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How to keep up with changes in your market

The current global health crisis has taken us to unchartered territory.  Never in living memory have men, women and children had to be in lockdown in so many countries for so long. This situation is affecting businesses across all sectors.   

Could it be that the needs in your market are in the process of changing significantly?  Read on to discover practical steps you can take.

In times of crisis, people’s expectations in any market do change, sometimes rapidly.  What your potential customers want today may be quite different to what they wanted yesterday.  The last thing you want is to end up disconnected from the changing expectations within your market.  When there are so many unknowns in a situation like we are living today, it can be difficult to find the way forward.  Yet, it is important to understand where your market is now and what the opportunities are out there. 

Here’s what you can do about it.

1. One of the best things you can do is to get in touch with your existing customers, as well as your former customers. Inquire about them, how they are doing personally and in their business. Don’t be afraid to dive into the details. Take the time to understand their mindset. Find out what makes them tick, and why, in the current economic environment.  Discover their fears, their pain points and also their hopes and desires at this point in time. Learn what their plans are for the short term as well as the longer term when we all come out of the tunnel and business starts to become normal again.
2. Do this consistently with all your customers, using the same approach with each one. Tell them and reassure them that you are there for them, ready to support them if you can. Your message is clear: you care about them and you have not forgotten them – something they will remember when this crisis is over.
3. Once you’ve talked to all your customers, the information you’ve collected is precious marketing data. Analyse it carefully, it will start to show you trends and patterns that are very important for you to understand and form the basis for what you can do differently to respond to the needs and expectations that have emerged from the information you gathered.  Chances are your prospects and potential customers will have similar needs and expectations.

The time you invest in getting in touch with your customers is time well spent.  It is beneficial to you and to them too. They need to know you are available. They also need to know that you have not forgotten them.  In addition, taking the time to understand them in their current situation provides you with valuable information which you can now use to plan how you can respond. It might give you ideas for new services or programmes you can put together to serve those needs and expectations.

Being creative and thinking outside the box is particularly important in times like these.  And being able to do so based on real-time market data that you’ve personally collected is nothing short of powerful.  So, never hesitate to keep in touch with your customers.

25 way to get more customers

Olivier Carion

Olivier Carion is a Sales Masters Guild Personal Business Mentor

 

With a real passion for the psychology of communication and the architecture that underpins accelerated growth, you’ll quickly realise why Olivier is the man who will help accelerate your business to a whole new level.

 

Find out more about Olivier on his Sales Masters Guild profile page.

 

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