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.

Too often when times are good and new business is relatively easy to find, business owners and managers slip their grip on the reins. Less effort is expended on keeping the sales team lean, hungry and focused on prospecting and qualifying new business. The organization is already at a disadvantage before a market downturn rears it’s head, since it lacks the ingrained habits and behaviours its sales team needs to quickly adjust when closing sales becomes more difficult. This leaves management distracted by internal operations and scrambling to put the organization back on course when the economy sours, leaving more nimble competitors unchallenged in the marketplace.

So what should your business be doing now that it should have been doing all along to ensure your sales people are effective revenue generators and not just order takers waiting for the phone to ring? Consider the following points:

Always be qualifying

In a tight market overcrowded with aggressive competitors, the more effort you put into qualifying the prospect, the more you will differentiate yourself and the more quickly you can develop and close the opportunity. If the prospect measures up to your qualifying criteria, you can move forward, if not, you can move on to another opportunity.

What information should you uncover? Concentrate first on the quality of the fit between what you have to offer and the prospect’s problem, challenge, or goal. If the correlation is low, or you know that another company competing for the business can provide a better fit, it’s likely time to look for another opportunity.

When you adopt an “Always be Qualifying” strategy, poor quality prospects will be eliminated early and you’ll find yourself presenting to high quality prospects with whom you will almost always be closing.

Read more about closing versus qualifying.

And the answer is …

A text book strategy to obtain more information in order to understand a prospect’s true intentions and needs is to answer a question with a question. But apply this principle judiciously, otherwise, you may be perceived as manipulative or deflecting a question because you haven’t done your homework and can’t answer.

There are situations where it is OK to directly answer the prospect’s question. The rule is: answer the question when it can’t hurt you or it can help you.

It’s OK to tell a prospect what you do or how you can help from a conceptual or big picture standpoint. That can’t hurt you. What you should avoid is providing detailed explanations for specific solutions to problems that have yet to be fully defined. That will hurt you. There will be plenty of time for specifics and details if the opportunity progresses far enough along for a formal presentation or proposal.

Read more about giving the right answers.

Is your message relevant and believable?

You won’t capture a prospect’s attention with features and functions, regardless of how “Revolutionary,” “Tested,” or “Enhanced” they may be, unless, first and foremost, your product or service addresses a specific problem, concern, or challenge the prospect is grappling with. Discretionary spending for enhanced features is dead.

Your message must focus on those problems, concerns, and challenges. If you’re a telecommunications provider, rather than tout “widest coverage,” ask a problem-focused question. For instance, “Are some of your loved ones outside your calling area?” Rather than promote “lightening fast Internet connections,” ask; “Does it take longer to download your e-mail than it does to read it?”

To make the features and functions believable, tell the prospect HOW you deliver what those features and functions promise. Do you provide the widest cell phone coverage because you have more cell towers than any other company? Do you guarantee the fastest deliveries because any shipment with a destination over 250 kilometres away is shipped by air and delivered the next day? Is your software never obsolete because you provide free lifetime updates? If so, make those facts part of your message.

Read more about how to be relevant and believable.

Attitude Drives Results

Successful sales people have a diligent work ethic that is undaunted by the prevailing market conditions or the news of the day, no matter how bleak or depressing it may be. They remain consistent in their business development activities –  prospecting for new opportunities by networking, obtaining referrals, and doing something relatively unheard of today – making cold calls. That’s right – cold calls via telephone and in person.

Don’t adjust to existing market conditions by changing proactive business development behaviour. Instead, change focus and redirect your efforts to different opportunities. Bottom line, there’s still business out there and somebody’s going to get it. Why shouldn’t it be you?

Read more about having the right attitude.