How To Guide: Making Sales When Times Are Tough

Selling is hard enough work when things are going well. But what about when you and your customers are facing tough times? Then, it becomes even more challenging.

When faced with cyberattacks, global pandemics, and climate change-induced supply chain worries, you need to have a plan in place for making sure your business doesn’t just survive, but can thrive. 

In this Guide to Making Sales When Times Are Tough, we’ll take a look at what you can do to ride the wave. We’ll start by taking a look at mindset and relationships.

Staying Positive Even When Things Don’t Look Good

Before you get to strategies and tactics to help your business stay afloat, it’s important to have the right mindset to face challenges. If you suffer from negative thinking, low confidence, high stress levels, or a “can’t do” attitude, now is the time to fix them.

A positive attitude is essential when faced with challenging times. You need to look forward with optimism and focus on the glass being half full rather than half empty. You must be open to growth and ready to learn from difficulties if you want to face them appropriately. 

Treat Your Customers Like Gold

A major challenge during tough times is customer acquisition. When things are tight, people aren’t looking for new businesses to buy from. Instead, they’ll be relying on the businesses they know and trust.

This is why it’s important to work on building strong relationships. Customer retention is much more cost effective than new customer acquisition, so focus on growing your brand, offering a great customer experience, and providing as much value as possible. If you have a loyal fan base, they’ll stick with you when things are rough. 

Use Your Sales Resources Wisely

When you’re going through hard times, you may find that your regular sales activities were more unnecessarily costly than you realized. As part of your planning, look for areas you can trim. Try to make the best use of your time and other resources on sales activities that get results.

One way to do this is to focus on inbound rather than outbound marketing. Outbound means going out and getting new business by creating opportunities to talk to potential customers. Inbound lets them come to you. With inbound, you create helpful content and offer it to free to the public. This draws people back to your business. 

Put content out there to engage your audience and it will help you keep bringing new leads into your marketing when your resources are limited. 

Focus on Two-Way Communication

Starting today, build good two-way communication with your audience. Keep in steady contact with them, helping them solve their problems and gaining valuable feedback from them. Use what you learn to make even better and more valuable offers that will make a change in their lives. With this good communication in place, you’ll be able to spot trends and threats before they’re upon you. 

5 Common Misconceptions About Marketing in Tough Times

Tough times are looming on the horizon! Is your business prepared to tackle the challenges they present? You can if you prepare well. The first step is to dispel these 5 myths about marketing during tough times.

Global Problems Won’t Affect MY Business

If you think what’s happening “over there” won’t affect your business, think again. The economy is global and even your small local business can feel the effects of events on the other side of the world.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, businesses in every field are experiencing labor shortages and their attendant effects. Russia invading Ukraine has caused supply chain issues in every industry. And as the climate catastrophe worsens, there will be energy shortages and other disruptions. 

“I’ll Cross That Bridge When I Get to It”

Are ocean levels rising in your neighborhood yet? You might think, “My market hasn’t felt the effects of the war or pandemic yet, so why worry about it?” A good reason to worry about it is that when things get tough, it’s already too late.

Instead, you need to prepare ahead of time. Now, while things are going well, you should be making plans, building relationships, and boosting your brand so that you won’t get panicked when tough times hit.

Mindset Doesn’t Matter

One of the most important ways to prepare is to adjust your mindset. But you might wonder, how is meditation and deep breathing going to help when sales are in freefall? 

Mindset is vital for getting through challenging times. You need to maintain a positive frame of mind so that you can face these challenges. Every setback can be a valuable learning experience if you approach with positivity and an open mind. 

When Times Are Tough, Sell Harder!

One of the biggest myths of marketing is that when times are tough, you just need to get out there and beat the streets even harder. But when things are hard, you usually have fewer resources to put toward sales activities. Furthermore, it’s a fact that outbound sales are just not effective.

What is effective is inbound marketing. This means creating content to publish that brings people into your sales funnel. Build multiple streams of inbound marketing and you’ll find it much easier to keep selling during a downturn.

People Stop Buying When Facing Financial Difficulties

It may seem intuitive that when finances get tight, people stop spending money. But this is only half the story. They keep spending money on things they need from brands they love. 

This means that if you have a memorable brand that offers massive value, people will stick with you and keep buying, perhaps buying even more. Learn as much as you can about your audience and find unique ways to meet their needs, and you’ll thrive.

Don’t Despair – Prepare!

Wars, disasters, fires, floods, and killer bees – It may sound gloomy, but don’t despair. There’s no reason to catastrophize. Put that energy into preparing and you can not only survive, but thrive, even during tough times.

4 Tools You Need for the Tough Times Ahead

From global pandemics to wars that disrupt supply chains, there is a great deal going on in the world today that can affect even the smallest local business. Now, when things are going well, is a good time to prepare. Here are 4 tools to help you when things get tough.

Strategies for Busting Stress

Troubled times can come in all shapes and sizes but one thing they have in common is stress. How do you face these challenges without freaking out and falling apart? 

An essential tool for thriving in tough times is an arsenal of stress reduction strategies. You’ll need to talk yourself down when you’re feeling overwhelmed in the moment.

Effective stress reduction techniques include:

• Deep breathing
• Physical activity like jogging or working out
• Mindfulness meditation
• Long walks
• Yoga, tai chi, or qi gong
• Creative activity to get your mind off work

Do any of these sound suitable for you? Get into the practice now when things are calm and they’ll help you when you need them.

Tools for Content Planning and Creation

During tough times, you may find your resources pinched. However, you need to keep pumping out useful content for your audience in order to keep your inbound marketing going. You can also use these tools to produce additional information products to give away as freebies for added value.

Content planning and creation tools can help with a variety of tasks. They can give you SEO guidance, keep you organized, help with productivity, manage your content team, and help you write and edit. Some good tools to check out include Grammarly, Hemingway Editor, and Semrush.

Customer Feedback Tools

Knowing your customer well is important for getting through tough times. You’ll need to create a strong brand that they feel attached to, and offer excellent value at a good price. You can’t do this unless you understand their needs and values, and the unique value your products and services offer.

While you should have as much personal contact as possible with your audience, there are also tools that automate gathering customer feedback. These tools offer surveys you can give your customers through email or social media and some also offer customized reporting.

Engage by Email

If you aren’t already using one, you should have an email autoresponder program. This is a software program that allows you to maintain an email subscriber list and broadcast messages to them on a set schedule. 

Email allows you to create a closer relationship with your audience. People are much more responsive to emails in their inbox than messages on social media or elsewhere. This is especially important during difficult times as you can maintain a personal connection and offer helpful content there. 

All-in-one CRM

Consolidate your software. An All-in-one-CRM (customer relationship management) system can replace the multiple software you use for business. This reduces clutter, and tech overwhelm and helps streamline your business processes. And also reduces the cost of all these applications. Click here to see the features of the Sales Master Hub CRM system

Are You Ready for the Tough Times Ahead?

There are sure to be tough times ahead, no matter what industry you’re in. You can face any challenge if you’re prepared, so now’s the time to get started getting ready. 

The 4 Qualities of Businesses That Can Weather Any Storm

What do you do when tough times loom ahead? The world is going through changes now, from climate catastrophe causing supply chain disruptions to a labor force crippled by a global pandemic. It’s become apparent to businesses of all sizes and industries that no one is safe from these problems.

When troubles arise, some businesses crumple while others thrive. Here are the 4 qualities of business that can weather any storm. 

Positive Attitude

There are a number of reasons you need a positive mindset in order to survive tough times. First, it keeps you optimistic and motivated. Even when things are hard, you can see that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

Positivity allows you to see the glass as half-full rather than half-empty. You’ll see the good even when things aren’t going so well. This will enable you to learn from adversity and grow from it.

Finally, it will help you maintain your confidence and know your value. You can effectively communicate this to your customers. 

Strong, Memorable Brand

How is your business’s branding? If you have a strong memorable brand, this will help you get through hard times Even when your customers are feeling the squeeze, they will stay with you because your core values resonate with them.

Branding isn’t something you can do overnight. You should start working now to discover what unique strengths you have to offer and creating a branding strategy. You can then build relationships through your brand that will serve you when things are rough. 

Deep Knowledge of Your Customer Base

Businesses that survive do so because they understand their customers well. Knowledge of your customer base is necessary for branding, building relationships, offering a great customer experience, and delivering massive value. 

This is done through conducting research and continually seeking feedback from the market so there’s objective data on which to base your marketing. Create opportunities where you can learn about your customers directly from them and create an ideal customer profile to use in your marketing. 

Good Content Marketing Strategy

Companies that sail through tough times can do so because they have a great content marketing strategy in place. Content marketing is a form of inbound marketing where you publish helpful content that your audience can use and engage with.

With this content out in the world, you won’t have to focus so much on outbound sales. This is helpful when the economic situation isn’t good as it saves resources. Plus, during tough times people often spend more time online looking for this kind of content. 

Getting Ready for Tough Times

Would you like to be a business that gets through tough times with passing colors or one that perishes? If you want to survive the changes, the key is to get prepared. 

The Pros and Cons of Running a Business in Uncertain Times

There’s no way to avoid tough times. In recent years, with climate change, global pandemics, and economic downturns, hard times always seem to be looming ahead. Since no business is impervious to these challenges, the best thing you can do to prepare. First, it’s important to understand the pros and cons of facing tough times.

Con – The Competition Gets Fierce

When things get tight, everyone scrambles for the crumbs that are left. In this case, the “crumbs” are customers. This means that you and your competitors will be ramping up your sales activities to try to get that shrinking market share. 

Pro – Your Competitors Disappear

As the competition gets rough, competitors gradually disappear. If you prepare well and play your cards right during a time of troubles, you can find yourself the last business standing. Tough times can be a great opportunity for dominating your market. 

Con – You Have to Adapt Fast

When a new threat is emerging, you need to assess the risk and adapt fast. This is a stressful experience for any small business owner. However, you can meet the challenge if you prepare well before the threat even appears on the horizon. 

Pro – Adversity Is a Great Teacher

While adapting to changes requires work and preparation, it can also be a valuable learning experience. If you can cultivate a positive mindset along with your other preparations, you can take advantage of these difficult times to learn and grow. 

Con – Goodbye, Comfort Zone

One of the worst things about tough times is simply that it pushes us out of our comfort zone. Your business is humming along and growing steadily, and you like where it’s going. Then out of the blue come changes that force you to make changes you don’t want to make. It can be an unpleasant experience. 

Pro – The Benefits Go Beyond the Tough Times

The changes might be uncomfortable, but some of them will be for the better. Difficult times push you out of your rut. You need to do whatever you need to do to survive. But some of the changes you make and strategies you employ will put you in a better position afterward. These might be changes you needed to make.

How to Prepare Your Marketing for Tough Times

So, what do you need to do to prepare for the tough times that are coming? First, you need to cultivate the right mindset. It’s important to be positive so that you can face the challenges head-on with confidence, ready to learn.

Next, you’ll need to fine-tune your marketing. Create a memorable brand, offer massive value, and boost your inbound marketing. Tie it all up with a great customer experience and you’ll not only survive, but thrive.

The good news is that any business can thrive during difficult times by preparing beforehand. You can prepare your mindset, branding, marketing, and customer experience so that you sail through unscathed.