There is ample evidence from past downturns that the company that maintains its marketing spend through the downturn exits the downturn in a far better position than its competition. Even in the worst of times, there is still business to be written, markets to be taken and customers to be won. And a downturn, when many of your competitors may well be going quiet, often represents an unprecedented opportunity to grab a much larger share of voice.

2. Recalibrate your strategy and recast your budget strategically as opposed to simply cutting x% across the board.

People often look for the one thing that companies should do in response to a downturn. I resist being so binary since a downturn represents doom to some but incredible opportunity to others. And even for those for whom it’s a challenge, an across-the-board response is rarely the right one.

At times like this, strategy becomes more valuable than ever. Know where you’re trying to go, the best way to get there, and how you’re going to know that you’ve arrived. Cut those marketing tactics that won’t help get you there and re-invest the money in the tactics that will.

3. Negotiate pricing.

All the vectors you use to communicate to your marketplace are feeling the pinch right now. There is no better time to play hardball on pricing, or to negotiate added extras that usually cost a lot more. Most media outlets will cut their line rates or give you valuable extras like a free newsletter distribution, web conference, white paper distribution or even additional insertions. Trade show organizers may agree to a bigger booth space for the same price or throw in sponsorship opportunities or show guide advertising that in better times might cost you thousands more. Even if your supplier must hold the line on fundamentals, see if you can’t snag some of the valuable extras.

4. If you have channel or other partners, consider pooling budgets and activities to make your dollars go further.

Can you share a trade show booth with partners? Can you initiate a co-op advertising program that sees you put up some of the cost while your channel partners put up the rest? Is the opposite available to you — are you a channel for an OEM with a co-op program?

5. Do not abandon measurement.

If marketing is seen as the easiest thing for companies to cut during a downturn, then measurement is seen as the easiest thing for marketers to cut. After all, it doesn’t really contribute anything, right? Wrong. Harken back to tip No. 2: If you’re not measuring, you have no idea where you are or what got you there, you don’t know what’s working and what isn’t, and you simply can’t be strategic about your marketing spend. When times are good and there’s budget to spare, you might be able to afford to have some things work a little less effectively. When times are tough and every dollar must produce a result, you need to be measuring so you know which tactics are delivering and which ones aren’t.

6. Be transactional if there’s an immediate opportunity.

As I’ve already noted, a downturn means different things for different companies. If there is good business that can be immediately secured, be highly transactional in going after it. Alter all your messaging to “Buy now,” and focus on tactics, like advertising and direct marketing, that communicate transactional messaging best.

7. If there isn’t an immediate opportunity, go long.

It’s far more likely, however, that your customer’s buying cycle has stalled; it almost certainly has lengthened. So if your customers have hunkered down waiting for the storm to pass, there’s no point in blaring the hard sell at them or offering them discounts and other incentives to immediately do something they’re simply not going to. Does this mean you, too, should hunker down and draw the blinds until things blow over? No, it means your messaging should shift to support longer-term objectives such as awareness building, thought leadership and marketplace education. Tactics like media relations, content marketing, trade shows and white papers that establish your authority and expertise are a better use of your resources if this is your reality.

8. In all communications, employ story telling that emphasizes how your product or service saves money or drives additional immediate revenue for your customers. Speak to the pain they’re feeling in a recession.

Whatever the economic conditions, your marketing and communications messaging should be all about your customer, not you. You should always be speaking to the pain your customer feels and how your product or service solves that pain. In a recession, your customer’s pain is almost certainly all about revenue — making more of it or keeping more of it. Make sure you’re speaking to this.

9. Be overly attentive to your existing revenue base.

“Love the one you’re with,” says the old song, and that’s never more relevant than in a downturn, when new customers are hardest to acquire. Your current customers are keeping you in business and it’s almost always cheaper to maintain and build business with existing customers than to find new ones. Lavish your existing customers with attention, look for low-cost ways to improve the value you create for them, and communicate, communicate, communicate — let them know you love them.

10. Effective relationships never expire, so keep talking.

Keep talking to everyone in your value chain, including suppliers, service providers, channels, influencers and, of course, customers and prospects. Even if they can’t use your services or you theirs just now, keeping those lines of communication open and full of useful information will serve you very well when the economy recovers.

When considering any kind of partnering arrangement, be it for sales, marketing, distribution, R&D or any of the functional areas involved in bringing a product from concept to the end user, you as the leader of the organization must carefully consider your strategy. What is it you are trying to achieve? What unique value do you bring to the market?

Look at all aspects of your business, the full range of skills and functions required to make it fire on all cylinders. Break these into two categories: what you will keep in-house and what you will outsource or seek to execute with an outside partner.

When, and when not, to keep it in the family

What you keep in house is known as your core competencies. This group should be characterized by only those skills that are specific to your organization, add significant value to the customer, and differentiate you from your competitors. These are the ingredients of the secret sauce that define your unique value proposition.

What’s left are you non-core competencies. These are skills that may still be critical to getting a product to market and encouraging a customer to buy, but they are not significant differentiators. They may in fact be quite commoditized and standard for your industry. The question that must be applied here is if it is more cost-effective to find an outside partner who can do the job for you.

For example, if you are a software developer, does it make financial sense to have internal resources on the payroll focused on manufacturing and distribution of shrink-wrapped product? If you’re in the hardware business, should you be stamping sheet metal enclosures and fabricating optic cable when there are suppliers who specialize in these components?

Once you have taken a hard look at your business and separated your core from your non-core competencies, what then? How do you go about establishing a relationship of mutual benefit?

The building blocks for lucrative partnerships

You have to let go. Sometimes this can be difficult. Key individuals within the organization may feel quite possessive about a specific skillset or function. This is particularly common in high-tech companies with product R&D. But again, it comes back to having a clearly defined focus for your business and understanding what does not have to be kept in-house. If it doesn’t differentiate you, don’t waste internal resources on it. The right partner can bring your product to market faster and allow you to better leverage limited resources against your core competencies.

Partners can add value in multiple ways. For example a partner with an established presence in a market you wish to pursue can validate your offering as a reference customer.

What’s in it for them? It’s easy to look at a partnership arrangement purely from the perspective of “what’s in it for me?” But to build a truly beneficial relationship, consider “What’s in it for them?” What is going to make the arrangement work for the person on the other side of the table?

Once the deal is done, the real work begins. The partnership requires ongoing care and feeding. Too often, organizations will close a deal and move on to the next one without putting the resources in place to ensure value flows both ways as intended. This is crucial to preventing the arrangement from going south and driving your partner to a competitor. For example, it can take 12 to 18 months of dedicated effort to see returns from a distribution deal.

Trust is critical. There must be a relationship of trust that goes beyond the fine print of a contract and the threat of legal action if there is a breach. If you are in the midst of negotiating an agreement and there is a persistent and obsessive focus on the granular details of legal rights and obligations, this should be a red flag that this prospective partner may not be the best choice for you. Once the deal is struck, continue to act in a way that engenders trust and goes beyond the terms of a contract. For example, in distribution arrangements, companies will often damage the relationship by doing an end run around their distribution partner and selling directly to the end client.  If you plan to go direct under certain circumstances, outline them at the outset – setting the right expectations in any relationship reaps huge rewards.

Have a mechanism for discussion. Prevent the relationship from jumping the tracks by assigning an individual who owns the relationship and having your partner do the same. The idea is that these representatives of the two organizations have a personal, eyeball-to-eyeball dialogue and a clear communication channel to put issues on the table.

Outsourcing. Invariably, a partnership arrangement is a form of outsourcing. The time, effort and resources required to effectively manage the arrangement may, in some cases, be more costly and distracting to the organization than simply keeping the competency in house. This can often by the case in situations such as outsourcing complex R&D outside the company.

To conclude, handing off a non-core competency to a partner is not an abdication of responsibility but rather an opportunity to focus on your strengths. There must be trust and a commitment to feed and nurture the relationship to ensure it is profitable for both parties. Finally, for a partnership to be successful, there must individuals on both sides of the table dedicated to maintaining a regular and open dialogue.