When you've been round the block in recessions and seen the outcomes, the most interesting winners always seem to up their game in sales and marketing. They got more of less, stayed in 'cash is king' because some flowed. Out of the other side they had orders and customers.
Back in the day I'm sure it must have been the horse traders, beca…
When you've been round the block in recessions and seen the outcomes, the most interesting winners always seem to up their game in sales and marketing. They got more of less, stayed in 'cash is king' because some flowed. Out of the other side they had orders and customers.
Back in the day I'm sure it must have been the horse traders, because today its Cazoo and Cinch, Motorway and the new car industry.
Which do you think is the best ad from that bunch?
I haven't been shopping for a car, so I looked up one advert from each of those companies. I liked the Cinch advert best. It was the only one that showed a world with a woman in it (and then went on to describe how clever she is). I used to do almost all my own automotive maintenance and repairs, yet I've spent a lifetime facing mechanics and car sales people who treat me like a dolt even after they know that. Car related companies that behave better stand out.
These companies are new kids on the block, upstarts looking to disrupt the used car industry. So much upheaval in the economy opens the door wider than usual for that type of thing.
There are many more existing businesses just looking for a way to get through these times. Besides marketing & sales changes, I've seen small businesses do such things as expand their product line or target market in unexpected ways. A Houston ice company started making snow for movies filmed anywhere within a few hundred miles (most of Texas seldom gets snow), and that became a substantial part of their revenue stream. The owner came to a continuing ed course I offered about how to get customers to pay in full and on time. Snow for movies is lucrative, but only after you figure out how to get them to pay as much as they agreed and pay on time!
The catch for such businesses is usually that they're trying a solution on a wing and a prayer with only a gut sense of what it might do for (or to) them. It's possible to go for a few tweaks instead of grand leaps of faith, with a clearer sense of what to expect... and to get the help to do so at a price and/or on terms that make it as close to a risk-free investment as possible. But that doesn't sound sexy or exciting, so it doesn't always come up on the radar.
When you've been round the block in recessions and seen the outcomes, the most interesting winners always seem to up their game in sales and marketing. They got more of less, stayed in 'cash is king' because some flowed. Out of the other side they had orders and customers.
Back in the day I'm sure it must have been the horse traders, because today its Cazoo and Cinch, Motorway and the new car industry.
Which do you think is the best ad from that bunch?
And why?
I haven't been shopping for a car, so I looked up one advert from each of those companies. I liked the Cinch advert best. It was the only one that showed a world with a woman in it (and then went on to describe how clever she is). I used to do almost all my own automotive maintenance and repairs, yet I've spent a lifetime facing mechanics and car sales people who treat me like a dolt even after they know that. Car related companies that behave better stand out.
These companies are new kids on the block, upstarts looking to disrupt the used car industry. So much upheaval in the economy opens the door wider than usual for that type of thing.
There are many more existing businesses just looking for a way to get through these times. Besides marketing & sales changes, I've seen small businesses do such things as expand their product line or target market in unexpected ways. A Houston ice company started making snow for movies filmed anywhere within a few hundred miles (most of Texas seldom gets snow), and that became a substantial part of their revenue stream. The owner came to a continuing ed course I offered about how to get customers to pay in full and on time. Snow for movies is lucrative, but only after you figure out how to get them to pay as much as they agreed and pay on time!
The catch for such businesses is usually that they're trying a solution on a wing and a prayer with only a gut sense of what it might do for (or to) them. It's possible to go for a few tweaks instead of grand leaps of faith, with a clearer sense of what to expect... and to get the help to do so at a price and/or on terms that make it as close to a risk-free investment as possible. But that doesn't sound sexy or exciting, so it doesn't always come up on the radar.