Doing Business In Turbulant Times For Slideshare 20 02 2010

Doing Marketing in TURBULANT TIMES- By Maxwell Ranasinghe

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What are Turbulent Times A general recession around the world General lethargy in investing Hesitation to to take risk Your trading partners having problems Substantial drop in your sales income High cost of operations Reduction in the reserves Difficulty in paying recurrent expenses that

you have been paying in time during the past


The help extended by the banks in better times are not available

Statutory payments have to be postponed -ETF, EPF, ESC, NBF, VAT, BTT, INCOME TAX

The de-motivation of staff in the face of not been able to provide them with required salaries and benefits or cutting down on certain perks

Doubts in the minds of employees whether the company will survive or not

Leaving of certain good employees Firm getting entrapped in a vicious cycle of loosing

income, loosing profit, loosing customers, loosing good employees and finally leading to bankruptcy

The properties getting vested with banks and financial institutes.


What is Marketing There are so many definitions We do not want to go for an academic

exercise in defining marketing but for sake of discussion, lets put marketing in simple terms

“Identifying customers needs and wants and meeting them with goods and services better than others”


What is marketing in turbulent times? Maxwell Ranasinghe’s definition “ Identifying customers needs and wants

in a changed environment where customer is in difficulty as to run his business or rather struggling to survive in the market . Understanding and serving such needs and wants in a manner that the customer will feel that you are a provider of solutions to his needs in trying situations”


What shall we do?????


What options available for us? Not much The only option is “ You need to

adjust and fine tune your approach to the changing environment”

Is it easy? Absolutely not, it is really

tough. Development Alternatives - Training and Consulting -

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Why it is tough ? You got to change Is changing difficult ? Yes it is Why ? You will have to learn to change You will change as a person

and then change the company


A personal commitment required !I will face the turbulent times with commitment and I will come out of the rut.

I will be more vigilant to what is happening in the market place and will learn and understand very well the current situation ( PESTEEL)

I have the desire and commitment to do well in this period of difficulty

Every problem has an answer in built.

I am confident that I can win I need to take things in to

control rather than just letting things to happen.

I will manage and control my personal expenses well.


I am willing to forgo some of my perks and be a source of inspiration

I will change my negative attitudes. I will contribute well to draw up new

plans and cooperate with management and others to implement it.

I will put more effort in understanding customers than in the past

I will not forget the basics in marketing and customer care.

No body can prevent me from doing well except me.


*** Do the basics right Many firms forget the

basics when they are doing well.

Many things are taken for granted

Effective and efficient management systems should be emphasised

The best way to get out of rut is to do the basics well

No quick fixes but you need to switch on to basics quickly


1. Be mindful Be smart and thrifty,

but don’t get panic. This, too, shall pass.

Economies go through cycles of expansion and contraction. It’s what we all learned in economics courses (back then, of course, we weren’t really paying attention, as we were not really affected. We were just students! ).

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The trouble is, while academics can illustrate well on the cyclical economy, real business people have to live through difficult economic events.

We love the expansionary times, but the contractions can be very painful.

If you’re smart, you’ve managed your balance sheet well and can ride out a period of slow or no growth. Development Alternatives -

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2. Reduce waste totally and cut unnecessary expenses Have a Brain

Storming Session within the staff on “ How to eliminate waste and reduce expenditure” It should come within.

There will be so much that you can do, just make an attempt.

You will find so many options.


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E.g.. reduce expenditure, even selling a property and settling high interest loans may help, close down loss making ventures and concentrate more on the areas you have a competitive advantage.

Talk with banks and other suppliers and tell them that you need their advice and support to be afloat.

This is applicable not only for your company but personally to you as a staff member or a businessman. So personal expenses to be analysed and reduced to the bare minimumDevelopment Alternatives -


3. Marketing is muscle, not fat. Be careful about cutting it.

Customer is your most important asset. You need to care about his requirements and offer the best possible.

Let marketing look after that. You need to talk to customer more. So do not start cutting budgets starting from advertising without an analysis

You need not initiate another vicious cycle


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Marketing money in a recession are like oxygen on Mt. Everest—the less there is in the surrounding environment, the more valuable the amount you possess becomes.

Cutting your marketing spending is a sure way to give ground to competitors who may be more aggressive during the downturn.

You may change the way you communicate with the market but you need to keep on communicating with the market about the offers that you make. You just cant cut the total advertising budget.Development Alternatives -


4. Don’t lose focus by chasing business you wouldn’t normally want.

When clients and customers get nervous about the economy, they cut back their spending. For you that could mean fewer transactions, smaller purchases, or possibly both.

But if you try to broaden your service appeal to please a wider audience, chances are you’ll make your best customers even less satisfied, giving them one more reason to stay home or spend less


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. Do your best to stick to your

customer base and enhance the value you provide to your best customers. They may decide to make their cutbacks in areas other than yours.


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5. Don’t Discount.

When companies are hit with declining sales and shrinking margins, the options can start to look bleak.

It’s easy to rationalize discounting during a downturn, for your company’s sake (”it helps to drive business”) as well as for the sake of your customers (”they’re struggling and need the help”).

Attacking one challenge( sales)–by lowering prices, can make the other challenge( margins) worse.Development Alternatives -


Best way is to show that you give the “best bundle of benefits” to your customer

But one powerful way to enhance both sales and margins in a downturn is to make your Sales Force More Effective.

Many companies in the world who had that attitude among other changes have faced the situation well.


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6. Do not be Pessimistic There’s lot of hope that the

world will come over the current crisis.

Sri Lanka is not affected very much.

We may pull out of our economic rut more quickly than anticipated

But clients and customers will still need to eat. They still need transportation. They still seek entertainment, education, food & clothing, medicines, exercising, vacations, mobile phones, internet, perfume, office supplies, computer servers, agricultural equipment and machinery.


Practical Model in doing business in turbulent times

Targeted offerings Optimise tools and procedures Manage Performance Sales Resource Allocation


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Targeted offerings Analyse and categorise your current customer base

with the criteria – the volume of sales, payment patterns, future buying patterns, relationship etc.

Ascertain who are your best customers Which customers will still be strong and keep

buying in a down market? And which prospects should you go after now? Develop and Strengthen the relationships high

potential customers Once you identify these high potential customers

you can create a “ Prioritized Map” of the market as a guide for your sales efforts.


Optimized tools and procedures.

Sales cycles always lengthen in a downturn. But close, disciplined management

approach to the “Prioritized Map” can improve win rates.

Systematic channeling of leads to reps; routine, detailed account and constant discussions and monitoring will help

Meticulous tracking of customers’ readiness to purchase under current cash-and-credit positions.


Performance Management.

Territories and quotas that made sense last year may not be realistic in today’s conditions.

May have to change the decision making on past historical records.

New realistic targets to be set on future predictions not based on the past records. Development Alternatives -


Sales Resource Allocation

Measure the time reps spend in front of customers; if it’s less than it should be, consider channeling some functions to support staff or rearranging territories to minimize travel.

A downturn also offers opportunities to beef up less-expensive sales channels and advertising channels.

Be creative and find novel ways and means of communicating and distributing your products

E.g.. telesales or web based sales, Mobile Sales etc. BTL advertising and publicity.Development Alternatives - Training and Consulting - [email protected]

So take everything that we discussed into consideration seriously.

Have your “Priority Map” to face the situation.

Fine tune your Marketing Effort to reach the destination of your “Priority Map”

Then go back to basics. There is no other option.


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Go back to basics

Avoid mistakes, be mindful of the points discussed , understand more about the changing markets, do not forget the basics.

Re visit the basics and do basics better than what you have been doing.


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You need to work hard towards success. We, the Management Consultants, can preach what to do but you a got to do it.


Doing Business In Turbulant Times For Slideshare 20 02 2010

Business

Transcript of Doing Business In Turbulant Times For Slideshare 20 02 2010