Quite a ludicrous strategy.
Yes, I expect that perhaps you have heard stories of individuals who have gone this route. But it really turns life into a meager existence. Saving your way to prosperity can easily translate to starving yourself into prosperity. That measn going without. And going without does not turn you into a strong and healthy being, able to endure the struggles that are thrown your way.
Yes, defence wins games. It preserves your position. It protects your lead. It prevents the competition from taking advantage of you. And when you are under attack, defence saves the day. But you still need to put points on the board to get ahead of the other guys. And at times, offence even turns out to be the best defence.
Business is not about stagnating with the status quo. It is about growing and evolving with the needs of your customers and marketplace. And the nature and quality of your customer engagement efforts plays a pivotal role. It’s about keeping the direct lines of communication flowing. Putting out your marketing messages, your marketing content and seizing opportunities for direct dialogue with prospective customers.
In times of uncertainty, times of slow moving economies, or times of changing economies, there is a force that naturally pushes you into a defensive mindset. But you must remind yourself that the uncertainties do not automatically translate themselves into a period of attack.
In fact, it is exactly this pervasive defensive mindset that can create opportunities that would not ordinarily be there. Many established companies, especially large ones with a lot of moving parts, will be quicker to slow down or lock down. The financial exposure from just one large project, or the aggregated exposure from multiple projects, may just be too risky. And the company may have to hibernate while uncertainty levels are high.
And while the rest of the world is in slow motion, companies that are continually and actively maintaining a market dialogue, can better determine where to invest their efforts.
Let’s take a look at a couple of examples.
The dotcom crash that started in March 2000, gave way to an economic slowdown and recession that lasted through to the first quarter of 2003. Smack in the middle of that major downturn, on October 23, 2001, Apple introduced the iPod. The rest is history. It has completely transformed the company. I still remember Bill Gates being quoted, and saying it in a most astonishing manner: “… And the record labels agreed to that?”, when commenting on the iTunes offer of $1 per song.
And a more recent one.
The sub-prime mortgage crisis started at the end of 2007 and triggered both a financial crisis and The Great Recession which finally broke in June 2009. An 18 month recession, triggered by real estate lending, had spread globally. And again, smack in the middle of it, in 2008, Lauren Rottet quits her firm to start her own international architecture and design company, Rottet Studios. Her colleagues thought she was crazy. Within 4 years, her firm had offices in in New York, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Shanghai, and had done several iconic hotels.
How did she do it?
Minimized all expenses except for marketing and PR. Could she have succeed as quickly in a normal economy? Maybe not. Her established competitors would more likely have stepped in to prevent her growth.
Your demand generation system, and your sales force, must keep you in dialogue with your market. In slower economic times, both prospective customers and existing customers may be harder to reach. But that is exactly the time when your engagement strategies have to be at their best. Whether there is a turning point in the market, or whether the market is really changing, having effective market communication strategies is what will keep you in the game.