Leadership - Growing in a difficult economy!

Posted by Tim Scholten on Wed, Dec 01, 2010 @ 07:00 AM

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Visible Progress Blog Post

The most typical reaction to a downturn in the economy is to pull back spending and effort in all categories; from wages to marketing. This is exactly the wrong thing to do. While it pays to be wise with your funds, it is even more critical to invest for growth and market share gains during challenging economic times. Companies that invest wisely in these four areas generally grow during economic downturns and come racing out of the downturn as the economy improves. Consider how these four investments can help you!

1. Hire great sales people - Companies should Sales Reps always be on the lookout for great sales people. Competitors often make the mistake of downsizing critical resources. Having access to quality sales people with established client relationships is an absolute win. Take advantage of adding team members that pay for themselves with new revenue streams from new clients they can bring with them.

2. Skills Training- Invest in your team members skills so that team expertise and mastery improves. Employees are often concerned about their position during tough economic times, even if they have no reason to be concerned. Continuing to invest in their skills will alleviate these fears, improve productivity, improve quality and increase their loyalty....something you will really appreciate when when the economy improves.

3. Innovate - Companies rarely have the tim Innovation blocks e to invest in innovation during busy times. Challenge your team members to invest just a few hours per week in researching new methods, new products, new technologies to help you streamline your operations and improve your products. Employees can typically make their work fit the day, so challenge them to be more productive and innovate.

4. Model the Best - Knowing who is the best in your business and modeling their behaviors, metrics and performance is another way to improve your results. There is so much that you can learn from benchmarking your operations to the best in the business. It will point you to areas you need to improve or invest in. Leverage what they have already figured out.

I hope that you are as enthusiastic about growing your business as I am even during these challenging times. If you need help in getting your team focused in these four areas, give me a call when you are ready to make Visible Progress.