Red Frog, Inc.

(from "How to Profit in a Down Economy" by Josh Barinstein, Copyright 2004)

Let me go straight into maximizing what you have, which is the fourth area.

We will spend a few minutes on this. When I say maximizing I mean relationships or resources. Obviously both are very valuable. In terms of this we've talked about leveraging on existing investments before. So, let's talk about a couple of examples of how this could manifest itself.

One way is to explore collaborating with your customers and partners. Think of who you have in your circle of influence. Where, yes, it might mean investing a few dollars in new technology. I'm not saying don't spend money in this area. But if it's in line with your strategy… if it's something that works with your plan, you can see, and you will see fast and favorable returns from this sort of synergy that happens.

One example, and to be very specific, is XML. I'm sure you've all heard of XML. It's certainly one of those buzz acronyms. I think I'm creating a new phrase here! It's a low-cost standard. If you don't know what it is, it's a low-cost standard for exchanging of data. It can be used as the basis of improving communication with your partners. So, you would set up a system where there is easy exchange of information between the two of you. And in the end you're saving on time, and saving obviously on money and it improves how you handle transactions with those that you do business with. This will add value to both your partner and customer relationships, and their business as well. You'll see that it has a win-win effect all around.

When it comes to resources, I'm going to focus on the possible mismanagement of sales opportunities as resources that you might have. There was a report issued by Accenture. You might have heard of the company. They are a management consulting and technology services company. Their report is titled "Selling in Turbulent Times." I don't know if you have read that article or not, but the thesis is as follows: poor sales performance is primarily tied to the mismanagement of sales opportunities. That's kind of scary to me because to think that a company might have all these opportunities that they're not tapping into and they're there. That's great potential.

A down economy is going to expose a lot of weaknesses within a company and in the area of your selling capabilities. So, this is a good time to be scrutinizing how this area is being handled. How can it be maximized so that those sales opportunities become actual sales?

The report goes on to say that companies who feel most negative about their sales performance are companies that lo and behold, have cost-cutting as their leading priority. I already mentioned this. You don't want to be cutting costs just for the sake of cutting back! It is companies, the report says, that balance cost-cutting with revenue growth, or that focus just on revenue growth alone, that are not only happy with sales but nearly two and a half times, I repeat, two and a half times more satisfied with sales performance. So, definitely something to explore in terms of perhaps effort you're putting into sales you think should be yielding, but you're not scrutinizing enough to see what might be going wrong. This is a time, as was pointed out, to be reflecting on what's actually working, or not for that matter.

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Josh Barinstein is President of Red Frog, Inc., the Southern California ad agency that provides worry-free experiences and powerful results in the areas of Marketing, Print design, and Web/CD-ROM development.

Learn more at www.RedFrogInc.com or by calling 888-955-0550.

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