Marketing and sales in a recession – stick to the knitting!
I attended a very useful session yesterday run by the Cranfield University School of Management on ‘Marketing and Sales in a recession’. I was doubly interested as COA Solutions is running a similar event in September, only this time aimed at financial executives with a slightly more upbeat title, ‘How to prosper in a downturn’.
The expected ‘slash and burn’ tactics were referred to throughout the day, but evidence was presented throughout to suggest this generally is a risky policy (protect and nurture the brand at all times), although one should always review and flex marketing budgets to suit current economic conditions.
The day was introduced and hosted by the marketing guru and Emeritus Professor Malcolm McDonald. His main theme was one of customer segmentation, which is vital anyway, but especially in a downturn.
Other takeaways for me included:
- Listen to your customers (and respond to what they say!). Nurture existing customers before chasing after new ones
- Remember, customers buy value, not products
- The best sales people are your customers
- Seek to reduce risk for your customers
- Measure customer profitability (and understand why you might sell to unprofitable ones)
- In a downturn, changes in marketing and sales strategy should be subservient to and driven by changes in business strategy, which should be driven from the top. Reprioritise marketing spend based on this new strategy and measure effectiveness based on hard facts.
A final thought from Professor McDonald was to go on the offensive in a downturn – generally rates are cheaper and competitors may be engaged elsewhere (panicking).
Which brings us back nicely to the theme of the COA Solutions briefing later in September – ‘How to prosper in a downturn’.
