Support Your Local Competitor
The celebration of our nation’s independence fell on a Saturday night this year. For most towns here on the Eastern Seaboard that rely on visitors to help pay the bills, that meant a three day weekend of ringing cash registers. My little village is overstuffed with boutiques, restaurants, and antique shops that cannot be supported by our small population alone. And it is for this reason that I am simply flabbergasted that our town chose to cancel its 4th of July fireworks due to the budget cuts caused by the recession.
So, that special night we drove the boat a couple of towns north and saw spectacular displays from other beach towns that were catering to the tourists. It was without question the best pyrotechnics I have ever seen from such small communities. One would never know we were experiencing a tough economic climate. Well, guess where the tourists were eating that night. Guess which town had their shops full of visitors. They were not in our little village and I am pretty sure there is a correlation here.
Meanwhile you have your own budget cuts to deal with. How many sales reps have you trimmed or not replaced? How much of the call center training budget has been cut? How many marketing programs were delayed? My final question is, did you cancel your fireworks as well?
I recognize that the recession has served as an opportunity to make some changes. Cutting out some deadwood in the field force is not a bad thing. But that has caused you to reach fewer customers. If you don’t supplement your reach with marketing or telesales, you are potentially pushing your customers to your competitors. If you have added a more sophisticated slice to your segmentation model, that is even better – now your sales folks are most likely talking to the right customers. But do you really want to ignore the lower segments? That is why you need to keep your campaign engine running at 100%. Maybe you really need it running at 150%!
Don’t send your customers to the fireworks in the town next door. That is where they are going to shop if you do. Keep your customer reach extended in the right directions so your customers are still with you when the fireworks are over.
