Sales and Marketing with Bill Doerr15 Second Executive Summary
The economy is forcing business owners into 1 of 2 camps -- those who see the challenging economy and are doing nothing and those who see the same economy and choose to do something about it. The second group are more likely to survive and thrive than the first group. Why are some owners in the first group and not the second one?
They seem to have forgotten that success is, before all else, a choice. Some owners defer making any deliberate choices and will be forced to accept whatever consequences their choices suggest. Others, more proactive (and just as concerned) will do things that maintain or grow their business today and will cause them to be more successful when the economy turns around. Which group are you going to be in? The choice . . . is yours.
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I have to comment on something I'm noticing with an increasing and alarming regularity.
It's a variation on the biological imperative to choose, when faced with a serious threat to your life, between 'flight' or 'fight'.
As we're now well into the second half of 2009, I'm observing that a number of smaller business owners are making a decision (intentionally or not) on how they're responding to the challenge of our rather turbulent economy.
Basically, there are two (2) camps of thinking that seem to be emerging:
- owners who are 'staying the course' and 'doing nothing new' to market their business, and
- owners who are choosing to 'do something' to market their business in this economy
Those who are choosing to 'hunker down' and 'stay the course' in the hope that they will 'survive the storm' are making a risky choice between action and in-action. If they have a lot of money in savings, they may be able to afford to exercise that choice. But not all of us have that option. Even worse, many owners are exercising the 'do nothing new' option -- whether they can afford to or not.
Other owners who decide, as Hamlet once said, "To take arms against a sea of troubles and, by opposing, end them . . ." regardless of their resources, are far more likely to not only survive the economic turbulence we're in at the moment but thrive better than most when it ends, as well.
Quick diversion . . . when I was a pilot in training
there were certain times (during instrument flight training) that you learn you must 'trust the instruments, NOT your body'. Why? Absent visual cues (like the horizon) when you're 'in the clouds', your equilibrium becomes unreliable very quickly.
You 'feel' like you're listing to the right so you 'correct' to the left. That 'feels' correct -- to your body. In fact, you 'feel' you're flying 'straight'. But you're not. You're actually in a left bank and turning to the left rather than proceeding on a straight course.
Eventually, relying on your 'feelings' rather than your instruments, you'll find yourself in what is known to pilots as the 'graveyard spiral'. Your slight turn to the left actually reduces your aircraft's lift factor (it's aerodynamic stuff and I won't bore you with that!) so you begin to lose altitude. Whether you can read your instruments for instrument conditions or not, even beginning pilots learn to watch their altitude / altimeter.
When you notice you're losing altitude, the 'obvious' response is to "pull back on the stick or yoke'. When you're in level flight, that raises your plane's nose and makes your aircraft climb. Hence, you gain (back) altitude. But once you're in a turn, however slight, pulling back on the stick only tightens your turn. Ironically, that 'feels' the same (to your body) as when you're climbing -- you feel yourself being pushed down into your seat. But it's not gravity making you 'feel' that sensation; it's centrifugal force (you're in a turn, remember?). At this point, non-instrument trained, inexperienced pilots notice that they're losing altitude more rapidly. So they 'pull back on the stick' hoping to re-gain valuable altitude. But it seems to work in exactly the opposite manner. The more they 'correct' their altitude loss, the more altitude they're losing.
Eventually, this becomes a viscious cycle that makes the aircraft (and, the hapless pilot and any unfortunate passengers) enter such a tight turn that either the aircraft suffers structural damage and is lost or, the plane is flown all the way down into the ground (or, the sea as happened to John F. Kennedy, Jr off Martha's Vineyard, MA not too long ago).
OK, back to today's challenging economy . . .
If you, like most of us in entrepreneur-land, find this economy isn't the same as it was about a year ago, your response to it may not be all that different than the pilot who doesn't understand the 'best' course of action under changing flight conditions.
Today, while the tendency of many business owners and solopreneurs is to 'do nothing' different than they've done in the past, I submit that may be just as deadly as pilots who do the wrong thing at the wrong time in flight.
What is called for now is action, not IN-action. But appropriate action. And that would be . . . to proactively market your business in a manner that reflects:
- a candid, honest understanding of your business -- strengths AND weaknesses,
- the marketplace you seek to attract and serve, and
- a proven and systematic plan for taking coordinated actions to market your business or practice services . . . effectively
Doing 'no thing' IS a decision. And, it may be the best decision you can make. At times. But it's usually not a deliberate decision as much as it's a defaultdecision because many of us are simply not being proactive about the 'sea of troubles' on the horizon that are waiting for anyone who's in business in 2009.
My Respectful Recommendation . . . Do Something . . . By Design, Not Default
As tempting as it is to 'do nothing' and 'hope this economic storm blows over' that strategy is just as deadly to your business as a 'graveyard spiral' is to an inexperienced pilot.
As difficult . . . scary . . . unsettling . . . makes-me-feel-like-throwing-up . . . as it may 'feel' to you . . . DO SOMETHING to market your business . . . by design, not accident.
Staying the course, given the current economy, is probably not the best course of action you can take these days. Remember the old saying, "Doing what you've always done isn't going to get you anything different". Today, that can also get you killed. Times have changed. We must change, too. Or, suffer the consequences.
Doing what you did to market your business in the past may need some adjustments to make your business remain successful in these turbulent days.
Yes, you risk making a mistake when you do something new. And none of us want to make mistakes. But remember that doing nothing is still a decision to do something -- 'nothing'. And doing 'nothing' has it's own consequences -- positive and negative. But they're not consequences you're creating. They're consequences you're being forced to accept because you're delegating your responsibility to make decisions and take actions for your own success.
No one has 'all the answers' to this economy or the best ways to respond to it for your business. But please . . . don't do no-thing because you didn't already consider doing some-thing else. At least make doing no-thing a deliberate and thoughtfully considered decision. It might be the correct course of action for you and your business. But for many, like Hamlet said, "taking arms against a sea of troubles . . ." will be far more likely to end them.
So . . . do your homework . . . seek the counsel of your trusted advisors . . . then do some-thing to market your business or practice. Yes, even if it is no-thing. But do it deliberately. You and your business will come through these challenging times and yes, you WILL be better for it when (not if) the economy eventually improves.
For more please see Bill's TNNW Bio.
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