New to WebNamaste?

START HERE

When most of the world, including entrepreneurs and business owners, are panicking about the effects of COVID-19 outbreak on their business, I would like to offer some thoughts on how to make the best use of this downtime.

Taking a Reality Check:

Is your business recession-proof? This downtime can be considered as testing times for what’s coming ahead – a possible recession in the lines of what happened in 2008.

In market parlance,

Just as a rising tide lifts all boats, so the falling tide reveals who has been swimming naked. In other words, the recession helps to identify and eliminate unsuccessful projects and businesses.

David Simpson, Economist

So what are the activities you MUST focus on during the downtime, to protect yourself from market-related threats?

Read on…

1. Focus on Relationships.

Send an email to all your customers/clients acknowledging the pandemic, throwing clarity on your situation and offer time to discuss the next steps. Your customers may want to pause your services, so you can use this opportunity to show that you’re more than just another service provider.

Here’s what Loom did to address the situation and build trust by taking the moral high road:

How cool is that? Can you think of something similar that you can implement in your business?

2. Focus on Prospecting.

After every economic downturn, the businesses and people who stay on top of the mind in the market will reap greater rewards once the dust settles. Though I am not religious, here are some words of wisdom from the Bible on why you must sow the seeds during difficult times.

Our life is a result of the seeds we’ve planted during challenging times.

– Yours Truly.

From a marketing perspective, this crisis is an opportunity.

The majority of businesses would cut their marketing spends during the crisis out of panic. This results in an opportunity for you to address your market even if you have a low budget to spend on Facebook Ads or Google Ads.

This is also a great time to run retargeting ad campaigns to keep in touch with your website visitors and your subscribers and offer them something of value.

3. Focus on Building Systems.

You must be focusing all your efforts to review your existing systems in the following three core areas:

  1. Delivery/Fulfillment Systems
  2. Client Acquisition Systems
  3. Client Retention Systems

Delivery/Fulfillment

Do you have a product or a service that you can deliver over and over again without getting consumed by the day-to-day process?

Do you have the right team in the right seats?

Do you have total control of your team’s productivity metrics?

Do you have enough profits to take home after completing the delivery?

Client Acquisition:

Do you have a system that enables you to scale?

Do you know how much it costs to acquire a new customer?

How much are you willing to pay for a qualified lead?

How many leads does it take to convert into a sale?

How many sales do you need to make every month to achieve your yearly target?

Do you anchor your pricing and provide options or payment plans?

How do you position your offers in such a way it differentiates you from your competitors?

Do you have a constantly updated document on handling sales objections?

How often do you review the sales calls with your sales team?

Client Retention:

Do you have a “Keep in touch strategy” in place to keep in touch with your clients and prospects?

What can you offer to your clients on a monthly retainer?

What makes your customers come back to you for more?

Are you fully aware of why your clients chose you out of all the choices they’ve had?

Do you have a predictable referral strategy in place to get consistent referrals from your customers?

Do you have a system in place to acquire and showcase your clients’ testimonials?

This is the right time for you to review and put systems together to get ready with the answers when the market recovers.

Your Next Steps:

With that said, if you would like to brainstorm ideas with me on how you can make the best out of the situation, I offer you a 30-minute consultation at no cost.

The outcome of the call will be the TOP 3 ACTION ITEMS and a Roadmap for you to successfully implement in your business that helps you have a strong comeback once the outbreak curve flattens.

Click here to Schedule a 30-minute Roadmapping Call.