Summary: While many businesses are now getting back to work, it's not always smooth sailing. Some industries are returning more slowly than others, which leave many business owners and salespeople wondering what they can do to get their business back in gear.<br> <br> <br> <br> David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. Today, cohost Chris Templeton and I will be talking about getting your business back in gear. Welcome Chris.<br> <br> Chris: Hi David. You know, it seems like many people thought that business would just automatically bounce back and return to normal. As soon as these restrictions were lifted. That's not a given, is it?<br> <br> David: No, it's turning out it's really not a given, particularly in the early stages. You know, we just thought this thing would probably come and go fairly quickly and then it didn't. And then the longer it went, I think the more difficult it got for people, but yeah, as different states come back at different levels, it's really been a bit of a challenge. And so I think the idea of it happening by itself or happening automatically is probably not really the way that things are going. And so yeah, we have to see what we can do more proactively to get things going again.<br> <br> Chris: So when you think about getting a business going again, where do you think that business owners and sales people should start?<br> <br> David: Well, I think I'd start with looking at your existing customer base and asking yourself, okay, how many of these people are ready to move forward? How many of them are in a position to move forward? Because obviously it's always easier to sell to your existing client base than it is to sell, to, or find new people. So we definitely want to start there. Just going back to them, trying to find out where they are, how they're doing, what they're thinking and all that sort of thing. So finding out from them also how well things are bouncing back or not bouncing back. And a lot of industries are responding in different ways. Certainly the food industry -- restaurants have really struggled with a lot of what's going on. I know hair salons here in Pennsylvania are still closed as of the time that we're recording this. I'm sporting sort of a seventies, early eighties "do" at the moment because...<br> <br> Chris: Oh, but you look great, David.<br> <br> David: Yeah, I do. It's fantastic. Just this sort of a Bee-Gees look. Vintage BeeGees. But anyway, some of those types of industries are going to remain affected until things get back to normal. But even then, it's not a given that people are just going to automatically start spending again. So I think we need to look at "what is our existing customer base doing? How are they dealing with it? What can we do to help them to take action and move things forward?" And also just look at what are we doing? What are we doing in our own businesses to remind people that this is not forever. And we need to take as many actions as we can to help our customers to move things forward.<br> <br> Chris: One of the things, I think we've talked about this in a previous podcast, is the whole idea of doing a check in with my client base. All of them. I mean, why not call everyone and just say, "Hey, I'm calling to see how you're doing." I mean, just that as a starting point, and if you've got a prospect that you've been working with, I think it's fair to say, "Hey, also want to check in and see how you're doing. Where are you with what we've been talking about? Obviously a lot of things have changed and I just want to make sure that we're on the same page moving forward." Does that seem like a good way to start from your standpoint?<br> <br> David: Yes, absolutely. And we did discuss that in previous podcasts.
