Still stuck in the recession even though President Obama says it’s over?  Here are ten things you can do to take advantage of the downturn.

1. Ask for more budget and justify it with the opportunity to outspend weaker competitors – remember they have Hand-Wringers too. In 2009, while Verizon and HP were slashing their B2B spend, IBM, AT&T and Microsoft were increasing theirs by more than 20%.
2. Evaluate ALL your suppliers. Are they stable? Can you renegotiate with the good ones and weasel out of relationships with the poor ones?
3. Lock in your long-term media spend at the lower rates.
4. Watch for competitors not renewing exclusive sponsorships of things like awards programs, events or research and be prepared to push for lower pricing to take them over.
5. Identify the people you would love to hire away from your competitors, partners or suppliers and make sure you have them connected on LinkedIn or Twitter in case they get the push.
6. Go through your laid off colleagues’ offices for a better chair, new stapler or more attractive plant.
7. Identify weird things you didn’t have the time or the courage to try during good times and go try a few of them. If they tank, probably nobody will notice and if they work you’ll be ahead of the curve.
8. Resist the urge to delay product launches. Demand may be lower but it isn’t gone and your competitors are probably sitting on their hands. Also, it’s probably cheaper (see number 3).
9. Revise your billing terms. Particularly if you sell to smaller businesses, pushing your terms from net 10 or net 30 out to 60 or even 90 days may give them the breathing room they need and earn you a long-term champion.  If that won’t work, see if you can talk your receivables people into harassing the big customers and not the little ones.
10. Write a plan to increase revenue share in your worst performing markets. Then go execute it.

Related Posts

Hail Mary Marketing
Ten More Things to Do in a Recession

BizMarketer is written by Elizabeth Williams
I help companies have better conversations
Drop me a line at ewilliams@candlerchase.com
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