Strategies for Survival in Tough Times
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Work on your energy! In times of stress and anxiety, it’s even more critical
to eat right, exercise, and get the proper amount of sleep (generally 6-8 hours
a night). By taking care of yourself properly you maximize your ability to be
highly productive throughout the day – every day. Know how to avoid that
mid-afternoon "crash"? Eat 5-6 smaller meals a day instead of the typical 2-3
large meals a day.
This is a nice lead-in to my second strategy for success in tough times.
Don’t be too hard on yourself or on others. Each one of us is doing the best we
can given where we are, what we have to work with, and what we’re going through
at the time. Most of us make mistakes. Most of us could do things "better". Most
of us are feeling the pressure of the world right now. So strive to be more
understanding of others. And as hard as it can sometimes be, cut yourself some
slack. Staying positive and solution-focused will always produce better results
than beating up on yourself, and focusing on mistakes and weaknesses.
Once your attitude and energy levels are good (physical, emotional, mental &
inspirational), then you need work on the next success strategy - building
relationships with current clients, prospects, and centers of influence. (If you
try to do this while your attitude and energy levels are low, you’ll only
succeed in driving people off at a faster pace.) Especially in difficult times,
you can’t "hard-sell" people. You can only set things up so that when someone
decides to buy, they buy from you.
The key to finding prospects, getting referrals, and making sales in
challenging times is relationship building. Make a greater effort to stay in
touch with people. Find ways to add more value to existing clients and take an
interest in them. It will not only create "brand" loyalty to you, but will
encourage the flow of referrals to you.
Don’t "hunker down" in your office. Get out and meet people. Meet people in
coffee shops, in elevators, at networking events and at parties. Start a
practice of taking your Centers of Influence to lunch on a regular basis. While
it’s true that the economy is challenging right now and people are uncertain
about their future, it’s still just as true that life goes on. People still buy
things, do things, sell things, go places and want to enjoy their lives. It’s up
to us to be available to people, build relationships, and offer solutions. If
your focus is simply to "sell" things, you’ll find it to be a long, hard,
frustrating effort. Invest in systems that "touch" people. Systems that help you
stay in people’s minds. Systems that let folks know you’re thinking of them.
(Obviously, the more automated your system is the better, but you have to be
willing to do whatever it takes to succeed.)
To sum things up, the best strategies for surviving (or maybe even thriving)
in tough times are 1) not to take things too seriously, 2) attain and maintain a
positive attitude, 3) eat, exercise and sleep for high productivity, 4) don’t be
too hard on yourself and others, and 5) create sales through relationship
building rather than by hard-selling. These, of course, are the best strategies
for success all the time, but are especially important in challenging times when
less effective solutions don’t work.
About the Author
Written by Michael Beck, "Head Zookeeper" at
http://www.ClientMonkey.com , a
marketing strategies website dedicated to getting more clients, making more
money, and having more fun!
