How to Keep Going in a Tough Economy

Anyone who has played a sport has heard their coach say, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.” The athlete’s reaction to this simple statement says a lot about their character. If you never were an athlete, you might have heard Billy Ocean sing about this. Yet, how does this apply to marketing professional services? Are we tough? Do we need to get going?


The coach was talking about mental toughness as opposed to anything physical. Attitude has a lot to do with our success as marketing services professionals. For many professionals, it is time to invest in an attitude adjustment as a first step.

In times of trouble, management turns to marketing. What happens when we project a “glass is half full” mindset? What happens when our sense of pride responds with, “it’s not marketing’s fault. Things are tough out there. Competition is fierce." While management doesn’t look to marketing to be cheerleaders, sometimes we need to cheer. We also need to be on the same page with management when defining the “it.”

“When other companies simply battened down the hatches, seeing only risk during the recession, the more successful competitors found opportunity and pressed their advantage… "  (Source The McKinsey study; an independent report, that studied nearly 1,000 companies over an 18-year period (1982–99) including the US recession of 1990 to 1991,which showed that companies who increased their marketing expenditures in a recession were the only ones whose profits rose substantially when the economy recovered.) Sounds a lot like the tough kept going.

When management calls you in to say that marketing resources need to be reduced once again, you need to be prepared to tell management what marketing can do to make sure that business grows in the coming year. Are you prepared for this? Management needs marketing to offer tough love with an attitude that this (recession) too will pass. As your competitors are cutting their losses through marketing resource reductions, your battle plan needs to make better use of the marketing resources at your disposal. If management isn’t challenged, your budgets will face the consequences.

What is different with the marketing of professional services firms today? Since the last significant industry recession occurred in the 1980’s, many marketing professionals today weren’t exposed to its realities. Living through an experience is very different than reading about it in a white paper. Therefore, on one level we have less experienced individuals at many firms. However, this does not even take into account the firms that have replaced marketing professionals with other professionals as part of cost-cutting measures. I know several engineering firms that have asked principals or senior project managers to split their billable hours with corporate marketing tasks. 

After all, how hard is it to show your clients and prospects that your firm is able to withstand the hard times? Numerous studies over the years have shown that, on average, it costs five times more for a professional services firm to find a new client than to keep an old one. Focus on the significance of that statement; it is one of the most powerful concepts in the world of marketing professional services.

Yet, can replacements accomplish the same results as marketing professionals? Or, can professionals with less than 7 years of industry experience bring context to marketing needs?

How effective were the replacements when the NFL had its last lockout? Professional services firms that have chosen this path face two obstacles: expertise and focus. Some have discovered the inherent problems with this approach and are now looking to hire experienced marketing professionals. Because of the dismal results of the past three years, many are even elevating the role to chief marketing officer status. This is a good sign in the industry. However, CMO needs to be more than a title.

A seasoned professional with vision for client service and an action plan for acquiring and retaining clients when the economy is recovering is the investment many firms are looking to make. These are the people who keep going when things are tough. The talent that knows when to cheer and how to leverage resources. Professionals who have expertise in both marketing and business development. Are you in this position today? If not, do you have the roadmap to arrive? The Chinese proverb tells us that “the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” For marketing services professionals, the first step begins with attitude. The journey should include equipping, training and mentoring to fill in any gaps along the way. Attitude, character and passion for learning are the leverage points that elevate someone with less industry tenure above those with more. Great ideas and creative solutions don’t hurt either.  Aristotle put it this way nearly 2400 years ago, ""We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit."