The economic upswing is slowing down and the word recession has been around for quite some time. According to the economic indicator, the probability is currently 43%. There are various reasons for the economic downturn. Part of the blame can certainly be attributed to the aggressive trade policy of the American president or the painful Brexit topic. But there are also well-known homemade problems. Germany's economy is extremely dependent on exports - too dependent. Investment programs in digitization and infrastructure are falling behind.
The economy is currently cooling down, but has not yet collapsed. Companies that recognize the downturn in good time should use this period to prepare themselves for a possible recession and thus differentiate themselves from the competition.
In a recession, it is important to withstand competition.
1 Prepare yourself for an emergency: Strategic preparation through company analysis
Define your core business. In a recession, cuts may be necessary. It is therefore important that you know your company very well so that you can quickly decide where cuts are possible and where they are not. Create scope for financial bottlenecks. In which areas are cuts possible and where must further investments be made? If you have made this clear to yourself, a recession will not throw you off track so quickly.
2 Strategies to win the customers of your competitors
In hard times every single customer becomes even more important than he already is. For this reason, you should try to stand out from the competition to attract potential customers. Below you will find a few tips:
- Branding. Create a special, authentic brand. Create a recognition value. Of course, this does not only apply to bad times, but should be your goal from the very beginning.
- Customer contact. Customer service and customer service is not the same. In hard times it is a matter of exceeding the expectations of the already great customer service once again. Do you offer customer support 24/7? By phone, e-mail, live chat, contact form, social media, whatsapp...? Super!
- Transparency. Be transparent as far as your business is concerned. Openness connects and creates a trusting atmosphere with your (potential) customers.
3 Marketing is the key
For many (smaller) companies, the first step in hard times seems to be to reduce their marketing budget. But this is the wrong approach since you want to continue marketing your products and services. The point is to continue to win new customers and retain existing ones. And for that marketing is inevitable. You should even consider increasing your marketing budget. Because right now customers are insecure and looking for alternatives. So it would be great if your name comes in the picture.
4 Focus on employees
Employees will be insecure in times of economic upheavals and can noticeably influence the atmosphere in your company. Talk to your colleagues about planned changes and restructuring as openly as possible in order to involve them right from the start and prevent unnecessary panic-mongering.
