Recessions naturally cause us to focus on selling. And selling naturally causes us to focus on stuff such as closing and pitching and objection handling. All well and good. But it won't work and can't work unless we did our marketing in the first place; and a first place to start is good old Kotler's Four Ps. There is often a keenness to change or discard any theory over 12 months old which is a huge shame; in the case of Kotler's thinking much is as robust as the day he first wrote it:
- Book an away day with your team (yes, I do know there's a recession on);
- Review your product: what exactly is it?;
- Review your pricing: how did you come to those decisions?
- Review your promotion: how do you connect with your potential customers?
- Review your place or channel: how do your customers actually buy from you?