“The recession is coming, the recession is
coming!” You’ve heard the cries
haven’t you? Well we’ve got news for you…it’s already here. Or
at least that’s what the media would have you believe. Whether
it is technically true or not is irrelevant. The facts show that
it’s still a great time to be in business and to make money—one
of the best environments in our history, to be exact.
According to the Consumer Research
Center, American households have more discretionary income than
ever before, which continues to fuel consumer spending at a
steady, if not accelerated pace. In November 2007 retailers
posted their biggest gains in six months and both retail and
wholesale 2007 revenues were up verses 2006. Even last year’s
holiday shopping season was big in both numbers of shoppers and
in gains despite what we have been led to believe.
If you listen to the media there are
signs of shaky times in some sectors, lead by the housing bubble
“burst” and the sub-prime mortgage “meltdown.” Those names
weren’t designed to create fear and uncertainty were they? Nahh…couldn’t
be.
If you watch the evening news these days
it’s easy to believe we’re currently in a recession. In
actuality, a recession is defined by two consecutive quarters of
declining GDP…and we haven’t experienced the first of the
required two quarters yet.
If you look for something hard enough
you’ll always find evidence of its existence. You could find
signs of an alien landing strip in a corn field, if you check
enough places, and you could divine the winner of the 2008
presidential election from some wet tea leaves, if the lighting
were just right. If you go looking for economic trouble, you
will always find evidence of it. The point is, profitable
sectors ebb and flow and prosperous markets shift, just as
matter changes shape but never disappears. It doesn’t mean
catastrophic financial disaster is upon us. Does it?
Enter politics and government.
Government involvement in business is almost always a bad thing
and this situation proves no different. If you study history at
all, you will see that economic uncertainty is good for the
political process, especially if the party line is calling for
“change” and offering a “new hope.” How much more hope do we
need than the most prosperous period in our economic history?
But if the country feels a little economic pressure, tastes
uncertainty and smells fear that’s good for elections and it
just so happens to be an election year. How convenient. But who
has the power to plant and nurture seeds of uncertainty in the
first place? The media.
The truly terrifying part is that the
media is so powerful and influential they can actually create—in
reality—whatever
they dream up and proliferate. Shrouded in foreshadow they
influence public opinion and action with factual distortions,
skewed figures and fuzzy math until their “predictions” become
actual events. In this case, we really may see a recession.
This is just one reason why the rise of
new media, such as blogs, is so important—so that all side of
the story get air time.
So for those who are feeling a bit of
the conjured pressure and need some help weathering the storm,
this article will give you five secrets to slow time
entrepreneurial success. These secrets will help you not only
merely survive in the slow time but thrive, dominate and
prosper.
Why are these entrepreneurial
secrets? Because most corporate business people probably
won’t believe in the raw power of them or have the capacity to
implement any of them before the whole “recession” blows over.
Slow to see, slow to act.
Slow Time Entrepreneurial Secret #1: Differentiate.
Me too products and services with no
distinguishing qualities are forced into the commodity
marketplace and bought only based on price…low price. In the
slow season these are the first to get cut from the spending
budget. If you don’t know how to make yourself stand out from
all your competition and all the other alternative choices for
your prospects’ diminishing funds then you are destined to
shoulder more than your fair share of the economic burden,
slumping sales and evaporating customer pool.
How do you overcome this fate? Follow
this simple advice…Same Is Lame. Discover what is unique about
you, your product or service, your process, your strengths and
weaknesses and exploit them to their fullest extent.
People are desperately seeking a place
to spend their money and they want to make a good decision when
they do spend their money, especially when they have less of it.
They are hungry for a buying preference, a reason why to choose
you over every other option out there. Most business owners give
them none other than low price and if that’s the only thing that
makes you unique, you better be as strong as Wal-Mart or you
ain’t gonna make it.
Slow Time Entrepreneurial Secret #2: Innovate.
The first thing a person asks someone
they haven’t seen in a while is, “What’s New?” That’s what they
want from you too. Just because things are tightening up doesn’t
mean you have to or should slow down. Your business needs to
innovate now more than ever. People like new things. New things
are interesting, exciting, worth talking about, surprising and
fun. This is what most people are lacking in their lives and
it’s further enhanced by a new timidity, uncertainty and
tightening of the purse strings. By innovating you show
freshness, confidence and give the community a bit of hope,
encouragement and exhilaration. This can do a lot for keeping
the numbers on the balance sheet looking up.
Slow Time Entrepreneurial Secret #3: Hit The Gas.
During these uncertain times the first
reaction of most business owners, entrepreneurs and sales
professionals is to cut back. The cut back happens across the
board: marketing, innovation, research and development,
expansion, acquisition of key people and resources. It’s a
downward spiral that quickly escalates and spreads like bacteria
in a warm Petri dish. It’s a dangerous move and a mistake too
commonly made. The smart move is to hit the gas and do more.
Add, initiate, market more heavily, recruit the best people and
blast through it with momentum and speed. While other people are
cutting back, like turtles pulling their heads into their
shells, you can cash in big because the market is wide open.
Slow Time Entrepreneurial Secret #4: Connect.
Now more than ever connecting with your
current and past customers on a more than business level will be
essential. Wait a minute. Isn’t business business and personal
personal? You shouldn’t mix business and pleasure right? That’s
true, if you want to make less money than you could that is.
What you need to know is consumers do business with people, not
companies.
Buying is emotional and unless you have
a major brand secured by hundreds of millions of dollars in
annual marketing you cannot create an emotional connection with
your logo or brand. But you can create an emotional connection
between you as a person and your customers.
If you had a choice to buy from a
company (even a big brand company) verses a person you know,
like and trust, which would you choose? From our experience,
most people pick the latter. So now more than ever, you need to
embrace this concept of connecting with your customers. Give
them more value, be more open with what’s going on in your life,
get more personal, share more of who you are and what you
believe in, become a more integrated part of their lives,
instead of just a merchant they bought from once.
Your goal is to become regarded by your
customers as more than just a huckster of some goods or
services, and instead to position yourself as a helper to their
family. Someone who makes their quality of life better, their
decision making process easier and their minds more informed.
Doing this will make your customers more apt to keep you around
through any slow season and value your presence in their lives.
Slow Time Entrepreneurial Secret #5: Rally.
Now is the time to ring the bell and
rally the troops. Your employees, your past customers, your
friends and even your family. Get them fired up and on the same
page when it comes to your unique qualities and what you have to
offer. The order of the day is referral stimulation, buzz
creation and an increase in transaction value. How do you
accomplish this task? For starters, you have to know yourself
what it is that both makes you unique and resonates with your
prospect base and how that translates into an irresistible offer
for your potential customers. Then you need to make sure every
employee, past customer, friend and family member knows that
uniqueness, can deliver your offer and are encouraged to pass it
along.
Create scripts for your troops to use to
ask for referrals and offer up sells to customers. Reward the
troops who do a good job and also the customers who participate
to create and keep momentum. It’s hard to ignore the awesome
power of a passionate group of followers who are willing to go
to battle for a leader and cause they really feel connected to.
During crunch time you need to squeeze
all the juice out of every tactic you implement. To do this,
make sure you test and refine your systems as you go along.
Little changes in how you market, position yourself and operate
your business can mean the difference between slow time growth
or just treading water.
About Jimmy Vee and Travis Miller
Jimmy
Vee and Travis Miller are the nation’s leading experts on
attracting customers and specialize in helping small business
owners, entrepreneurs and sales professionals generate a steady
stream of highly qualified clients who pay more, stay longer and
refer repeatedly. They believe that every business should be
ESP–Enjoyable, Simple and Prosperous. Vee and Miller are the
co-authors of Gravitational Marketing: The Science of Attracting
Customers (Wiley). Get a copy of their new book and get a slew
of free gifts at
http://www.GravitationalMarketing.com
