Winning in the age of disruption

How do you maintain and grow sales in this age of massive disruption? Covid, world politics, rising costs and interest rates, staff shortages and general anxiety are smashing many businesses, affecting sales and profitability. How should we respond?

The game has changed. If we keep on doing the same thing and expect a different result, we delude ourselves. Is it time to make some active changes, investing time and attention in smart marketing?

Are you a Gatherer or a Hunter?

In the world of marketing, there are two types of business leaders: Gatherers and Hunters.

Gatherers grow their businesses by word-of-mouth referrals. They pick up customers more by accident rather than intentional marketing activity. They tend to get the low-hanging fruit of easy sales. I call this Passive Marketing and it is surprising how many businesses operate this way. Unfortunately, this is not working for many businesses anymore. Some of these passive marketing businesses are seeing a drop off in sales and are wondering how they are going to survive this next season.

In the age of disruption, the low-hanging fruit is being snapped up by the Hunters. Hunters don’t wait for customers to come through the door. They go and target new customers where they are doing life, and build a relationship with them. They spend time finding out what their customer’s pain points are. They use this information to create attractive solutions to their customer’s pain. Hunters are agile and prepared to adjust their products and services to solve customer problems, rather than trying to push their own agenda.

Once they know their products are good they develop engaging messages that connect with customers. They gain trust by answering questions that customers are asking. They provide value before they ask for a sale and they speak in a way that customers understand. They show their customers how their life will be so much better if they choose their solution.

Hunters know that they can’t win by relying on their direct sales alone. They seek to amplify their efforts through digital platforms that their customers are using. They go hunting on places like Facebook, Linkedin, TikTok, Youtube and Google. They know how to use email, digital advertising, and video to get attention and build a relationship to the point where they can ask for a sale.

Hunters are not happy with their website not coming up on the first page of Google. They are not happy if their website is failing to deliver leads or convert to sales. They are not happy when they invest in ads and have no way of measuring how effective they are. They expect to see results and take action when advertising and marketing fail to deliver results.

Courage is the main characteristic of the hunter. They are happy to put themselves out there, learn some new skills and give it a go. They are prepared to take some risk and invest in Marketing. If they can’t do this themselves they reach out for professional help to assist with this.

So what will it be? Passive or Active? Gatherer or Hunter? Hopefully, it will be happy hunting.