One of my favorite quotes comes from abolitionist leader
Frederick Douglass. He said, "If
there is no struggle, there is no progress.” Douglass would know about struggle
in the midst of adversity. He was born a slave in 1818 in Maryland. When he was
20 years old, he escaped to New York, then to Massachusetts, where he became an
orator, writer and leader of the anti-slavery movement. Twice before he had
attempted to escape slavery, but was unsuccessful. He believed that adversity
tested people’s will to get past their own misery. The struggle not only made
you a better person, it was a necessary part of life if you were to grow.
Another of Douglass’s sayings was this: "Those who profess to favor freedom,
and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the
ground.”
Let’s
talk about adversity. It is one of the truths of life that troubled times will catch
up to you if you live long enough. We all try to avoid hard times, but they are
a reality of life. Something unforeseen happens that sets you back. Let’s talk
about adversity in your business. I talk to a lot of people who either own or
manage a business. Many of them have had a hard time growing their businesses
the past several years. The business climate, they tell me, has not been
favorable. What do you do when things aren’t going your way? If you take the
time to make a plan, adversity can make your business stronger from the
struggle.
Let
me advocate taking the time to examine what is happening around you and chart
it, in writing, in two tools we use in marketing. The first is a SWOT analysis.
SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. S and
W are internal to your business. This is what you control by the people you
hire and the way you conduct business. O and T are external to your business.
Adverse situations are listed under Threats. Many times these Threats are
caused by a change with your customers – such as a change in your customer base
or a shift in their attitudes towards your products and services. The second
form we use is a VAC analysis. VAC stands for Values (an unchanging belief
system held by your customers), Attitudes (prevailing thoughts that can shift
based on popular opinions), and Choices. In adverse business situations
involving your customers, typically there is a shift in Attitudes or a change
in the Choices that are competing for your customers’ loyalty.
Both
the SWOT and the VAC analyses will help you identify the problem. What do you
do with this information? This is where marketing can help you. Adversity
causes us to make a change. That change needs to be implemented and
communicated in your marketing message to your customers. To resist changing is to risk losing your
place at the table. For instance, think about the way that mobile devices have
used adversity to change their products and market to the shifting attitudes of
their customers based on the choices of the competition. Would we all still be
using flip phones if the iPhone had not changed the way we perceive using a
phone – not so much as a telephone, but as a small computer? Adversity changed
the phone market. Choice caused the customer to shift their attitudes. There
was struggle and there was progress.
The
same is true of your business. If you are experiencing hard times, use the
adversity to your benefit. Figure out where the source of the hard time is
coming from and market your way out of it.