A drop of sanity into a sea of panic

With the market in a freefall, credit tightening, and budgets shrinking, it seems very dark indeed. But before you simply accept a slash and burn budget number, you might want to reevaluate the assumptions from the executive suite.

They may be saying ‘people aren’t buying!’ – But people are buying, and they will continue to do so.

Who is buying? Most are the same folks that bought from you before (let's call them 'customers', just like we did last year) and some folks that bought from your competitors (let's call them 'lost opportunities', just like we did last year). There will be a few net new customers to the market, depending on the industry, but we can't generally count on that, so let's concentrate on the first two.

It's actually all pretty clear once you get out of the forest and identify the trees.

Those who are buying, although there are only as many or perhaps fewer than last year, still are seeking to replace or in some cases upgrade whatever they've purchased in past years. They'll be bargain hunting, negotiating aggressively, and demanding more for less. But they're buying. They'll look for savings and quicker ROI, but they're buying. They'll be looking for lower energy use and longer warranty periods, but they're buying. They are definitely seeking better credit terms. But they're buying.

Your marketing for the New Year needs to look closely – almost exclusively - at these 'customers' and previously 'lost opportunities'. The goal is to apply limited marketing resources to activities that protect and expand your current customers. The slowdown in net new business allows opportunity for nurturing what you have, that is, given the macro-economic environment, perhaps aggressive business development efforts should be scaled back in favor of one-on-one account development. Instead of making Sisyphean attempts to expand the pie, demand a larger piece of the existing one through campaigns targeting competitors – particularly who have made the mistake of weakening their own marketing and sales efforts in a short-term effort to 'weather the storm'. Look to shore up market share so that when the inevitable turnaround comes your company hits the ground running… from a starting point in the distance.

People are buying. But the only way to be certain you are selling what they are buying is to listen to what they need, deliver it with a little of what they want, and anticipate what they're going to need next.