Change, like death and taxes, is one of life's constants and nowhere is this truer than in the world of small business.
Just as you think you've got your business humming along with a good sized customer base, along comes an economic upset; at this point in history in the form of the subprime meltdown.
Ripples start to spread and soon, the economic downturn affects all businesses.
What can you do to protect yourself and the company you've worked so hard to build up? If you're like most small business owners, there aren't always enough hours in the day to do it all.
Somehow, you'll need to find time to tackle the necessary AND prospect for new clients or customers.
What you need is a system that's easy to implement and keep up to date.
While each business has to tailor to its own requirements, here are some general guidelines you can use.
First comes the issue of quantity: what size is your customer base now? 100 clients? A thousand? Or do you have 10,000 customers? You need to estimate the usual attrition that occurs when the economy is normal; for example, do you you lose 10 customers a year? 100? 1,000? In a recessionary climate, figure that two to three times your average attrition will occur and figure out the number of new customers you need to bring on board to replace the ones slipping away and to keep your business healthy.
The next question hinges on quality: who are your best customers now? What are they like? What lifecycle stage are they at? What volume of business and frequency of purchases do you see from them? Pinpoint the ideal and draw up profiles of what you want the new customers to be like.
Then set about targeting other individuals or organizations who meet these profiles and can readily fill the gaps appearing in your client base.
In some cases, you may need to be proactive.
If your best customer segment is individuals in the 45 to 60-year-old age bracket, then you probably need to start targeting people before they actually enter this age bracket, for example, 40 to 45-year-olds.
When it comes to businesses and organizations, it's sometimes a good idea to notice where you're concentrated in industries and deliberately seek out clients with similar quality attributes but in different industries, particularly those that are countercyclical to the current economy.
The next thing to determine is frequency.
How often do you need to do something to keep up with attrition? Whether it's daily, weekly or semi-monthly - or some other frequency - as long as it's regular and you can keep at it, that's all that matters.
Don't pick a frequency you cannot meet.
It's better to prospect for new customers less frequently, but be sure you have selected a timetable you will actually stick with, to undertake your marketing and sales initiative to bring new customers in.
The other area to focus on is method: what produces the best results now? Is it flyers? E-mails? Phone calls? Special offers? Identify what's always worked the best in the past and update accordingly.
If it's phone calls, for example, you go on making the phone calls but freshen your sales message to fit the times we're in.
If a flyer drop in your neighborhood works well, continue to do this but freshen your message and perhaps add color or other details to catch the attention.
Above all, work on your attitude.
If you find long-established customers have gone out of business, stay calm.
Even if companies are shutting down or people are moving across the country to find work, offer to keep in touch.
Ask for referrals.
See if they will prepare testimonials you can use to win new business.
Above all, as long as you have a plan and stick with it, your small business will land enough new customers to survive a recession.
Copyright Deborah C.
Sawyer