Читать книгу No B.S. Business Success In The New Economy - Dan S Kennedy - Страница 6

Welcome to The New Economy

Well, it’s not like we shouldn’t have seen this coming.

Problem: We are monstrously over-stored. The same stores every few miles. The joke about Starbucks was it had reached the point they were opening new Starbucks in the Men’s Rooms in existing Starbucks. Me-too, same-as, indistinguishable chain stores, chain restaurants with zero differentiation right across the parking lot from one another. Simply, much, much more than the market could support. Implosion certain destiny.

Problem: There are far too many over-lapping brands. Should there ever have been Cadillac pick-up trucks when GM also has Chevy and GMC trucks? Other than to perpetuate jobs locked in by union contract, could the existence of Pontiac and Buick and Chevy and Cadillac and GMC possibly be justified? Not unique to GM, though. Many other companies sinned similarly. And it seems everybody wanted to play in everybody else’s sandbox, sacrificing their very identities to their detriment. Starbucks added egg, cheese, and meat breakfast sandwiches (that ruined the coffee aroma in their stores) while McDonalds hurried to add lattes and gourmet coffee while Subway added pizza while Dominos Pizza added sub sandwiches, your pharmacy added clothes and lawn furniture, Wal-Mart added iPhones. It’s a damn mess. That must be cleaned up.

Problem: Everybody already owns too much stuff. How many cars, TVs, computers, games, remodeled kitchens, backyard decks can consumers consume before they need a break? Above all else, the recession was made and extended by demand problems.

Problem: Worst of all, salesmanship perished and service went to hell in a handbasket, as free-flowing, easy, excess credit and the latest in a series of fools’ bubbles (this one with theoretically never-ending multiplying of property values so homes became ATM’s, not investments) enabled countless companies with poor sales practices, lazy and inept salespeople, sloppy over-staffing, casual management, and abysmal customer service to prosper, or at least seem to prosper. Truth is, consumers welcomed a good excuse to stay home and stop buying and punish.

Imagine a very loosely held together, giant ball of yarn with dozens of loose ends poking out all over the place. It wouldn’t matter much which of the loose ends you gave a good tug; the entire ball, really pile of yarn would implode and collapse and unravel. So it has been with the economy. It really wouldn’t have mattered if it had been too many sub-prime mortgages issued to poorly qualified and irresponsible borrowers, based on inflated equity with no regard to the borrowers’ ability to pay, then bundled together in inventive investment packages or if it had been sudden skyrocketing of gas prices or if it had been the weight of mass-multiplied, poorly regulated hedge funds or accelerating disappearance of old-style manufacturing jobs sent overseas or just about any other loose end you might name—any one given a good yank would have been enough. Of course, when several got pulled hard in different directions at the same time. ...

Incidentally, the real estate bubble was visible far, far in advance of its bursting. In 2003, an outstanding book on the subject, The Coming Crash in the Housing Market by John Talbott, a former vice president at Goldman Sachs and real estate economist, very accurately predicted both the mortgage meltdown and real estate crash we’ve recently experienced—and reading it saved me some money. Authoritative articles began appearing pretty frequently from 2004 on, like the one on July 26, 2004, in the Financial Times, headlined “Party Over—Turn Off The Housing Boom Lights,” and stating that “the end is near in use of exotic type mortgage money”. We should have seen this coming. Some of us did. I began foretelling in earnest of 2007–2008 in my No B.S. Marketing Letter and other publications in 2004.

What has been painfully revealed are extreme, systemic weaknesses and flaws and vulnerabilities—and gross excesses—throughout our socio-economic, financial, and political systems, papered over for a while, but worsening like undiagnosed disease all the while until, finally, we got slapped in the face with a monster recession. It’s not my first rodeo. I built my first businesses during the Jimmy Carter recession, with tight credit, double-digit interest and inflation and unemployment rates, and gas shortages and gas lines. These things may very well be avoidable, but these things happen. For people seeing it firsthand for the first time it is terrifying and can be paralyzing. But it’s not the first time and it won’t be the last time traumatic change has replaced an old economy with a New Economy.

From Monster Recession to New Economy

For people who respond boldly, creatively, intelligently, and responsibly, grand and glorious new opportunities, greater in scope, more powerful for rapid wealth creation, and more accessible to all are being presented by the emerging New Economy. With honest Darwinism, the herds are being thinned, the weakest eaten, and the strongest stepping over carcasses in the street en-route to bigger and better things. You choose whether to lie down and be stepped on or to move forward—quickly—because moving forward is the only way not to be stepped on. The once generous and cheery economy is going through a very irritable and unforgiving mood. Conditions are harsh.

There are new opportunities. They have new requirements. There are also evergreen, time-honored, wholly reliable success principles most business owners and entrepreneurs have drifted from, neglected, or forgotten that must be restored as governing priorities. This book, No B.S. Business Success for the New Economy, and its brother No B.S. Sales Success for the New Economy are about all of those things: new opportunities, new requirements, neglected principles to be restored.

Let me briefly describe the emerging New Economy as it directly affects entrepreneurs. Here are the new realities:

1. All the power has returned to the customer and he knows he has it.

2. The customer’s tolerance for anything ordinary—ordinary products, services, expertise, experiences, for the banal and commonplace, and certainly for incompetence—is zero.

3. Money will be spent more judiciously, so it will be attracted only to businesses offering much more appealing and complete value propositions, with superior reputations, unique positioning, exceptionally effective marketing to tell their story, and outstanding customer service before, during, and after the sale. A more cautious consumer, striving to be sensible and responsible, will be judging you and trying to determine if your company is worthy of his trust before he buys from you. You will be under greater scrutiny.

4. You must genuinely earn your right to your customers’ interest and support by providing well-matched, specialized, even customized product, service, and value propositions. People now have the opportunity, power, and awareness to demand what is specifically for them and precisely matched to their needs, interests, and desires. They are not going to be on buying sprees, buying whatever is in your wagon that you want to sell.

New Economy Customers will not be as tight-fisted as recession customers, but they will be extremely demanding.

The New Economy will not be as grumpy and harsh as the recession economy, but it will not be generous or forgiving either.

Business success in The New Economy will be earned, not given. Businesses must be better. Businesspeople must be much better.