In North America’s industrial heartland where the automobile is king, industry is going through some trying times. As a result of this downturn many support industries are also feeling the pain. If you are in this demographic – you know exactly where I’m coming from. Sales are flat and the sales team is getting very frustrated and are looking at last years numbers as something to aspire to. They’d be happy to just hold their own.
Of course as the visionary of the company, you can’t fulfill your dream just holding your own. You are also keenly aware of the economy but being the optimist, you are out here in the blogisphere looking for solutions. I would suggest you look at your brand positioning and see if it truly differentiates you from the competition. My guess is that within your market and category everyone is playing follow the leader. As a matter of fact over the many years you and they have been in business, you’ve all done quite well following this model. After all, you’ve sawn off a respectable chunk of business and have put the kids through college doing it.
Would you consider entertaining a bold direction that would help your company to grow in slow times?
Would you be interested in invigorating your sales team and move them away from their status quo mentality?
Sure you would!
Wouldn’t this be better than waiting for the marketplace to come back, and you leave you carrying on as a commodity?
Of course it would!
No brainers right?
What’s the solution?
Brand positioning.
Brand positioning is finding your unique selling point or proposition and benefiting from it. Chances are this positioning strategy is residing within the minds of the stake holders of your company right now. What you must do is wrestle it out and seize it to your advantage. You have got to do an analysis of your brand environment and begin to see weakness and opportunities in the way you currently do business. You have to recognize how your competition does business. Surely not every sale is based on price. If you do make a sale and you’re not the lowest bidder, what was it that allowed this to occur? In there is your uniqueness. Customers do love you and it is your job to discover why and spread the love. Sometimes a company discovers its uniqueness, but to harness its full potential they must restructure how they do business and put into play processes that allow the company to thrive based on this new direction.
One thing that all of this does, (especially in a down economy) is invigorate the stake holders of the brand. Where the sales team saw stagnation they now are excited to get the message out. They see a dollar signs opportunity. They have good news to tell. Employees see that management are not just sitting idly by and letting the economy happen to them. Everybody has a desire to grow and having a unique positioning strategy can be just the ticket your company needs to lead the way. There is no upside to sitting still.
Even in this economy industry is still purchasing for the future. Why can’t it be from you? Give them a compelling reason to consider you. Give sales every opportunity to prosper.
Their wealth will make you richer.
