Sensitive noses sense winds changing

From the LA Times: “With the COVID-19 pandemic keeping most Americans stuck at home and unemployment the highest since the Great Depression era, people sharply reduced their spending in the month.”

This from an article headlined “April dining, retail sales drop 16%”. It’s not even 7am Saturday, and I’m already depressed.

Like a 24-hour cable news channel, Coronavirus envelops us with rising body counts, non-existent social lives, and luxuriously furtive strolls around the block.

Thank goodness dogs still need to be walked, lest our legs atrophy.

A dog’s nose is 50x more sensitive than yours; his brain analyzes smells 40x better, and he knows what’s coming LONG before you do.

After 30+ years handling strategic marketing challenges, my practice feels similar to that dog’s nose, sensing future trends and opportunities.

Which might explain why I’m seeing an interesting shift happening. When all hell broke loose, many of us lost the bulk of our business activity within hours. Speaking engagements, assignments, retainers, and retail sales disappeared as customers hunkered down and hoarded cash.

Grocery and drug store sales surged while everyone else played a game of every man for himself.

Yet over the past two weeks business conversations have increased, and the volume of project proposals is expanding. New contracts are being signed, and companies seem to be dipping their toes in the business waters again.

Whether it’s PPP money or a sense of fatalism is difficult to say, but my instinct is owners are recognizing the critical need to re-assert control of their businesses. This necessitates communicating with customers and prospects like never before to jumpstart the sales process.

Everyone’s new reality will undoubtedly include masks and curbside service for months to come. Yet the recognition that government’s willingness or ability to solve this problem is, at best, limited is forcing management into a mode of self-reliance.

Assuming we’re all truly on our own, organizations hoping to survive and thrive in this brave new world will need to review their marketing plan, develop fresh strategies, and initiate efforts to help themselves.

Meaning it’s time to analyze your customer’s profile, dust off the mailing lists, and remind everyone you’re ready to service their needs.

Lacking a solid marketing plan? It’s still relatively quiet…you’d better draft one up quickly.

With that said, I wish you a week of profitable marketing.

--------------
Get free marketing advice at www.askmrmarketing.com.