Winning in the Post Pandemic Market

What can you do when the economy sucks and sales are slow? Work harder? How about preparing to be the market leader when the economy has its turnaround?

Crises are actually opportunities to prepare for the next growth wave where consumers have a different mood and the competitive playing field changes. So if you’re hanging your head low as this pandemic drags on, get back to work on you and your business.

We had sales slumps before, like 2009, and we got past it. New businesses arose and companies such as Facebook, Amazon, Tesla, and Netflix arrived and became market leaders in their categories. People thought Elon Musk was crazy, now he’s the 4th richest person in the world.

The Corona Virus sales slump is hurting a lot of small to medium sized businesses for sure, but even restaurants, hotels, vacation rentals, dentists, hair salons, gyms and bars will get over this in 2021.

Consumer Spending to Rebound Strongly

Retail spending growth 2021, 2022. Screenshot courtesy of Statista.

Don’t Swim Back Against the Current

If you’re spending too much time fighting for the last piece of a pandemic crushed marketplace, through advertising and marketing campaigns, your time could be spent better. In some cases, such as hotels, theaters, cruises, tours, travel services, restaurants, and bars won’t return soon. Those who plan for 2021 will likely get a jump.

Some businesses can be reinvented to survive, but they would be wise to spend more time on a reinvention or rebranding for when this recession lifts.

When the Covid 19 vaccinations begin to be delivered to the world’s population, the world’s economies will see an incredible rush of new product and service orders. Inventories are gone, and shelves are empty. What was lost will return with a mighty vigor. But tastes will be different, because it will feel like a whole new world.

People will buy based on how good it makes them feel, and how it easy it will be to feel good. Blood will be gushing through their veins and every type of pleasure brain chemical will be flooding into their bloodstream.

What was stopping consumers from visiting restaurants, shopping retail, playing sports, attending sports events and concerts, going to the dentist and hair salon, will disappear like an evil spirit. Everyone will be free to return to near normal. The joy will be hard to measure.

The Big Relaunch

And where will they get the money to spend? Government, to begin with. They’ll shell out stimulus money to break inertia and get the economic ball rolling. It’ll only need one round of stimulus as the banks resume lending for buying cars, houses, and going for vacations. Banks will get overzealous. Inflation might be a problem.

This will likely take place in spring 2021, which is now only 7 months away.

This is why you need to be planning for this big sales revenue party now.

Ramon Peralta of Peralta Design discusses the relaunch.

Your New Brand for 2023!

This is a time to plan your rebranding, and new competitive value proposition, and build massive market presence while others toil with the present.

It takes time to build omnipresence online. So if you want to be top dog in 7 months, you need to get on this now. Some businesses take 10 years to build market leader status. That’s because they believed it would take that long. But you can accelerate this process (after you’ve done your UVP research and planned your marketing strategy).

If you’re a Realtor, you might be doing well right now and there are Realtors in Los Angeles, Naples, San Francisco, and Toronto for example who are doing record business. But they’re not working on 2021, they’re just coasting on their previous work. There’s a huge win fall waiting in 2021 for agents or brokers who build strengths online.

With the surge of jobs and rising revenue, millions will start looking for houses for sale. This trend’s already started. Construction and manufacturing (furniture, lighting, home accessories, appliances, electronics) will surge, although in the case of the USA, one political party says they will bring regulation and high taxes back if elected.

I don’t believe they will get elected because high taxes, regulation, and being anti-business will kill the US economy and voters know it. A pro business government is needed. At the end of Obama era 4 years ago, small business formation hit its lowest levels in US history, even during a strong corporate economic growth phase. Bad governments kill business.

Outlook for Business

The hospitality and leisure sector will surge because people have been stuck inside their homes for a long time. Costa Rica, Hawaii, Florida and California will be happy about this.

When everyone climbs out of their winter hibernation, they’ll be seeking entirely new products, services, and experiences. Fun will be their number one desire. A trip somewhere will certainly be on their wish list. Hotels, resorts, beach towns, restaurants, museums, theme parks, and airlines will surge in business.

You may want to buy hotel and airline stocks soon before they begin to climb (as long as they survive the pandemic period). It’s a sunny 2021 stock market forecast, and that time is getting nearer.

Of course we’re anxiously awaiting vaccine company results, but they seem to be moving forward for a 2021 delivery of a vaccination. The boom will begin when the first vaccinations are administered. It’s all about hope and the relief of returning to normal.

8 Steps to Prepare Your Business for 2023

First things first: what will your customers prefer, what will they believe, and what is it you really offer? You can gather all that by covering these 8 steps:

research consumer preference — study consumer and customer attitudes about which brands they like and what they like about them because your brand needs to be repositioned there
do a brand positioning statement with a positioning chart or map – how do you compare with your major competitors? List and detail why your brand is better
reconfigure your relevant, personalized, unique value proposition – think about why your product/service/brand image is better than your competitors and how your company is uniquely, meaningfully more relevant to customers
build your website/social content strategy – research and create content that is unique, powerful informative and which builds your authority in your industry
craft your content to be more attractive and compelling than your competitors – make your content high quality, informative, authoritative but fun to read
do a professional level SEO strategy — have a plan to dominate your industry, not just show up. Be number one because Google has changed how it displays search results. Winner takes all and Google and Bing can delivery a mountain of traffic if you get it right
create a social media strategy — connect vigorously with relevant customers and influencers to build a wide sphere of visibility
investigate an artificial intelligence based market software product — there are many for copywriting, sales, predictive intelligence, and content funnel optimization. The value is in personalization, testing, and analytics.

I’ve worked with branding experts before and you may want to consult with one. A brand is a complex thing and having the views of experts can be very insightful. In the end, everything leads to your brand, so if it isn’t right, sales could get hit hard.

Time to Learn How to Be the Market Leader

“I don’t want to be market leader. I just want enough sales to give me a nice income.”

This is the common mindset, which everyone else has. A lack of desire and ambition puts business people on the rat race wheel, and they work themselves literally to death for their yearly salary. We’ve all been there and it gets us nowhere. There’s not enough market share and no sustained equity.

Striving for the market leader position is a special mission that activates everything you have, whatever way you define your market. The point is that market leadership puts you ahead of the curve, gives you greatest presence, casts the widest net, where you get the best catches. It builds lasting equity.

It’s quantity and quality both,and instead of grasping for low hanging fruit, you own the orchard.

You Need to Study Your Customer

Do take time to study your customer’s attitudes and preferences (analytics, surveys, branding experts) and learn what your new product/service should be and how it should appear to your audience.

Take time to explore and use new tools such as AI marketing software as these will help build an unfair advantage over your old school competitors. We can talk about the advantages of marketing AI later.

For a Realtor as an example, use your increasing revenue now to reposition yourself for market leadership in the new year. Get ready to redesign your website with a fresh look, with fresh new content, new brand image, and more time for prospect engagement.

Making 2021 a Smashing Success

Creating this success requires a lot of planning and work. It won’t come down to a business plan. You have to think and change plans on your feet. Business plans are for bankers.

But I have to say that using new analytics tools and research is key to understanding your customers and clients.

And whether you’re a hotel manager, sports manufacturing CEO, Realtor, startup software entrepreneur, or service company, or vacation resort owner, having an up to date view of your customer is essential.

The new analytics tools can help you. Reading blogs and news stories helps. Reading the tweets of top small business minds helps, and getting the latest forecasts and predictions from experts is wise.

Your new brand and product won’t just happen. It’s going to a goal you work toward. If you have a sincere desire to be a market leader, including in real estate, please contact me about working with you to achieve your sales goals.