Jack Meisinger
2020 is over, but the challenges didn't disappear when you flipped the calendar page.
2021 will have it’s own challenges. I recently talked to one business director who communicated his vision for 2021 was essentially to “go out fighting” (or in the immortal words of Neil Young, “it’s better to burn out than to fade away”). His businesses growth had been stalled by the challenges they were facing in 2020 and he didn't see any way to get it going again.
As we talked, it became clear that there was so much more he could do. Closing up shop was NOT the only option.
At Insynth, our goal is to help business rebuild their revenue engines for the digital age so that you can GROW rather than shrink. No matter the challenge – it just takes some fresh thinking and a bit of hutzpah to come back stronger.
Here are 5 ways to overcome business setbacks.
Upskill
This is more about mindset than it is about a particular skill. There are those who are comfortable staying the same. They do OK in environments of relative stability. They don’t do well in changing environments that demand adaptation.
Then there those who are always growing. Always reading. Learning new technologies. Exploring different ways of doing business. And the benefit isn’t in WHAT they’re reading, learning, or exploring, it’s that they’re always looking for what’s NEXT. They’re focused on progress. They do what they can to work towards it. Then, when a real opportunity presents itself, they’re ready to take it.
A few ways to do this could be to take courses on Hubspot Academy, Google Garage, or LinkedIn.
Maintaining a learners mindset will help you adapt to the digital environment of 2021.
Align Sales and Marketing
The pandemic is taking a toll on us emotionally as well as fiscally. Camaraderie can be scarce. Teams feel fragmented.
What if sales and marketing were a team, that celebrated even small successes together? If sales and marketing were a team, then leads captured by marketing would be a win for sales. And new clients would be wins for the marketing team.
If you eliminate barriers between sales and marketing you have opportunities to celebrate successes from both departments.
When sales and marketing talk more they also learn about the challenges that each other have, and can figure out solutions to those problems together.
Perhaps sales continually gets a particular question, and they always feel like they barely give an adequate or persuasive answer because they have nothing physical to back it up. If marketing knows this, they could create a document to answer that question in detail, then the sales reps would have that resource at hand to send to prospects when they ask.
Sales could make suggestions for content to marketing based on the pain points they identify when talking to prospects. Sales are generally more in touch with the real day to day struggles of their audience. If marketing learns from them, then their messages be more timely, direct, and relevant.
Getting your sales and marketing team to work together can create enthusiasm and momentum in your company in 2021.
Big Content Peices
How often does a year go by and your marketing team hasn’t produced anything memorable? Sure they’ve created collateral and content, but nothing that planted a flag in industry culture.
Why? Because big projects take time and effort. But, like Salesforce’s “The State of Sales” report, a relevant piece of long form content will help establish your company as industry experts.
This could be a pillar page, eBook, industry report, or webinar series.
They take more time to create. They can be a bit of a gamble. But when they pay off, they really pay off.
These types of pieces are also more valuable because they’re more viable for gating, meaning they work better to capture leads than smaller pieces of content. This makes them more effective at generating leads and ultimately revenue for your business.
And once you identify a “blockbuster” you can recreate it every year – kind of like a Hollywood franchise.
They also help focus your energy throughout the year towards a marketing output that will produce significant results.
Video
Video will be a super power for the building product companies who use it well. Video helps humanize the brand. And in an age where human contact is limited, video is as close as we get. There are many opportunities to use video, and given that it generally gets a better rate of engagement, it would be best to take every one of those opportunities.
A few uses include:
- Webinars – if you have the audience for it and expertise in an area of interest, this is quite helpful to engage with customers, answer questions, and put a face to the brand.
- Sales introductions – by including an introduction of who you are and what problem you can help solve in an intro email you can immediately raise the level of interest your emails hold for prospects. These can be recorded quickly and easily with applications like Vidyard.
- Social content – again, people want to know who they’re working with. Seeing your face on Social Content will help your company communicate: “we’re here, we’re open” and make prospects feel like they already know you.
Video is the format of the future. The faster you can get used to it, and start using it, the better.
Personal brand
Putting a bit more time into your personal profile this year will be well worth the investment. It can help you stand out and connect in digital spaces.
Even if you’re not job hunting, posting to your personal LinkedIn is important. It’s another place that prospects go to get an idea of who you are and decide whether they want to work with you or not.
One thing you could do is commit to posting three times a week. You could use the time you would have spent commuting.
Tighten up your profile, post more often without thinking too much about it, and then analyse how it’s going in a month or two. Then tweak from there. Don’t get wrapped up in making sure everything is perfect.
Conclusion
Coming back stronger is going to take focus and effort in 2021. But it is achievable. Hopefully these suggestions can give you: a place to start, a mindset and a bit of a roadmap to make the most of the opportunities that are coming your way in 2021.
Need more of a steer? Speak to our team: