what’s going on in the world but you don’t need to be brain-washed with bad news – you’ll soon start believing it. The credit crunch and recession are the ultimate excuses for poor performing businesses everywhere. Don’t let yours become a victim of this awful mind-set.

2. Look past the recession
If you let your head drop, you’ll spend a lot of time looking at the ground and looking at your feet. Keep looking ahead and keep the vision for your business in the forefront of your mind and in the forefront of your employees’ minds. Don’t get side tracked from where you are taking your business. Continue to set huge goals for your business and continue to drive everything towards them.

3. Understand the benefits that your product or service brings to people in a recession
Your prospects’ current priorities are probably saving money, getting more business in, and saving time. How can your product or service help them do that? Adjust your marketing messages, benefits statements, elevator pitches and USP’s to capitalise on the current business environment your prospects are likely to be experiencing.

4. Once you’ve done what is described in number 3, reaffirm your total belief in your product or service
Believe that your product or service brings huge benefits to your clients in a recession. They would be foolish not to buy from you. If you don’t believe this, who will?

5. When communicating with your prospects, join in with their conversations
Try to imagine and predict the types of conversations that your prospects will be having in today’s business environment. Your communication with your prospects needs to add to that conversation so they immediately identify with what you are communicating and the product or service benefits that you are promoting.

6. Always remember that if you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right
You CAN thrive in the current climate. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t. Don’t listen to negative people. Let them own their own failures. You are in business to win and retain clients – nothing else! It’s time to get focused and to get close to clients – really understand them – really look after them.

7. Take a really close look at your competitive advantages
Why do your clients come to you instead of going to your competitors? Has your competitive position become better or worse over recent months. Invest in technologies or whatever else you need to really capitalise on your prospects' current pressure points.

8. Really focus on the talent in the business
Teams thrive when challenged so keep them updated with what’s happening in the business and the results that are being achieved. Get them to recession-proof their jobs by developing their talents and out-performing the competition. Celebrate success very loudly and openly, and more than you usually would. Learn from failure more than usual. Failure is the biggest learning opportunity that you and your people will experience.

9. Take a really close look at costs
For instance, are your sales people going out on really good sales visits where they stand a really good chance of closing some business? Sales people driving around to poor appointments is huge wasted cost. Look at all of your costs at this level of detail.

10. Enter business awards
Sound a bit off the wall but winning business awards drives great PR; usually free! Go after them – someone’s got to win! [Shameless plug: check out our Growing Business Awards website. You're too late to enter this year but the event might help with point number 11...]

11. Go to more networking events
There are loads of them these days – BNI, BRE, Chamber of Commerce, Business Link, etc, etc. Go to as many as you can manage. Get yourself known more and get yourself seen more.

*Mick Spain is a director at Great Guns Marketing in Basingstoke, which was founded by his daughter Liz Jackson.

Related article
Gordon Brown on the recession
King admits UK is headed for recession
Mervyn’s moral hazard

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