“Shutdown”, “cutbacks”, “shortage”, and “inflation” are all words that are striking fear and frustration in business owners around the country as they struggle to find ways to manage conditions in an ever-changing environment. Let’s discuss ways you can pivot your business to combat the ever-changing economic conditions.
Instead of closing your ears to ignore the conditions, keep your ear to the ground about changes that will impact your business and plan proactively how to prepare your business. So let’s talk about potential strategies that you can use for the different economic situations that are affecting business owners.
“The earlier you can predict the shocks, the faster you can react and recover,” says W.C. Benton, professor of operations and supply chain management at The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business. “But you can’t wait until someone is not delivering. You need to be proactive.”
This article by American Express gives some great tips on battling inflation but I want to highlight one point that many business owners are afraid of: raising prices.
If you’ve ever attended our 6 Steps to a Better Business event, this may sound familiar to you but to fill everyone else in, you should absolutely be taking a price increase. Not only in cases dealing with the economy but every year.
Why? Don’t your prices increase every year?
But what if you lose customers due to the increase?
Here’s the thing, you will lose customers. Point blank. BUT we’ve done enough research at ActionCOACH that shows that in all the cases where businesses lose customers due to price increases the clients they lose are C and D clients. These are clients that give them the most headaches and require the most of their time and attention.
Additionally, once they lose these C and D clients, they free themselves up to take on even more A and B clients.
Marketing and sales strategies will also have to change. Businesses aren’t the only ones feeling the effects so your strategies have to ease their worries and concerns and highlight the benefits your product or service can still bring to them.
I implore you to consider these changes regarding the two.
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” – R. Buckminster Fuller
“The two main pillars of great salesmanship are being competitive and compassionate.” – Steli Efti
Lastly, the key to both of these is customer service.
“Every contact we have with a customer influences they’ll come back. We have to be great every time or we’ll lose them.” – Kevin Stirtz
If you want to dive deeper into strategies specific to your business to defend against economic turmoil, business coaching is your next step. Schedule a complimentary business strategy session with us. This is a 2-hour deep dive into your business to uncover areas that you can market better to customers.
I am a certified Business Coach, providing business help, business advice, business coaching and mentoring services to successful and emerging business owners. I have a passion for helping businesses like yours grow and become profitable, so you, the business owner can enjoy the lifestyle you deserve.
As your Business Coach and advisor, I will help you deliver the results you desire using proven tools, methodologies and systems, tested and perfected over tens of thousands of businesses worldwide for over more than two decades. I will hold you accountable for your results and just like a sports coach, push you to perform at optimal levels. Let's schedule a complimentary Business Coaching session to get started.