the trick to sales and marketing in a

With every media outlet trying to see who can report the most negative stories on the economy, you might be feeling a bit of "doom and gloom" in regards to your business. If you are a salesperson or a small business owner, you might be dreading (or already experiencing) a slowdown in business as the general economy slows down. This is causing a lot of businesses and individuals to search for ways to remain solvent. If this is you, make sure you are cutting costs in the right areas and actually increasing spending in the right areas.What usually happens as the economy slows down is the universally-feared "belt tightening". Companies go through their budgets line by line and see what cabe shrunk and cut. This is how you get layoffs and overall contraction. In an attempt to stay afloat, people "circle the wagons" and hope to wait it out until the general economy bounces back. But, you have to be careful not to throw out the baby with the bath water.One of the best ways to weather challenging economic times is to increase your marketing and sales budget. Let me say that again from another angle. Decreasing your marketing and sales budget is a bad idea. Every company's fate is determined by its revenue. Not only for their profits, but revenue is the source of the cash flow necessary to operate on a day to day basis. No revenue, no cash flow, no business. What brings revenue in? The sales of its products and services. The more sales, the more revenue. That's why companies market themselves in the first place.It might be harder to get sales in a slower economy, which is why marketing efforts need to be increased instead of pulled back. It also means that being prudent with your spending is critical. This is why analyzing your advertising and marketing becomes so important. The companies that ruthlessly track the ROI of their marketing, and are willing to pump more funds into the avenues that work, are the ones that will survive and thrive. This, by the way, also applies to selling when the economy is booming. The only difference is that a good economy is much more forgiving to sloppy marketing efforts while a slow economy leaves no room for error.Where can you find money for increased marketing as business slows? There should be belt tightening, but make sure the right areas are tightened. This is not the time to go out and buy a new office phone system or the newest tech gadget. Is the "business dining and entertainment" budget too high (and does it really have a good return)? This is a great time to reexamine fixed expenses. Remember, they are called fixed because they are generally fixed in the short term, but that doesn't mean they can't change. A couple minutes chatting with the phone or insurance company can often lead to unknown savings (if not, try shopping around - other companies are going to be aggressively looking for business). Approach the landlord to renegotiate rent - they would rather have a lower paying tenant than no tenant at all.The trick here, though, is don't touch your marketing budget - in fact, find ways to increase it. If the economy was good you wouldn't decrease it, so why does it seem like something that would work in a bad economy. Let the competition slow their marketing efforts (and many will). As they do less, your increased efforts will bring more clients to you - not only now, but in the future.

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