How Businesses Must Pivot to Survive and Thrive

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought massive uncertainties in virtually every sector. Businesses across the globe are struggling to adjust and get used to the new realities of the pandemic. Interestingly, some companies are turning tides to their favor and positioning their businesses for growth. Here are 5 ways businesses can pivot to survive and thrive even in trying times.

1. Embrace a Growth Mindset

Now is a perfect time to build stronger relationships with your customers and discover growth opportunities. Be available, stay calm, and keep thinking about growth. Maybe it’s also time to improve your marketing plans, evaluate operations, optimize your website, simplify back-end processes, and come up with new offerings. The objective here is to complete tasks that will ensure you’re ready when the crisis passes.

Continue providing your offerings. The problems of your customers don’t go away during hard times. In fact, that is the time your customers need you to be there for them. Rather than feeling guilty about selling during a crisis, it’s important to focus your mind on what you can do to add value to your offerings.

If you decide to target overseas consumers during trying times, just ensure you’re working with a reliable global partner. New Horizons Global Partners is a great example of an established global PEO that can offer you professional assistance when it comes to targeting international audiences. They have operations in China, North America, Europe, and other parts of Asia.

2. Show up

Staying away until a crisis passes isn’t a wise decision. Businesses that show up in times of hardship always emerge on the other side even better, with enhanced brand goodwill and expanded customer base. For example, brands that have kept in touch with their customers during this COVID-19 pandemic are already seeing this halo effect.

Let your customers know you’re available. Show that you genuinely care about them by finding out the challenges they are facing and what you can do to help. Give your brand the top priority, but let your actions show you have genuine interests of the community at heart.

Keep blogging and sending emails, but adjust your content to address what your customers need at the moment. You might need to revise your scheduled content or generate content that’s required right now.

3. Adapt to Address New Demands and Needs Satisfactorily

Come up with creative ways to serve customers and clients who are stuck at home. Consider providing your customers with delivery services now that they are staying at home. Also, find ways to use technology to guide customers through the steps of making a purchase. You can achieve that with a teleconferencing tool.

Think about the assets within your business that can help you meet the customer demands you have identified. Consider what you can offer virtually to meet current customer needs. Also, try to add value to your offerings through discounts and special promotions.

4. Protect Your Employees

Safety concerns shouldn’t be limited to your customers only. They should also extend to your employees. Inform your employees about the steps you’re taking to ensure their safety in the workplace. During a crisis, business owners and leaders should lead by example and strictly adhere to the measures they’ve put in place.

Employees also respect honest leaders. So, let them know in advance if there are layoffs in the offing, salaries are being scaled back, or there will be no bonuses at the end of the year. When normalcy returns, businesses will likely continue to struggle with high employee turnover, a challenge they’ve been facing in recent years. These trying times provide you with a chance to cultivate lifelong loyalty among your employees and increase retention.

5. Regularly Keep Track of Your Pivot Strategy

Your quarterly financial reports or just your gut instinct can’t give you a true picture of your company’s performance during a crisis. Timely, correct financial reporting is extremely important during unstable market conditions. Think about generating daily or weekly financial reports that bring to light what’s performing well and what’s under-performing. You can then devise strategies to reinforce what’s working and rectify what’s not working.

Think about what to include in your daily or weekly report. You can keep an eye on revenue, sources of cash, expenses, and payroll costs. Talk to your CPA to identify other important metrics that would apply to your situation.

Conclusion

Your business must implement the right pivot strategies to survive and thrive during and after a crisis. Embrace a growth mindset, be visible, protect your staff, and continue offering value to your customers. Most importantly, regularly review your pivot strategy and implement corrective measures.