New business is the lifeblood of all business at all times. Whether it is getting new work from a current client or work from a new client, it is what makes the future. However, in rough times, (and unless you are the re-animated corpse of Joseph Goebbels, today should rank as a rough time for all businesses), new business is crucial for survival, let alone growth.

But new business is very hard in the best of times, and today, especially hard. Business people need to watch their last dollar. Promotion and marketing are seen as a profligate luxuries from another, more profligate time.

Sigh…

In reality, however, this is the optimum time for a breakout campaign. Making changes in your market position – whether selling hamburgers or strategic marketing campaigns – is considerably easier during rough financial times. In high financial times, all players spend the max – both because they have the money and the confidence of exploding sales, and because they have to – competing against their competitors also spending the max. In such times, a lot of money doesn’t go very far  – the noise level is too high and the customer can’t hear you for all the noise of everybody shouting at the same time.

In rough times, everybody has to cut back, or even go to zero. Consequently, even a tiny effort will ring incredibly loud.  This is the time to make a move, especially if you don’t have any money!

Enlarge your position in this down market and reap the benefits in a relatively inexpensive way for the upcoming expansive market, and let your aggressive promotion build your future success when it matters.  When everybody has money and is ready to spend it.

At Mentus we’ve put our money where our mouth is and made investments in new business ourselves. We have a new CRM database and are regularly disseminating email blasts and other forms of outreach to potential clients. We hope you’ve been the recipient of some of these efforts!