Your business has changed in less than a week unless you live under a rock. This has nothing to do with politics, but economics. If you run a business that resells products from overseas, the cost of what you sell has gone up. If you run a SAS or service business, the cost of running your business is about to go up. Your technology and even the paper we write on will create a higher cost of doing business. The current business climate, albeit probably temporary or short-term, will cause higher prices, lost business, and present challenges that we all must face head-on and find a way to overcome.

In recent history, it may have been normal that if your cost of doing business went up, you could and would charge more. But when this is universal, companies will start to recoil and try to protect their market share. Since I run a marketing business, we are often viewed as an expense, and the reflex is to pare back expenses, not invest more.

So what can you do to weather the storm and even increase market share in this crazy time?

Not Our First Rodeo

I have been running this business for over 25 years. I have been through periods of uncertainty, disruption, and chaos.

Literally, the month after I started in August 2001, I woke up to planes crashing into the twin towers in New York. Planes were grounded, and business and our entire country came to a halt. Not a great time to start or grow a business, but somehow most of us survived that crisis.

In 2008, we had the housing bubble and market crashes. Then, in 2020, we had COVID and the supply chain meltdown, which put many businesses on lockdown, and many could not deliver products and services as usual. Yet, we met the challenge, and some even saw a business boom on the other side.

I have worked with many businesses, small and midsized, throughout each of those periods of upheaval. I have found three qualities of the businesses that survived and thrived through crisis:

• Adapt
• Innovate
• Communicate

Adapt

How can we adapt in a time of crisis? First, you should inventory what you do, who you serve, and previously served. Unless you run a monolithic business (sell one product or service to one industry), you have various customers with various needs.

For example, let's say you sell POS systems to restaurants. You may want to look at other retailers where the cost of doing business will be less of a strain on the industry. Think about companies that repair things. People will be more inclined to repair than replace. This could be repair shops and parts suppliers.

If your software does not adapt that way, look for another company that sells similar systems built for different industries. Their costs may have some technology increases, but then you have to innovate to make your systems more valuable than the costs of the price hikes.

This may take some time, but the sooner you start, the better chance you have to zig while your competition is zagging.

Innovate

Innovation does not have to be as complex as involving a team of engineers or rocket scientists. It could be as simple as repackaging what you already do.

Think about service. Most people charge for service calls. If you watch TV, you still see HVAC companies selling seasonal tune-ups. They charge low prices in the guise of a tune-up to get access to a customer and get them to become loyal to them when service or replacement is needed.

In the B2b space, you should look at your current customers first. Offer them a free or low-priced system or equipment assessment to help them maintain their current equipment and systems without looking at higher capital expenditures for replacing old or outdated equipment. Once you have the foot in the door, you could still help them replace products in smaller batches that are more necessary and timely.

Maintaining and repairing is a great way to stay top of mind with your current customers.

Communicate

The last piece of this puzzle during a time of crisis is communication. This is a fatal flaw that I've already seen start to happen. Customers will come and say, “Hey, you know what? We're not selling as much, so we will scale back on all our marketing. It's time to stop doing some of the things that we did. We will go minimalistic because we're not selling as much.” Well, here lies the problem.

This crisis is probably going to last two to three months. If you wait two to three months, your business will start picking up, and then you'll have to wait maybe a couple more months after you've started making more money to start marketing. That means what's happening now is going to start to wither away, and it's going to take you months to scale back up.

Now is the time to start thinking about becoming a thought leader. Create content around why repairing old equipment, maintaining, or even enhancing current investments is smart during tough times. This will work to both keep you top of mind with current customers, but can also attract new opportunities. We tend to post thought leadership to social media, and then, when a specific topic is resonating, invest in advertising to a small group to see if that generates interest.

Short videos can get attention, and long articles can be posted as teaser posts that lead back to your website. That is where you lead people to your contact form to start conversations with your sales and support teams.

This is why I am a big proponent of spending more on marketing. You have to get the message out that you have a different view and solution from your competition. Else, you are lost in the abyss of people just pushing to sell harder. Offer knowledge and support, not just “BUY now to save” messages.

Make A Plan

Adapt: Maybe you innovated in the last crisis. Or, you're not in a position to create a ton of original content, so you go back through what you already have and either repost it or update it. Modify it a little bit. Scale back on the big stuff, but don't give up on the little stuff. This whole post is being repurposed for the same message I posted during the COVID crisis in 2020.

If you have the resources, invest in new content that shares your thoughts, insights, and ideas about how you can be a source of positivity in a sea of negative vibes. Give people hope that with a little help, they too can weather the storm until things normalize, or at least help them minimize the damage of the new normal.

Innovate:  Try to figure out how you can repackage what you're doing, sell it to a different market, or sell it in different quantities or sizes—something that will make people realize that you're still in business. The key thing to realize is that you are in the business of providing an alternative to what the masses are doing. Research your competition, and see how the market messaging (or lack thereof) is being positioned during this time of crisis. Find ways to flip the script to stand out and offer cost-effective or innovative solutions in dire circumstances.

Finally, Communicate: Don't give up on the marketing. Ensure you're still getting your messages out there and staying top of mind with your audience.

I believe that my business is most successful when I help companies make or save more money at any time, and I, too, have to adapt, innovate, and communicate.

Final Thoughts

Here is the bottom line: “Don't Panic, PIVOT!” No matter what you are experiencing, others feel the same or worse. The sky may be falling, and we may never return to our normal business, but cocooning or living in a doom loop will make things worse.

Your customers trust you, and you need to reach out (now more than ever) to ask how they are doing and if there is anything you can do to help. That conversation may provide you with the ideas you need to adapt, innovate, and communicate with others to stay top of mind and in the right place at the right time.

After all, if you really examine your past, you have done that in the past to meet this moment head-on!

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Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas, or questions about business-to-business sales and marketing today! Do you have a sales or marketing communications strategy that works for you? What tips or techniques can you share that work for you and your business?

To learn more about this and other topics on B2b Sales & Marketing, visit our podcast website at The Bacon Podcast.