How’s your target market changing?

This was a challenge we addressed in last week’s CEO Mastermind session.

With an economic downturn looming, the big question is:
🤔 – How are the priorities of your ideal customer profile changing
🤔 – What are the macroeconomic factors that are changing for your customers?
🤔 – And what does this mean to the perspectives of your business?

The problem with uncertainty is:
👉 – Specific segments of your target market will do well; others not
👉 – Most organizations get conservative and switch to a wait-and-see approach.
👉 – Priorities shift towards securing cash flow and protecting costs.

What’s at stake?
👉 – What used to sell yesterday won’t necessarily sell well tomorrow
👉 – Demand could drop to 0. Sales cycles could double in size.

The urgency
👉 – Figuring out who you’re (still) for and who you’re not for (anymore)

Here’s the thing:

Your positioning doesn’t necessarily change in a downturn, but your USP likely will. As your customers’ priorities are shifting, so will their perspective about what problems are highly valuable AND critical to solving.

That’s where your opportunity is. Reassess the longlist of what keeps your customers up at night, and rate each challenge around two angles:

🔥 – For whom has this challenge become MORE valuable to solve?
🔥 – For whom has this challenge become MORE critical to solving?

Zoom in to those challenges where you know you can exceed expectations, i.e., the challenges that have become more valuable and critical. Refocus on those customers.

The question for you to reflect upon:

If you assess your target market – which niche will you be able to be ultra-relevant for when a recession becomes a reality?

 

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