Bad Economy Becoming All-Purpose Excuse
November 11th, 2008 @ 4:49 am1
Here’s your PR tip of the week: write yourself a page of new messages that include the phrase “because of the bad economy…”
As in, “Our revenues are flat because of the bad economy.” Or, “We have to lay off people because of the bad economy…”
Now, I’m not making fun of companies that are really having serious economic problems as a result of the increasingly perilous economy. But I’m skeptical of companies that are starting to roll out “bad economy” as an all-purpose excuse for whatever goes wrong.
Take Circuit City, for example, which filed for bankruptcy protection Monday. It has been a far less well-managed chain than its main competitors, mainly Best Buy and Wal-Mart, for years, during the good times and now the bad. So it was far than just the “bad economy” that felled Circuit City. But I didn’t hear anything about “poor management” in the post mortem about the chain.
Of course, it’s convenient and easy to blame the economy rather than taking a look in the mirror.
But I caution you to use the all-purpose excuse sparingly.
Why?
Because it’s a credibility killer.
Sure, it’s a tough economy right now. But the economy isn’t to blame for everything. So if you use ‘the excuse’ and it turns out not to be true, it will make you look foolish. And less believable.
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1 comments:
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ennyman11/12/08 Report as spam
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RE: Bad Economy Becoming All-Purpose Excuse
It's well known that economic downturns are a way of weeding out the weaker siblings in the economic gene pool. These are tough times, but unless companies deal with their problems in good times, they can end up eaten by the predators lurking at the edge of the herd.
(My apologies for the miscellaneous mixed metaphors.)
e.
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jensipin11/12/08 Report as spam
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RE: Bad Economy Becoming All-Purpose Excuse
Our sales team has run into the "bad economy" excuse in the past few weeks...
What are some proven sales tactics that have worked either against or with this excuse?
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jongreer11/12/08 Report as spam
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RE: Bad Economy Becoming All-Purpose Excuse
Good question -- you're going to run into this a lot in sales, and let's face it, sometimes it will be the truth no matter what [think what it must be like to be a hot tub salesman targeting homeowners]. But other times, you've got to look at it the other way: what WILL they be spending $$ on [they must be spending on something] and figure out if you can fit yourself into THAT budget. Another tactic: stress the money-saving aspects of your product/service: how it replaces other expenses or lowers future expenses.
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NorthstarFlorida11/12/08 Report as spam
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Tactic for giving a sanity check for excuses
When clients I coach begin to use "Universal Quantifiers" like the word all, or "Cause-Effect" explanations I have found it effective to simply reword the phrases as questions and see if the data supports the "excuse".
For example, if the claim is "Sales are down because of the bad economy" then there is an implied "all" in that statement. I like to ask "Are sales down in all areas because of the economy?" The answer is almost always no. Exploring the "exceptions" may reveal that the areas that are doing better can be because of anything from the salesperson, the market segment, the pricing for that client, the communication, the service....
Another approach to take in response to the "Sales are down due to the bad economy" is to ask "Did the sales dip begin with the bad economy?" Looking at the data with the team should be able to confirm if the economy was a contributor and if so, how much. Jon Greer gave a great example above about Circuit City. An examination of the data would show that Circuit City's problems began before the "bad economy".
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