A useful guide on how to recession proof your business

“The difference between growing your business and losing it during a recession is how you position it before a recession occurs.”

Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

People don’t realise they’re always negotiating.

A recession is coming! And even if it does not occur within the next half-year, it is imminent. So, what are you doing to enhance your business’ opportunities and insulate it from the pending recession? You can prepare to avert the perils that will befall some companies during the recession. What follows is how to do that by positioning your business now.

Here is a guide on how to recession proof your business which can hopefully help you during these tough times. If after reading this blog post you still need to help or advice on this subject then we may be able to help.

1. Position Yourself – It’s a Negotiation.

First, realize that you are negotiating. And in a negotiation, the better you position yourself before it starts, the more significant the opportunity you will have for potential engagements.

So, target prospects you would like to turn into clients and current clients from whom you want more business. How do you do that?

• First, gather information about the changes they plan to make due to the pending recession. The more pertinent information you can glean, the better you can match your offerings to their needs.
• Identify the stakeholders and decision-makers with the most to gain from avoiding recession dilemmas that might befall the company/association.
• Know your prospects’ and clients’ appetite for your offers and the value they associate with acquiring them. Once you have that insight, make decision-makers and stakeholders aware that you understand their path due to the pending recession. Let them know that you have ideas of how they can become better positioned to offset their woes.
• Position yourself as their benefactor. And in so doing, you will subliminally position yourself as the added value solution to help them avoid pending troubles.
• It is one thing to be aware of their desires for your offerings; through positioning, you can be at the forefront to address their needs when you are the go-to person in their mind to deliver them.

2. Offer your products and services now that might help clients/prospects offset or improve their operations due to the pending recession.

Consider the products or services you can use to attract additional attention now, to be top of mind for your clients and prospect future needs as fears of the impending recession deepens.

Even if you have to use some of your products or services as a loss leader, they can position you to gain additional business that you might have otherwise not received. And if that is true, your actions will have proven to be beneficial to your business.

3. Expand Your Opportunities

During challenging economic times, especially during recessions, businesses seek ways to tighten their belt – they become leaner to shift operations as the tide of economic fortunes shifts.

Before your clients and prospects enter a recessionary state, seek ways to add more value to their operations. To do that, first, understand what changes they may undergo. As an example, I speak about negotiation and reading body language. So, I’ve reached out to clients to find out what additional support they will need to negotiate better deals. You can do the same with your clients by finding their needs and offering your expertise to help them solve their challenges.

4. Turning Objections To Your Advantage

Not only should you welcome objections, but you should also prepare to turn them in your favour. For example:

If you thought the cost of your services might be an objection raised during your discussion to you getting the business, be prepared to discuss the cost of the organisation not using your services. In addition, prepare to discuss why you are the best source to deliver the services. You can use future positioning to do that.

In this case, the discussion would center around how a bad outcome will negatively affect the organisation’s bottom line if they use a service provider other than you. The premise is they will pay a higher price later if they go with another service provider.

5. Knowing Your Uniqueness – Frame Yourself – Eliminate Competition

To assist you in turning objections to your advantage, you must know the uniqueness of your skills compared to others that might be similar. Confidently articulating the individuality of your skills will also allow you to frame yourself as being the more plausible resource that prospects and clients should engage. It will also serve to assist in eliminating the competition.

Know Your Uniqueness
What makes the skills you possess unique amongst those with whom you compete? Can you answer that question confidently and succinctly? If you answered no, practice doing so.

If you are too wordy, you will not sound convincing. Instead, with a long-winded response, you will appear as though you are searching for a place to land your professed expertise wherever there is a landing.

Framing Yourself

Once you can confidently articulate your uniqueness, you can better frame yourself to be the solution to your client’s/prospect’s needs. And the way to do that is:

a) Understand why the client needs what you are offering and their desire to acquire it. You may have to dig deeper than what appears on the surface.

b) Be aware and prepared to discuss why the client should not hesitate in bringing you aboard to address their pending challenges. Strive to build momentum in them to get you in sooner than later.

c) Inject pain into the client dialog exchange if they are hesitant to move with haste.

d) Show how you are uniquely qualified to address their needs.

Competition Elimination

To increase the probability of obtaining business opportunities, eliminate the competition. You can highlight the expertise that distinguishes you from your competition, along with awards you have received from prestigious organisations that serve as credibility builders to accomplish that.

To enhance your chances of eliminating your competition, highlight your uniqueness based on what your client or prospects value the most. Your skills will not have the impact they could otherwise have if you tout skills that are not pertinent to their needs.

Reflection

Businesses go out of business during recessions. But yours does not have to be one of them. Instead, you can increase your business’ bottom line while others are flailing. All you have to do is follow the roadmap presented in the preceding information. And everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!