🦋 The Discipline of Speed
📈 Increase Marketing
⛔️ Reduce Customer Risk
🦋 The Discipline of Speed
In a downturn, speed is a defining factor for recovery and success. The companies that act fast and adapt faster have the advantage.
Muhammad Ali famously said, “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”
He had an uncanny ability to spot opportunities, move quickly, and strike. He dominated in the ring by out-moving and out-striking his opponents.
Driving business growth follows a similar set of principles: spot opportunities, act, measure, and adapt.
These are the key behaviors to win. Markets constrict in a slowdown. This means you are taking market share (your competitors’ customers) to grow. It’s a fight!
Muhammad Ali went into the ring with a strategy: hit first, hit fast, and keep moving. He wasn’t waiting to respond to his opponent. He was looking for opportunities.
It’s a great philosophy to adopt in a slowing economy. If you’re adapting quickly, your competition won’t know where you’re heading next, and from your vantage point they’ll seem slow and sluggish.
As Ali told Liston in their pre-fight weigh-in, “Your hands can’t hit what your eyes can’t see.”
One Stat to Watch
-12.65%
Google ad performance is declining across various sectors. Median return on ad spend (ROAS) fell -12.65% from July to June and -11.18% from June to May, according to Varos Benchmarks.
📈 Increase Marketing in a Downturn
It may feel counterintuitive, but increase your sales and marketing efforts in a slowdown.
There are two reasons to increase your marketing:
- Focus on customer acquisition and retention like never before. You can’t drive sales if no one knows your brand.
- Anticipate your competitors will reduce their marketing budgets and cut costs as their sales decline. You can exploit this as a weakness.
Nirmalya Kumar wrote in the Harvard Business Review, “During recessions, when most firms are cutting back on their advertising, a firm’s share of voice increases if it can maintain or increase its advertising budget.”
By increasing your marketing in a slowdown, you can dramatically out-market your competitors. This is a moment for connecting with customers and winning market share.
But it’s also different. The marketing strategies that worked during a growth cycle may not work anymore. Customer habits and expectations shift and you have to be relevant. Be agile in your marketing and your brand messaging.
This is a time to be disciplined in your marketing to ensure you are reaching the markets with real potential.
⛔️ Reduce Customer Risk
Downturns make customers more price sensitive. They too are working to do more with less to conserve cash.
The natural response might be to offer discounts and promotions, or even cut prices, but look at the underlying need: Customers are looking for a deal to reduce their purchase risk.
The key question: How can you help customers mitigate their risks?
This can be achieved through flexible payment terms, installments, or smaller purchases. Look at this as an opportunity to improve your value proposition by serving customers more thoughtfully.
When you find a way that helps your customers better navigate their way through a downturn, promote it. This will not only help your customers, it will give you a competitive advantage to win more deals.
🤔 Thoughts on Today's Issue?
We’d love to hear your feedback. Reply to this message with any thoughts, comments, or ideas for future issues.