After a month-plus of inactivity it would be naïve to believe it will be business as usual when we fling open our doors for business.
There will be major cleaning to be done, inventory taken, contacts reinstated with suppliers and clients and some hard conversations to be heard with our creditors and debtors.
For many of us if we are to have half a chance of surviving we must hit the ground running.
Time and tide wait for no man, now more than ever.
The communications with the market especially can not wait. The market is going to be a different one from the one you left behind.
On the one hand your clients, after a month of holding on to cash will be reluctant to spend.
On the other hand, for the first time in a while you and your partners will be starting from scratch, or almost.
While more established competitors may still own top of mind awareness everyone else will have to start from zero.
It is important that you get your communications with the public up and running to take advantage of this.
1. Tell people you are open for business
You have got to remember your clients have fallen out of the habit of coming to your shop. They have been making do with whatever substitute for your product or service or going without it all together. You need to remind those who knew you, that you are stilla round and those who don’t know you that you exist.
The knee jerk reaction is to advertise, the question is where to advertise. You have to hit your clients where they have been all through the lock down and that is on their phones...
There will be an urgent need to use your social media platforms and if you don’t have them set them up.
There are about a million Ugandans on Facebook, half that number on twitter and instagram about the same.
2. Sharpen your value proposition
What is the value of your product or service to your client? Are you the cheapest? Are you the best? Are you good value for money? Are you convenient?
The key to a winning value proposition is encapsulated in this saying,
”People will forget what you told them, they will forget whet you did for them, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”A winning value proposition has to appeal to your clients senses And it is the communication of this value that should lead all your communications.
If you are the cheapest, so what? “More mouth watering ribs for your shilling” If you are the best? “Once you have tasted our ribs you will never go back” Are you good value for money? “Money well spent when you dine with us” Are you convenient? “We deliver wherever you are, whenever you want”
You also need to identify a niche where you are the best and communicate your leadership, because leadership is a strong brand position to occupy in your client’s mind....
3. Invest in delivery service
It has become abudantly clear that those who invested in deliverys ervice came off better off than those who just sat in their shops and waited for the odd person to stop by.
If Mohammed won’t come to the mountain the mountain will have to come to Mohammed.
Getting an app that is readily available on your clients phone can be the difference between life and death in the new world. In our lock down we were looking for convenience since we didnt have our cars or we could ride a boda to the shops.
Guess what we not going to drop delivery services immediately after we are let loose. Expect that home deliveries will be more prevalent in coming days and if you are notin the game it will compromise your business capacity to bounce back.
If you snooze you lose.
I know your most pressing needs coming out of the lock down will be working capital, money to meet your day-to-day obligations.
Your next big urgency, which will help with that first urgency, is to get clients walking in through your door....
COMMUNICATE!
