Business leaders are now determining how best to advance.
Failure to do so may lead to knee jerk reactions and harm the business in the long term.
Gather your team and get an in-depth update on every client.
Next, pay attention to your technical data.
Then deep-dive into your finances.
Burn rate should already be tracked on a monthly basis but it is extra important during this time.
Calculate incomings, divided by your monthly burn rate, and assess your roadmap based on these new figures.
You should always start here and get your house in order.
Option 1: Defensive
A defensive approach primarily concentrates on plugging any holes in your ship.
It can also help you better understand your companys position in a newly turbulent market.
These are the core steps for the defensive route:
1.
This information will require account managers to have regular conversations with clients and foster a human-to-human relationship.
Be sure to categorize clients in the spreadsheet.
I find it useful to use different colors to highlight those who are high risk vs low risk.
it’s possible for you to then clearly identify where it’s crucial that you focus your energy.
you oughta make yourself indispensable to clients too.
Make it your business to be the solution to any problems they may be facing.
Making yourself available outside of work hours is also effective.
The main goal is to provide more value for your clients.
Cut non-essential costs
Internally, youll need to find places to cut costs.
Anything you dont deem to be essential needs to be reevaluated.
What is essential but can be trimmed without too much damage?
Redistributing is a good budget strategy to pull resources from certain teams to support high-priority areas.
Staff from marketing could transition to customer service, or the ads team could help with sales outreach.
Similarly, stopping research and development operations is wise during crises.
Employees can be deployed elsewhere in the company and freelancers can be put on pause to lower expenses.
Avoid knee-jerk reactions
Making difficult decisions shouldnt compromise your integrity.
Its important to set your lines in the sand and stick to them.
Its likely your clients will see this for what it is desperation and it could drive them further away.
Giving a no-strings-attached discount to a customer means theyll probably expect more of the same in the future.
Some companies have realized they are in a prime position to capitalize on the current situation.
These are the core steps for the offensive route:
1.
Make an action plan for sales
Get a feel for your market dynamics.
Review your outbound procedures too.
When youre following up with leads that have gone quiet, dont pitch with a hard sell.
In your communications acknowledge the unprecedented environment we find ourselves in and the challenges businesses are facing.
Assess which if any additional services you should be offering.
This avoids dishing out discounts and gives you and your client added security.
Any increases or decreases you found should influence how you market your business.
The fluctuations are indications of the current climate and can help you stay relevant.
Think about what your data tells you what content are people more interested in?
What areas havent got the same traction as before?
This might also be a good time to consider external PR.
