If you have read the news, listened to the radio or talked to another adult human in the last month, you would have heard that Australia (and the rest of the world) is perched on the edge of a global recession.
While Australia isn’t yet in a recession, just the possibility has already resulted in a massive reduction in consumer spending in the last quarter on clothing, shoes and fashion in general. Everyone is affected by an economic downturn - but as a business leader, what can you do with your time, attention and resources to best prepare? Here are 5 strategies to consider for your sales and marketing to put you in a better position over the next 12 months.
1. Tighten your focus.
If you have a long term marketing strategy in place, now might be the time to hold yourself to that strategy a little more loosely.
I’m all about vision-led marketing - where are we going as a company, and how does our sales and marketing help us get there? In this instance though, when a recession appears to be looming, I’d suggest tightening your focus a little more to the next 3-12 months. What can we be doing this quarter to grow revenue, deliver and communicate more value in our products, and capture more of the immediate market?
2. Communicate value more clearly.
When the forecast is grim, people naturally become more budget conscious. This doesn’t mean they are only looking for low-cost options, they are looking for high-value options. What is going to take my dollar the furthest? Communicate your value more clearly through your product marketing, FAQs, sales process and marketing to ensure your customer has a clear understanding of the bang-for-buck they’re getting.
3. Stay close to your key metrics.
You may already have sales and marketing metrics in a general sense, but work to define your key customer actions throughout your marketing and sales funnel in order to keep a close eye on customer behaviour. This gives you an aligned view of how your marketing is feeding your sales and a clue as to where your marketing funnel needs work. By staying in tune with key customer actions, you’re better positioned to respond, in a timely fashion when they start to change.
4. Emphasise efficiency (of time & cost).
Audit your marketing and sales activities to consider where you can streamline processes and stop investing time and money into undertakings that are underperforming. One way to maintain efficiency is to focus on strengthening the conversion stage of your marketing and sales strategy. Generally speaking, it’s easier (and more efficient) to solve a conversion problem than an acquisition one. Perhaps it’s incentives, greater engagement, new sales resources, a more personalised experience or new product offers.
5. Focus your efforts on retaining existing customers.
The acquisition of new customers is expensive, while it is vital to ensure you are constantly acquiring new customers, it’s wise to ensure that you have a plan in place to retain the old ones.
Customers who already trust you and love your brand will almost always offer a higher conversion and lower cost to convert. How are you keeping in touch with your existing customers to ensure that they keep coming back?
