Note: Whether you are a business owner trying to market your business or a dentist dealing in dental marketing, the cost of running a business is always at the top of a business owner’s mind. In the hopes of ‘cutting cost and saving money’, small business owners are ‘cutting back’ especially in a slower economy. But will all cut-backs help the business?
When business is going not as smoothly and new customers are down as a trend, or in other words there is a recession, many business owners start looking for cutting cost.
After a hard look , they find that most costs can hardly be cut. After all we need to pay rent and cannot just move into smaller space, which initially would cost extra money to move anyway . We cannot cut the insurance, phone bill, electricity etc too much either. Personnel? Well, I cannot really send my receptionist home just because the phone calls are down.
So where do they cut? Marketing of course! It is the easiest target!
After all, those marketing expenses have been a thorn in the executives’ eyes for a long time. Marketing has become more expensive and bringing in less.
So let’s cut the darn thing – how much? As much as conceivable, after all we have no money anyhow!
After all a dollar saved is a dollar earned!! Or is it?
Hmm, believe it or not, this business owner just sentenced himself to financial hardship. He sentenced himself to being overworked and underpaid – probably the rest of his life since his basic thought is non-survival , that he will probably never ever make it out of it.
This is a self-imposed financial hardship, because after all, in every recession or depression, a whole bunch of people surge to marvelous success.
Why? There are many reasons but the main one being that when the going gets tough, the tough get going!
During economical slowdowns , people do consume and thus buy less, and any marketing most likely will bring less return. But stopping the marketing will bring you even a lot less business than the small returns from some marketing.
Even if the business you get from this marketing is barely enough to keep the overhead going and keep most of the employees working, it is much better for the morale and for the financial bottom line to make that happen than to be empty even more and than to have to lay-off even more.
When you cut back your marketing, your existing and potential customers forget about you. I have seen dentists who cut out all their dental advertising due to being dissatisfied with the returns and half a year later, business decrease so much half a year later that they could no longer ANY type of marketing.
You know very well that there is no such thing as “they know me because I have been in this neighborhood for a long time” or “they will come to me because of my good work”
People will buy from those they remember – and they will remember much better the business whom they have seen or heard of recently!
If you do not make yourself visible through marketing, you will be forgotten by your prospects and when the economy starts recovering, whether that is in a few months or in a couple of years and the people start spending again they will buy from the vendor who has been ‘visible’ through his marketing . Maybe, maybe that person who kept on marketing did lose money too, but he kept fighting, kept making noise in the form of marketing and he will be “the” place to go when the money is flowing again. And trust you me, if he did lose money he lost a lot less than the ones who stopped marketing – period!
Economic slowdown happens frequently all over the world. Sometimes the slowdown is local, for a specific business sector, sometimes as it is like now, — it is worldwide. Either way it does not matter there are always winners and there are always the whiners.
I say whiners very appropriately because they always do have a millions of excuses.
They too could have continued to keep going at full speed despite the lesser return but no, they choose to put their hands up in the air and say – “nothing I can do about it– nothing works”, but they do not look nor listen to the ones who are succeeding.
Here is a story of Mr. Hilton, the hoterlier who made his fortune because of the great depression.
During the Great Depression where all the hotels were losing money, most hoteliers gave up and banks started repossessing hotels by the load. Mr. Hilton was no exception, he too was losing money but he did not walk away or throw his hands up and put his head in the sand. No, he kept plugging away and away . Bankers did own or repossess his property too but he kept doing his best. He kept forging forward trying to lose as little as possible instead of giving up.
When the economy picks up again, the bankers were left with lots of unmanaged hotels and guess to who they went for help? Mr Hilton! They even offered him a good price to buy all the hotels though they knew he had no money, after all, they have just repossessed his hotels too.
Bill Gates in his book ‘Business at the Speed of Thought’ has also talked about how people always overestimate the short-term results and underestimate the long term results and then when the short-time results do not come in most people give up and thus never see the long-term results!
Of course one must do everything he can to find effective ways of marketing!
The truth is those people who give up are usually those who do not constantly look for new ideas in marketing and who do not implement as many new marketing methods as possible.
They are too fast to complain about ‘nothing is working’ and then give up. Too bad for them and very good for the ones who keep on looking, keep trying even if they fall short again and again themselves.
These very trying times presents an opportunity of unparalleled size, for those who keep communicating, keep making lots of noise and are physically implementing all the marketing tools available.
Remember: There are always effective ways to market to many people without using expensive traditional marketing tools. Success business management or dental practice management strategies include learning how to use ‘other people’s resources’ instead of your own to market for you.
