🏆   Tilt the Odds
🧾   Tariff Surcharge
🙊   Listen to Sell
🏆 Tilt the Odds
No matter the state of the economy, you can win.
That’s one of the key advantages for small- and mid-sized businesses. You have the power to pivot and adapt to grow.
It’s a matter of mindset.
My first year working in my family’s business was painful. I joined the company, following the “tech wreck” of the early 2000s. It appeared we’d weathered the economic downturn and everything was set to boom again, but it didn’t happen. Sales continued to languish.
At the end of that first year, I had a heart-to-heart with my parents. I said, “If this is what it’s like to be in a family business, then I need to do something else. This is terrible!”
My dad challenged me and said, “It’s not about the business we’ve built, it’s about the business we’re building. What are we going to build next?”
The statement rocked me to my core.
It gave me permission to study our business, customers, and market. What I discovered is we’d lost our competitive advantage. We were competing against giants, and we were no longer relevant.
Instead of continuing on the original path, we tilted the odds in our favor. We shifted from IT staffing to sales recruiting, a niche with very few direct competitors at the time. We rebranded the company with a new name and identity, and launched with a powerful marketing strategy.
It worked. Within a year, we rocketed into growth mode and we didn’t slow down until we sold the company.
There were two lessons:
- Tilt the Odds: You don’t have to play your competitors’ game. Be deliberate and choose who and where the customers are that will drive your next stage of growth.
- Choose to Win: You don’t weather a downturn by being passive. Fight for your business. Choose to win and commit to it.
🧾 Tariff Surcharge
Amazon had the right idea: display tariff costs with the price of products.
The White House responded swiftly. According to reports, Trump called Jeff Bezos to squash the idea. Amazon later stated the tariff surcharge was “never approved” and is “not going to happen.”
Amazon may have received the ire of the government, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t the right strategy
Several of Sticky Branding’s clients are reeling from tariffs, on both sides of the border. They are taking Herculean efforts to minimize the effect on their customers, but its not 100%. Costs have increased.
Transparency has proven the most effective strategy.
First, sell through your inventory. If you’re fortunate enough to have tariff-free inventory, sell it. Now! It’s like you’re delivering a 10-25% discount to your customers.
The campaign creates an urgency to buy as customers try to get ahead of looming price increases.
Second, add a tariff surcharge to your invoice. Once you’ve sold through your inventory, treat tariffs as a surcharge versus a price increase.
A surcharge provides flexibility, as no one knows where we’ll land in this on-again, off-again trade war.
🙊 Listen to Sell
Your customers will tell you what they want to buy, you just have to listen.
My sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Dixon, used to say, “You have two ears and one mouth so you can listen twice as much as you speak.” Â
The lesson stuck. I make a point to restrain myself in sales calls to let the customer talk twice as much as I do. It’s amazing what you can discover in a sales call if you’re paying attention.
As you listen, look for insights:
- Buyer Roles. Who did you sell to? What is their position? Are they the final decision maker? If not, who is?
- Business Challenge. What do they want? Why were you asked to meet with them?
- Trigger Events. What symptoms, issues, or events are motivating them to seek out solutions?
- Alternative Options. Who else are they considering? What other choices do they have?
- Strengths. What worked well in the sales call, such as questions, value statements, or demonstrations? What resonated?
- Obstacles. What did not work well in the sales call? What caused confusion or objections? What could you do better next time?
You can learn something from every sales call, you just have to listen.
🤔  Thoughts on Today’s Issue?
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