Seven Oaks Consulting  

Join me and special guest Allen Mogol on Monday, November 3 at noon eastern time for our next segment for small business owners. We'll be discussing how and when to adjust your marketing strategy to address the changing times. 

During the 1970's, when unemployment soared and gas lines were the norm, my dad had a saying he was fond of repeating. He lived through the Great Depression and worked at my grandfather's butcher shop in the Bronx as a delivery boy during those terrible times. He remembered watching his friends being evicted from their apartments, he remembered bread lines and people begging on the streets. But he also remembered ringing the doorbells of posh mansions and great houses in Manhattan and delivering prime cuts of meat to the wealthy. "Jeannie," he used to say to me, "Even during the Depression, there were people buying fancy cars and ladies buying mink coats.  There were just fewer of those folks, so you had to work a bit harder to find them, but they were out there."

We tend to forget this simple fact when times are tough. During the worst of the Great Depression, the unemployment rate was 25%.  But that means that 75% of people still had jobs!  While I never want to paint a rosy picture of high unemployment, we need to refocus our attention on the positives when the time gets tough.

Are you focused on how many proposals you lost this week? Website traffic down? What about those that ARE visiting your site - why not focus on them? How about those proposals that were won - are you giving your new clients VIP treatment? Or are you continuing to 'do what you've always done and hope for different results'.

Changing times need changing responses from companies. Join us as we take a fresh look at this important aspect of small business marketing!

And in response to the listener from Florida who wanted music to introduce the show, I'm combing through my record collection (yes, my beautiful vintage 33 rpm vinyl) for the proper intro music.  Let me know how I'm doing!

My latest marketing articles may be found on Suite 101 and eHow this week.

How to Save Money on Shipping: http://www.ehow.com/how_4555504_save-money-shipping.html

Postcards and PURLS (personalized URLS improve response rates on direct mail)
http://marketingpr.suite101.com/article.cfm/postcards_and_purl

How to Choose Direct Mail Marketing Lists: http://www.ehow.com/how_4559799_choose-lists-direct-mail-marketing.html

Enjoy!
Jeanne