On October 11th, we introduced the idea that Winning in a Down Economy does not start with blindly cutting costs. Instead we outlined a strategy for tuning in that market leaders have adopted. In ten weeks that follow, we’re going to cover the ten steps to getting your organization aligned quickly to a new market reality. This post is the second of ten. Steps 1-3 address the areas of assessment and increasing the reliability of your decision making. A key starting point is to accept that no matter what you’ve done or not done in the past, today you are tuned out.
Step 2: Understand the New Buying Environment
The environment we are in today has another similar chasm. It’s crossing from speculators (those who purchased based on hope) to conservatives (those who validate everything before they buy). These buyers are not interested in improving productivity and growth anymore as much as they are focused on survival. Their mantra’s. Safety first. Proven results. Show me how I’m not going to get fired for taking this risk. Interestingly, you will likely be isolated from all of this because it NEVER comes up in direct conversation. Buyers now being the sophisticated consumers that they are have already researched online and talked to third parties before they engage with you. They’re loaded for bear when they do.
This is from Tuned In: Uncover the extraordinary opportunities that lead to business breakthroughs. , and written by Phil Myers.
I agree with this article and encourage you to read it in its entirety. But validations are getting harder to get. New products and services make every situation slightly different. When I go through Lead conversion strategies with customers we seldom see simple sales channels. They seem to very fragmented and attributing any single strategy is next to impossible. Have you mapped out your lead conversions strategies for your most recent customer? Do you know where they came form?