If our economy shrunk as result of being washed in the hot water of this recession never to stretch back to its former size, what would happen to your business?
It could do quite well. Perhaps your business could do better than ever. You’d have to make some smart moves, but they are inexpensive moves to make.
You could actually improve your service instead of just talking about it. You could improve quality instead of making ‘continuous improvement’ an empty slogan. You could add value by valuing your talent and your customers. You could adopt and live a company mission statement.
Or you could wait for the economy to come back. Wait for a recovery.
Do that and you’ll fail.
We’re not going back. We’ve recovered. The banks are lowering credit limits and tightening lending requirements. There will be less money in the total system to be spent from now on. You won’t be getting zillions of credit card offers in the mail—and neither will your customers.
Then there’s the debt. In the past two years, we’ve racked up a huge, insurmountable debt. The government will need more of the available capital than ever before just to pay interest on the debt.
So change the way you think. Get on a marketing plan and stay with it. Work it.
How? Start by defining your customer. Then work like crazy to blow the socks off those customers. Delight your customer. STAY WITHIN YOUR CUSTOMER BASE. It’s tempting to chase “big fish”. Don’t do it. If you catch one now and then, okay. But don’t chase them. When you make your net bigger you don’t get more fish. You get a torn net. Stay on plan.
Or fail.
Up to you.
Chris Reich, Author of TeachU’s Business Talk Blog
Chris@TeachU.com