IT’S time we all started taking some ballet lessons … of sorts.
COVID-19 came out of nowhere, striking a blow to many thousands of businesses, threatening their owners’ livelihoods and company survival.
This pandemic has made us “dance” to its heartbreaking beat.
We’ve been kept on our toes from the beginning and chances are, those who remain in this tragic opera – maybe even thriving – have had to learn how to pivot.
WHY WE NEED TO PIVOT
Pivoting is all about making changes to adapt to new or evolving circumstances.
Usually, those changes are needed to attract more customers and increase profits to grow business.
During Covid, most businesses have had to do some pivoting and many of those pivots may be permanent.
THE FOUR PIVOTS
Russ says we can identify four kinds of pivots.
- Offer Pivot: Sometimes during a crisis – whether caused by a pandemic or something unique to your business – pivoting the offer is what is needed. That is, changing what you are selling, how people are able to acquire it, or how you are describing it. Many people already have done this or will need to.
- Message Pivot: Most business owners have done this – change the way they go into the market and speak to their customers. Russ admits that when Covid first hit, his messaging pivoted to pure content because trying to sell something simply didn’t feel right at the time.
- Career or Business Pivot: Changing jobs or shutting one business down and starting another.
- Market Pivot: Looking at the market and giving customers more products than they want. Those who have defined their businesses by their market – rather than just by their products – are doing better in this Covid economy and thrive in general.
Russ says lessons can be learned from the market pivot, and Apple and Harley Davidson are fine examples.
Apple isn’t called “Apple Computers” because it’s not a computer company but one that sells all manner of items to a particular market.
Harley Davidson serves a group of enthusiasts that would buy jackets, accessories “and barbecue sauce if they think they can slap the HD brand on barbecue sauce and sell it” – not just motorcycles.
HOW TO AVOID A BOTTLENECK
Defining your business simply by product or service could be creating a tremendous bottleneck that is hampering growth.
The result could be so dire, you have to shut the business down.
Always remember: Your asset is your market – the people you serve or want to serve. Sometimes we just have to find something else to sell to that group or find some other way of selling it to them.
Blog Post created from Russ Henneberry’s DMDU Connect LIVE 2020 Presentation.
If you would like to watch the full presentation, CLICK HERE and start your FREE 7 Day Trial.
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