If
You're Just Getting Back to Basics, You May Be Too Late
Good
times and bad times come and go. But the fundamentals of sustaining your
business should never change.
As the day-to-day, real-world economy starts
to slowly recover -- as opposed to the ongoing and inexplicable insanity
driving Wall Street -- the businesses that are going to be winners in 2021 have
already largely been determined.
Not because of competitive considerations, or
the impact of bogus congressional hearings or expected regulatory interventions
or because, rightly or wrongly, they scored big in the PPP lottery and don't
plan on paying a dime back.
Not because they invented something so
radically new that it set the world on fire, cost less than a dollar, was
non-fattening, and tasted like chocolate.
And not because they raised ridiculous amounts
of funding through new financial instruments, socially driven new market makers
like Robin Hood, and investment vehicles like the utterly opaque special
purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), which are everywhere today. Money in
general may have no smell, but these SPACS smell vaguely familiar and seem
sadly reminiscent of the collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) that destroyed
the real estate and financial markets in the recession of 2007-2009.
Nope. The answer is none of the above. The
winners of tomorrow are going to be the men and women who spent 2020 - in the
heart of the pandemic - getting ready for and setting the stage for success in
2021. The future's successes are built on yesterday's foundations. You can't plant
a seed in bad soil.
The future isn't known or certain, but it's
far more likely to be fun and favorable if predicated on a firm foundation and
a disciplined and continual commitment to nurturing, enhancing and expanding
the connections you have and the critical relationships you need to maintain with
your existing customers and prospects.
The problem for too many company owners and
operators, as well as millions of entrepreneurs, is that in good times they get
too busy and in tough times they get too down to pay attention
to executing the fundamentals.
In the best of times, we convince ourselves
that we're geniuses and that our good fortune will never end. The next step
after that delicious delusion is to start taking your customers for granted and
forgetting that it's never been easier for them to walk.
Loyalty today means nothing more than the
momentary absence of something better or cheaper (often right around the corner
or a click away) unless you make sure that your clients and customers have good
reasons to stay and that you are communicating those reasons effectively on a
continuous basis.
Communication is key and we often forget that
your marketing spend needs to track your revenue growth if you want customers
to keep coming back, and also spread your story through favorable word of
mouth. Coasting or reducing your advertising, marketing and incentive dollars
because you're too busy with your current business and making a lot of money is
a guarantee that you won't be too busy or too flush for much longer.
And it's also human nature in the worst of
times (like the year we've just endured) to be conservative, to try to
"cheap it out" for a while, and to reduce your promotion and
marketing expenditures. No one in history has ever "saved" their way
to success. The time to build and reinforce your brand and your longevity is in
the tough times, when the competition is often asleep at the switch. The people
and businesses who keep in touch are the ones we're going to be reaching out to
as the world returns to near normal.
It may still be sub-zero outside in many
places, but those flower and garden catalogs keep coming and make for warm and
fuzzy feelings and dreams about an early spring. Plant well and often and the
harvest will take care of itself.
MAR 9, 2021
