Economic downturn

Selling and Surviving During an Economic Downturn

For some business owners, sales can be a challenge during the best of times, but in Q2 of 2021, serving up products and services for a profit is a matter of survival. Current studies report between 800 and 1500 small business closures have occurred daily in the US between February and September of 2020. While Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota says this is “unacceptable” and has carried the mantel of more pandemic relief for small businesses, as Women in Business what can WE do to keep our businesses open and afloat?

One answer is to take a look at the psychology of consumer spending during past recessions to understand how to continue to market and sell now.

According to Harvard researchers John Quelch and Katherine Jocz, customers and clients unnerved by an economic downturn react by placing goods and services they consider purchasing into one of four categories.

Action Step One: Take a look at the list of categories below and determine where your businesses products land.

Essentials. These are items that consumers need to purchase for survival. Goods and services in this category are central to well being. Food, housing, clothing are a few essentials.

Treats. Items that fall into this category are not essential to well being, but they do provide immediate gratification. Consumers can justify their need to have these goods and services now. Beauty and spa services can fall into this category. Restaurants and dining out may be considered treats as well.

Postponables. When belts are tightened, consumers look for purchases which can be postponed. Getting an appliance repaired instead of spending for a new one is an example of a postponable.

Expendables. Goods and services which may be higher ticket items and are perceived as unnecessary and an unjustifiable expense. The purchase of an expendables can be put off indefinitely. During past recessions luxury items and travel fell into this category.

Action Step Two: Your core marketing message needs to shift to “You need this for the long term, for your ‘new normal’.” And with the dream of a new, less chaotic, more predictable lifestyle etched firmly in their heads, consumers and clients will be more likely to purchase items from the postponable and expendable categories.

Action Step Three: Use optimistic, upbeat, positive language to tell the story of how your goods and services will enhance and support the ‘new normal’ lifestyle your clients are creating. If you are selling postponable kitchen cabinets, hook harried customers in by telling them a story on social media with beautiful new cupboards with plenty of effortless space for everything they need to store now and in the future.

Action Step Four: Connection is king! Haven’t heard from a key customer for a while? Pick up the phone and give them a call just to check in and see how they are doing. This is not a sales call, it is a “connecting with you” call. Be positive and upbeat-its not the time to commiserate but it is a time to express gratitude and bring joy into a client’s day. Remember when we used to send and receive cards in the mail? Another effective connection strategy is to send a card just to say “thank you” or “thinking of you”. Writing a personal note has become a lost art which your business can capitalize on to make an impact and stand out from the crowd.

Action Step Five: Reach out to your local Chamber of Commerce to be sure that you are taking advantage of all of the marketing and networking tools available through your continued membership. The staff members are experts at connecting members and services with community resources such as the Small Business Administration.

Action Step Six: As I mention in my “Navigating Personal and Professional Change” presentation, a way to keep your own spirits high is to “Remember-Now is not forever!” Practice gratitude by counting your blessings everyday. And make an effort to do something kind for someone else everyday. Focusing on helping others will help you in more ways than you can possibly imagine.

Cheering you on to success!

 

©Rita Perea 2021


Leading Through Change

Leadership in Times of Change

You may have heard the old saying, “Everyone is for change as long as they don’t have to make a change!”  It’s so true.  For many of us a change, no matter how small, can be difficult, overwhelming and stressful.  

The #1 question I am receiving from business leaders and owners I consult to is,  “What can I do to minimize the stress my team members are feeling due to changes we need to make?”  

It’s mission-critical to take the time and create a plan to help employees navigate both personal and professional change. In business, our employees’ reaction to change can affect their job satisfaction, overall productivity and, ultimately, the company’s bottom-line results.  How do we, as leaders, help team members move forward on the path of change to create, embrace and thrive in their new reality? 

Brain research holds the key to the answer.  When a change happens, no matter how small, our brains are wired to go through a period of grief.  Even if we experience a happy change, such as a wedding or a job promotion, we feel a sense of loss.  Rightly so, something is ending and something new is beginning.  Our old way of being, our normal, is now gone and we find ourselves having to create a new normal.  This can be difficult because our brains want us to go back to the old way and, in the process, we resist creating and embracing the new way.  

Being in this “in-between” time, we know we can’t go back to the way things “used to be”.  But, we are resisting moving forward, too. We are in transition. This can lead to being stuck in fear, anxiety, despair and chaos.  We find ourselves thinking the worst and wondering “When will life get back to normal again?”  And the truth is that its up to us to create and embrace our new normal, for ourselves and also for those that we lead, to positively impact morale and profits.  

Imagine yourself driving the same way to work at the same time everyday for years. This is your status quo, your “normal”.   One day you see a sink hole in the middle of the road blocking your way!  This puts you in a tailspin! Not only will you have to find another route to get to work, but you will also be late!! You might feel irritated, annoyed, perhaps confused and even angry that this sink hole has now messed up your morning commute, your attitude and your life!  Reacting to that sink hole in this way is what a change might feel like.  You find yourself stuck in fear, anxiety and chaos as you scramble around to backtrack and find a new way to get to work. 

As leaders and founders, we instinctively understand that we don’t want our teams to be operating from fear and chaos.  We know that if they are in this anxious place inside their heads, they won’t be productive or happy employees.  What are some ways we can better lead through this challenge called change?

I’m sharing these three strategies a leader can use to help people embrace the new way of doing things and support them in creating their new post-change realities. 

  1. Listen, alleviate fear and provide resources: Do your employees feel heard when they talk with you or are your preoccupied and disengaged in discussions with them?  When we put aside distractions and really listen to what people are afraid of, we can help calm their fears about the changes we are asking them to make.  Offer resources such as the phone number to your companies Employee Assistance Program or links to websites where they may find the support they need to move through the fear and grief a change can ignite. 
  2. A Long Lead Time: Some employees can be early adapters and “change agents”.  If you mention the word “change” they move full speed ahead.  Yet, many are “reluctant changers”.    They see no reason for doing anything differently-ever!  Our reluctant changers will benefit from knowing about any proposed change well in advance of when it will take affect.  This will give them time to think through the change, ask questions and navigate it for a better end-game result.  
  3. Break Down the Process: If a person is reluctant to make a change they could be anxious or fearful without being aware of the reason for their resistance.  If you map out the change with realistic and honest timelines, and help the reluctant person understand the process step-by-step, they will feel a greater sense of clarity and control.  This will help the change move forward more smoothly overall. 

Anticipating and understanding our role in managing the change process is the foundational skill of solid leadership.  Using these three strategies will help minimize employee fear and lead to better results for all concerned-the employees, the company and the clients. 

In this brief article, I’ve just touched on three of the many strategies that can be employed to lead and manage through change.  Visit RitaPerea.com to schedule a complimentary strategy call with me and I’ll help you discover new solutions to navigate the challenges of change in your organization.  


Leaders Who Build Team Trust and Great Cultures

When working with company leaders to build high-performing teams, I share my mantra, “Culture is created by default or by design.” This means that either a culture’s values and expectations are clearly defined, designed, lived and reinforced daily or the culture just sort of bubbles up from the depths of who-knows-where, creating itself. As leaders and managers I think that we can all agree that defining what we want our organization’s culture to be and then taking steps to achieve and reinforce that design is a much better alternative than leaving it up to chance. It is hard to manage chance.

In our capitalistic society where we have seen a trend of greed-fueled profits being created at all costs, it is now more important than ever to deliberately add the value of trust to our teams. We have good teams but we want to make them really great high-performing teams. What makes the difference between good and great? In a word, it’s Trust. It is hard for people to perform at their very best when there is an absence of trust and a feeling of always looking over your shoulder while working with team mates.

Teams that lack trust tend to exhibit these behaviors:

  • Spreading gossip as truths with the intention of hurting others
  • Creating a scapegoat: someone to take the blame for the team problems
  • Creating a scapegoat: someone who becomes the center of team jokes
  • Deliberately hiding or misconstruing information
  • Showing a lack of respect for others demonstrated through words, actions or both

read more


Latest Article

Selling and Surviving During an Economic Downturn

For some business owners, sales can be a challenge during the best of times, but in Q2 of 2021, serving up products and services for …


Subscribe to Rita Perea's "Succeed!" Blog for Leadership