The SP 500 is at all-time highs and continuing its seemingly inexorable march to 4,000. Why, of all possible times, would we stop to worry over recession now? Because it’s only a matter of time, your finance department is pushing out travel restrictions, and if you’re in manufacturing – purchasing managers have been pulling back on orders for months.
United States ISM Purchasing Managers Index
What to do? When to do it?
The When is now, and the What follows below. Companies that came out ahead during the Great Recession are living proof.
Focus on the Future – The B2B sales cycle is longer than we like. It involves hard to define predictors like “relationship value;” and quite frankly it’s more complicated than selling widgets to consumers. Any groundwork for new growth in the first half of 2020 should have already started. And now is the time to start looking for new growth out past the immediate horizon.
Product Focus – Because the B2B cycle is so much longer you can’t augment your product/service too drastically, nor too quickly. You’ll need to be thoughtful about Discovery, Product-Market Fit, and Solving Core Customer Problems. To do this intelligently means conducting Customer Discovery interviews sooner rather than later.
New Verticals/New Partners – Expand your entire demand pool by bridging to new verticals. Knowing who to talk to, what to say, and how to say it will be just as difficult in a new vertical as it is in your current one. The difference is you’ll need to start from scratch, and you don’t want to be starting from scratch after the downturn. We might be able to help with this. www.thesearchlite.com/contact-us/
Stockpile Cash – Unless you’re in Treasury/Finance this one might be out of your lane, but we all have some budget under our control. Cash equals opportunity when that budget gets tight. However, cash on hand can’t return value until after it’s deployed. Giving yourself the chance to attempt the three steps above requires budget allocation in the near term. Cash on hand also gives you the freedom to be judicious. Passing on a toxic client you would normally accept in a downturn is one of the best decisions a business leader can make.
Act Now – The only thing longer than a B2B sales cycle is trying to make changes to internal process. Q1 and Q2 of 2020 may have passed you by, but a strong showing for the full year is still within reach. Let us know if The SearchLite can help roadmap and execute your recession prep.
If you find yourself reading this well after your market fell off a cliff, follow Jayson Demers’ advice from entrepreneur.com
“Look for new opportunities. First, look for new opportunities wherever you can. If the recession is located in one specific country or one geographic area, consider expanding to new territory. If your target audience is suffering, change your offers or find a new audience. If there’s something wrong with your company model, don’t be afraid to reinvent yourself” – Jayson DeMers
Link to the article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/actions-today-take-sting-out-tomorrows-recession-steve-lachance/
