Businesses and Professions in Crisis

Below are some powerful and very practical marketing tips for coming out of the crisis stronger than you went in:

Change the way you think. The pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, while the optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. The alarming frenzy of the media is exhausting, and the pressure from colleagues, employees and family is intense in an age of fear. As an owner, or as a key partner in your company, you need to show leadership. It starts with you and your mindset. Keep the winner in you and expect the end of the crisis once you handle the urgent matters.

Use your time strategically. You may be stuck at home! It is a unique opportunity to step out of your daily routine and think strategically. How can you upgrade your business in the short and long term? After many crises, such as 11 September 2001, the 2008 credit crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020, some changes will remain and become the norm. Spend some time reading articles about strategy and the market. Imagine how your customers will adapt their businesses and how you can align your services.

Adapt your services or products and how you deliver them. Your services or products must be suited to the customers' new needs. Changes will happen to the services themselves and to how these services are "delivered". Customers will now ask for advice on: dealings and litigation with financial regulators and tax authorities to ease financial constraints; taking advantage of financial stimulus and tax incentives; upgrading risk compliance (financial, regulatory, legal, tax, reputation and health); debt recovery; hiring and HR policy: repatriating foreign employees, sick leave, liability risks, confidentiality when working from home, consumer protection and claims, and class actions; supply chain issues, trade restrictions, unfair competition and quarantine of goods; business interruption, insolvency and liquidation; mergers and acquisitions, removing the "mines" and cleaning organizations of old mindsets; sustainable business conduct and the impact of financing; and many other adaptations you must consider if you want to continue.

Maintain the marketing budget. Although what we are witnessing is very worrying, this is not the time to think about cutting this budget, despite the desire and pressure from partners anxious about their profits. For example, on average, we as consulting, management and law firms spend 2 to 5% of our annual budget on marketing, which is low compared with other sectors. Cutting your budget would be an exaggerated reaction that will affect the company in the long term. Many competing companies will cut their marketing spending, giving you more room to shine in the market.

In a pandemic, as we have seen, events and gatherings are canceled. Budgets in your company become available and can be used differently. But beware of what comes after the crisis: people will want to meet and attend events, prices may rise in general, demand will be high, and conference organizers and hotels will have to recover and adjust their prices. Do not stop or cut marketing budgets, but I advise you to store them for when you need them in the coming months, and perhaps before the middle of 2021. However, you can cut business development spending such as restaurants, outings, tickets, gifts, client events and seminars, printing brochures and the like.

1 Matchmaking instead of networking

Business development in independent professional firms relies mainly on peer-to-peer meetings at conferences, seminars, large or small exhibitions and general meetings. Lawyers, accountants and marketers exchange referrals during seminars and events organized by their traditional networks or by event management companies!

The massive cancellation of events, and the fear of sending the best professionals to places where they might get infected, strongly affect the generation of referrals. This is especially significant for firms that deal internationally. International clients are usually more rewarding than local ones, and international conferences are a must.

The way around it is to evolve from group networking to "matching individuals". You must avoid crowds, as mass fishing is no longer relevant. Target prospects precisely through one-to-one meetings organized by video conference. The matching process combines market intelligence with a precise understanding of the client's exact needs, going one-to-one instead of mass fishing.

2 Upgrade your digital communication

There are many digital communication tools. It is almost chaos between Zoom, Slack, Teams, Skype, Loop, GoToMeeting, WhatsApp, WeChat, Viber...

These programs often carry a cultural context and are used more heavily in some parts of the world. Mastering them is a prerequisite for entering the market and reaching prospects and customers. You do not want to waste time and look like an amateur when it is time to pick up the conversation with an important prospect.

Make sure your partners and employees have access and are trained to use these different tools from home or wherever they are, with the right devices and secure wifi networks.

3 Focus on digital marketing

More crises mean more digital. It is an opportunity to convince your conservative partners to move forward in the digital field. People and customers sit at home connected to the world only through the internet. For example, you can accelerate:

• Content marketing: publish content to increase visibility. Move into producing short videos and create a TV channel for your company on Vimeo or YouTube.
• Search engines (SEO): improve your website's ranking and keywords.
• Pay-per-click (SEM): put your company in online searches and information searches.
• App: build a dynamic mobile app.
• Email marketing: reach your current and potential customers with specific offers and experiences.
• Social media: improve and align your use of tools such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook for professionals.
• Statistics: develop or use data to improve your understanding of the market.
• Customer relationship management: update and clean your customer database. Make sure you can reach your best customers through SMS and texts. Are all your customers connected on LinkedIn?

4 Be a sustainable individual and company

Before the coronavirus crisis, the media asked you to save the planet, the climate and the environment. The activist Greta Thunberg enjoyed as much media coverage as Donald Trump. People are sensitive, reasonable and easily affected. Publishing alarmist content, profiting from fear and raising the prices of your services backfires. Acting as a citizen and behaving as a responsible company will bring you more mandates and new business than exploiting the situation without needing to be clever. Just be a caring citizen.

The coronavirus crisis brings only one positive effect: it pushes us to update and develop our businesses in a time of disruption. It is not the time to stop everything related to marketing, communications and business development; quite the contrary. However, you need to rethink the ways of doing things and invest your time and money wisely.

I am here if you need any help