Businesses will make the extras effort to please customers
Your vendors are going to go the extra mile to appreciate the business you are still sending them and they are more willing than ever to work with you on special needs. Not only is this good for you as the customer of that vendor, but it gives you the chance to tighten that working relationship even more.
What are you doing special for your customers? I'm not talking discounting (actually, that is a dangerous slope to avoid if possible.) I'm talking about what customer service evaluations are you making to target areas for improvement? Where are your opportunities to create remarkable service to give your customers that "wow" experience? In the past maybe you didn't feel the need to go that extra step, but now is the perfect time to amp it up, and give customers a solid experience they will want to tell others about.
Leaders are forced to actually lead
When the economy is in good times companies can actually make money in spite of themselves. I know, I’ve had some as clients and it amazed me they were able to stay in business with all they were doing wrong. The glory economic days of the 90's elevated many companies and executives to levels they had not earned, but the wave of high consumer spending and rising markets lifted all these executives to leadership status.
Now that the economy is in a steep decline the real leaders get to show their skills and unfortunately, those who are in positions of leadership also get exposed. The recession is a great time for leaders to rise to the occasion and demonstrate the real skills that separate them from the wannabes who hold the position but not the talent. Leaders will thrive in this economy, managers will merely survive. How are you doing with your organization?
Weak competitors are weeded out from an industry
In 2001, the speaking industry was full of many people who had enjoyed a prosperous decade of the 90's and many of us wondered how some of them actually were getting paid for the quality of the work they were providing. On that fateful day in September of that year, the industry changed and hundreds of people previously known as speakers would leave the business to rejoin what I call the "check of the month club."
This economy will also remove the weaker players in all industries. Like it or not GM, Ford and Chrysler have been exposed as the weaker organizations in the global auto industry. The same is playing out in your industry. If you are one of the good companies, one of the strong companies, this recession should be welcomed news for you. Although you may be going through a bit of hardship and a pain, your weaker competition is going through shutting their doors and soon the industry will be thinned out and you will be ready to take on new customers and grab more market share.
Rally around a common cause
It has been said previously that Americans are at their best when times are at their worst. Immediately after 9/11/2001 patriotism was at a high. We rallied as a people against terrorism and made sure the terrorists didn't mentally beat down our country, especially during our darkest days.
Although, I have to say we do not seem to be as resilient as we were eight years ago, now is the time for leaders to create that same type of rally call within their organizations to band together and fight these economic times by not getting down, by not splintering into separate factions and by not getting sucked into the blame game pundits and newscaster relish.
Great leaders show their best abilities when times are the toughest. Rise to the occasion. Create more face time with your employees, talk about the good things that are going on and rally your people to call on their abilities to win in these economic times. There are going to be plenty of great business stories as we reemerge on the other side of this -- make your organization one of those great stories.
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