Don’t Wait for the Economy to Improve

If you’re at a point right now where you know you need to be selling more, but for whatever reason you’re not — and you could feel like it’s the economy, you could feel like it’s the competition, it doesn’t really matter what it is — If it’s either of those things or if it’s something else, there are ways around it. There are specific things you can do that will help you to get through to the people that you need to reach, and drive them to either a yes or no, thumbs up or thumbs down decision. Sometimes the answer is going to be no. But sometimes it’s going to be yes. If you’re not even giving them the option to give you a thumbs up or thumbs down, there’s no way you win.

David: Hi, and welcome back. Today, Jay McFarland and I will be discussing Don’t Wait for the Economy to Improve. Welcome back, Jay.

Jay: Hey, Dave. As always, it’s a real pleasure. You know, I’ve been thinking a lot about the economy, and it’s really kind of unique because there are parts of this economy that are really struggling and there are parts that are really booming.

So depending upon where you’re at in that spectrum, you could be getting hit really hard or you could just be celebrating, right? In our case, we’re definitely feeling the effects of inflation. I can feel it in our client’s willingness to make purchases. Cause things are a little bit tighter than they normally are.

David: Yeah, it’s interesting. Like you said, some people are really struggling right now. Some people are having their best months ever. It really kind of depends. But when we talk about the idea of not waiting for the economy to improve, I think there are a lot of good reasons for that. The first reason I would say is that your smart competition will not, they’re not going to wait, they’re going to be out there, they’re going to be in front of people.

And if you’re not in front of people, then that just means you have absolutely no opportunity to get the business. So I’ve heard a number of people talking about the problems with the economy. And I’ve heard a number of people talking about the fact that they’re waiting for things to improve. And I saw that comment online the other day, and I thought, we need to talk about this because essentially we have to be selling all the time, right?

I mean, most businesses can’t afford to wait around until things get better. Reminds me of that old Zig Ziglar line where you don’t wait until all the lights turn green before you head into town, right? It just doesn’t work.

Jay: Right. Right, right. It’s a great point. And I also think that part of any of your business strategy, you have to be prepared for the ups and downs.

Good businesses know how to pivot, they know when to pivot. So if you’re a new business, this is going to be hard for you, but it’s one of the reasons why you want to always be tracking, right? Always be watching because there’s seasonality, there’s economies of the country, of your local economies, all kinds of things that can impact your business model.

David: Yeah. And the truth of the matter is that we only ever have right now. We can’t sell in the past. We might be able to sell in the future, right? Nobody knows their future. But yeah, we can plan to sell in the future, but we can’t sell in the future right now. All we can do is sell now. We can make plans, but sometimes they happen, sometimes they don’t.

Right now is the only thing we’ve got. So it’s always the best time to sell. Right now is always the very best time that we have to sell, because we really have no alternative in the moment. Well, I guess the alternative is wait. But when you’re waiting, you’re not selling, and other people are.

Jay: Yeah, and I’ll tell you, I’m not in a business model wher