Has your company bit off more than it can chew?

Whatever expectations you might have had for your business in 2020, things look a bit different than what we anticipated at the beginning of the year. The economy started in a bull market, and things were only looking up.  

When things look good, companies engage in risky behavior. But the world changed, and the word “risk” no longer has the same appeal. Layoffs hit the nation hard, working from home became our new normal, and we now find ourselves in a K-shaped recovery entering into the next year.

Companies that are thriving in the pandemic all share one thing in common: rightsizing.

Contrary to popular belief, rightsizing is not a synonym for downsizing. While many have laid off employees in this economy, rightsizing is a continuous effort to redirect business needs to industry-appropriate strategic efforts. It includes initiatives ranging from your facilities to sales-ready marketing.

How can your company benefit from rightsizing? Below, we examine three key takeaways from the pandemic economy.

Rightsizing Your Sales-Ready Leads

In an uncertain economy, it is tempting to take opportunities wherever they might find you. But are you ready for them?

Identifying sales-ready leads is one of the chief goals of any marketing initiative, and is typically conducted through customer engagement with your brand. Factors like site visits, email interactions and filling out forms determine a prospect’s interest with your brand – the more they engage with you, the more likely they are to use your service.

But sales-ready marketing campaigns can’t rely on this information alone to achieve success – a company has to be ready and able to meet the needs of new clients in the midst of a pandemic. Taking on a massive account may not be compatible with your business model.

When rightsizing your marketing, you also need to be rightsizing your segment. What is your target profile? Does a certain segment resonate better for your product or service than others? Finding good industry fits relies on narrowing down your marketing efforts to target specific demographics – narrowing in on a segment produces better qualified leads.

Before taking on a new client, consider whether you can meet their needs. The value of a customer doesn’t only lie in the money that they offer up-front – failing to meet the needs of a client can have damaging effects on your brand as a whole. A partnership built to last provides:

  • Consistency – Long-standing relationships with clients tend to be most beneficial to the health of your company, as they require the least amount of maintenance and bring in consistent revenue. Relationships that are built to last are just as important as onboarding new clients.
  • Referrals – The single best source for new clients come from existing ones. Referrals offer a path of least resistance to new customers that trust in your product or service
  • Good ReviewsA 2016 study by Consumer Affairs determined that while star reviews were important to determining the quality of a product or service, the content of these reviews held greater weight among prospective customers. This is equally as important in B2C as it is for B2B companies, giving credibility to your brand and offering new roads for improvement on existing services.

Rightsizing your sales-ready marketing is about narrowing your focus to brands that will use and benefit from your product or service. Aim at the targets you can hit well, not the targets you are bound to miss.

Rightsizing Expectations

Overpromising what you can provide to a client is a path to failure. But just as important to your brand image is considering the needs of prospects.

Sales-ready marketing campaigns have to consider the needs of potential customers during a pandemic. People are struggling in this time – be realistic not only with what you can offer a client, but how you approach them.

This can be as simple as acknowledging unsubscribes in a timely manner, or delivering content that provides actual value to a reader rather than simply being optimized for search engines. Your marketing initiatives need to reflect what you can offer in an honest way, while not being perceived as spam.

Downsizing a company can disable certain offerings that your company provided in the past. By contrast, rightsizing ensures that you still able to meet the same client needs as before while reallocating efforts to areas that need the most work.

Rightsizing Your Facilities

Companies used to spend thousands of dollars per employee per year renting out office spaces. In fact, with open-concept offices influenced by Silicon Valley and companies like WeWork, a new market was emerging solely around this “office space of the future”. For the time being, it seems like this new office space is more realistically a kitchen table or a home office.

Reconciling with a pandemic budget has led companies to trim the fat and return to the baseline. This is not a bad thing. Rather than micromanaging employee time in an office, metrics have shifted to focus on simply getting work done, and people are more productive and communicative as a result.

Transitioning to office spaces like Amata Law Office Suites have benefitted legal practitioners in a landscape where having a physical office is often a necessity. By providing services like admins, paralegals, and notaries on-site, they offer real estate and staffing support for firms moving away from larger offices, using personalized solutions for their industry.

Without the ability to meet in person, the world is plunging into digital solutions. Internet usage has soared over the past few months, and everyone has become more reliant on technology to go about their day. This is a boon for both digital marketing and digital sales. Sourcing leads should reflect this with a renewed focus on email, LinkedIn, SEO, or targeted ad campaigns.

Recalibrate your business model around outcomes. Companies that are succeeding in the pandemic are taking novel approaches to engaging with their audience by recognizing that the target has moved to at-home workers.

Conclusion

Rightsizing your business isn’t a one-step solution – it is a systematic way of cutting out any budgetary excess, and adjusting to meet the needs of current and future clients. Focusing on sales-ready marketing, customer expectations, and facilities are three great starting points.

The best advice for a company looking to implement rightsizing is to start with the end in mind. How are you looking to grow your business in the new year?

120/80 helps B2B and profession service companies target new audiences through marketing automation, analytics insights, PPC lead generation, and more. Contact us today to learn more.