It's worse than I've ever seen it...
January 30, 2009 We are hearing it everywhere… in conversations, on the radio, on TV…
“It’s worse that I’ve ever seen it.” “It’s never been this bad.” “Dangerous.” “Treacherous.” “Struggle” “…requesting aid from the Federal Government.” “… struggling to keep up.”
It’s been a rough week. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to get back to work. I’m not sure how geographically far reaching this disaster is, but EVERONE I have talked to in the past week has been affected by it. EVERYONE.
No, I’m not talking about the economy, although, I’ve heard the exact same sentiments about it in the past 4 months. The weather has been the culprit this week. In case you don’t live in Central Ky, we had a “Major Winter Event” on Tuesday night. We got about an inch and a half of ice on top of an inch of snow. Then we got 5 inches of very heavy wet snow on top of the ice. The trees couldn’t take it and ended up splintered to the ground. Broken branches littered every inch of yards and roadways. Powerlines were down. At one point, 90% of my county was out of power. 35,000 homes and businesses were out of power in Lexington. Electric companies are predicting that some homes and businesses will remain dark for up to 10 days. The worst is not over, either. The floods will come, assuredly, after the snow and ice.
I’m going to repeat the same things I have heard about the economy. How are you reacting to this “mini-recession”? After all, isn’t that what a recession is? A “slow down” in doing business? In Central Kentucky, it was more like a “stand still.” Few people with in 150 miles of here were conducting business. Most businesses were closed for 2 solid days. My company sees clients and prospects to make our living. That could not be done this week. How can we see people who aren’t there… much less, when we can’t make it out of the driveway? Many appointments had to be cancelled and rescheduled. (Making for a VERY busy week, next week!) The “face to face” that my company relies upon had to revert to phone calls, which ended up being Voice Mails. Or, emails, which in this day and age can be remotely accessed from a home computer (if the power is on) or a Blackberry. Still, communication was limited to “It’s bad this week, call me next week!”
I did have some contact (after my power came back on…) with the offices at ThomasNet in New York. To them, it was just another day. They didn’t have a clue as to what was happening here. And really, they didn’t care. They were “business as usual.” The weather was in no way inhibiting their ability to do business. Much like some of our prospects who are looking for a new vendor or someone to buy from. They have little or no sympathy or patience when they are using the internet to source. What do you think happens when they find your website waving a banner that reads “Under Construction,” or “New Site Coming Soon” or “Call us for information?” …Or worse, when they find your website totally lacking the information they need, or misrepresenting your company?
The responsibility of Marketing falls upon many different titles, depending largely on the size of the company. The list is endless: Presidents/Owners, Marketing Managers, Sales Managers, Media Specialists, Product Managers, etc… At one point or another I have heard from everyone on this list the following: “I don’t have time to (talk about, think about, work on) my website. I have a crisis I have to deal with.” The crisis is more often than not about something other than marketing. A new employee, a fired employee, a new customer, an old customer, a lost customer, remodeling the office, Human Resources issues, taxes, taking the dog to the vet, taking the kids to the doctor… etc… You get the picture… While I will agree that all of this is important, I want to ask you a couple of questions… • While you were dealing with the “crisis,” how many prospects went to your website? • And of the people who actually found your website, how many left it without getting a complete picture of your company?
That, my friend, could be a crisis of it’s own.
After the “recession” of 2003, I used a line that made sense to many people I worked with… “If one of your machines out on your production floor was broken, you would find the resources to fix it, wouldn’t you?”
Is your marketing machine broken?
When will it be a “good” time to make it a priority? When are you going to find the resources to fix it?
Let your prospects rest assured, lots of your competitors already have!