Tough Times Don't Have to Be As Tough As You Think

In every down economy, some businesses lose money while others seemingly coin money. The plain fact is that guerrillas have an advantage during tough times.

The guerrilla lives by different rules during tough times than during boom times. The guerrilla attacks when the competition retreats and the attack is concentrated where the guerrilla offers specific product or service advantages. Retreating companies leave voids in the market, ideal niches for guerrilla companies.

Guerrillas do not commit all their resources to any one front because they try to maintain resources for new options and for potential confrontations with the competition. Flexibility is an asset. Successful guerrilla companies try to be inconspicuous about their success, reducing the chances of being copied when attacked by their competitors......

Guerrillas are aware that their prospects are more likely to recall marketing messages delivered consistently during a fragile economy, even if they are smaller and less frequently delivered. So they maintain the attitude of a guerrilla even when the economic situation is in its darkest days.

...Guerrillas know that they must seek profits from their current customers. They worship at the shrine of customer follow-up. They are world-class experts at getting their customers to expand the size of their purchase.  Because the cost of selling to a brand-new customer is six times higher than selling to an existing customer, guerrilla marketers turn their gaze from strangers to friends.

This reduces the cost of marketing while reinforcing the customer relationship. To guerrillas, follow-up means marketing to some of the most cherished citizens of planet Earth--their customers.

Guerrillas are able to think of additional products and services that can establish new sources of profits to them. In any kind of economy, they are on the alert for strategic alliances--fusion marketing efforts with others. This kind of cooperative marketing makes sense at all times, but makes the most sense during the tough times, when companies must market aggressively while reducing their marketing investment.

Guerrilla companies cease most broadcasting and increase their narrowcasting--to customers and carefully targeted prospect lists. A faltering economy is tough. Still, when the going gets tough, guerrillas make sizeable bank deposits. Many see beauty in economic ugliness.

In gloomy economic days, when everything else seems to be shrinking, think in terms of expanding your offerings. Do you absolutely everything you can to motivate customers to expand the size of their purchase. Prove that buying right now is a sagacious move because of the tough times.....

Admit that times are tough; admit that people must be extra careful when buying things; explain that you're fully aware of the economy and taken special steps because of it.