Down the black hole and into the abyss.

I remember a visit to The Science Place some time ago, standing in front of an interactive exhibit demonstrating centrifugal force. Basically, you take a penny and roll it on edge along the circumference of a wide cone and watch as the penny makes the rounds, down, down, down the narrowing chute until it disappears into a deep, dark hole at the bottom. The entire circuit takes about 90 seconds to complete. It's mesmerizing. Other folks line up to roll their pennies as well, and even as the line of pennies circle, you can't take your eyes off your lone penny, circling, circling, circling down into the abyss. I thought of this exhibit recently after spending a day calling through my backlog of "proposals on hold." I keep a file of every proposal we make. Once a prospect says they're not interested, I move the file to the "dead zone" and hope that at some later date, I might be able to revive the contact. Well, after a day of making calls, and hearing one sob story after another on why someone can't do anything at this time...their marketing budgets were frozen...they'd just laid off staff...they're trying to make do with internal resources...they're not selling now...they're waiting for the economy to turn...they're stopping all marketing spending...they just lost an account...etc., etc., etc., I imagined that penny circling down into the abyss. You may as well have placed the name of every one of those sorry prospects on a penny and rolled them down into the tank. Folks, I don't need to tell you this...you already know it. The worst thing to do in a down economy is quit. Look. I understand it if you aren't sure about how to invest effectively on a marketing effort. It does take a little bit of intestinal fortitude to step up and spend into a recession. And, you can fix most of that if you measure twice, cut once and build a solid plan. But, while so many of your competitors are getting sucked down into the hole, I promise you, your effort to swim against the tide will stand out even more. Small marketing investments at this time "look big," because no one else is doing anything. Now is the time to do something. Be smart about it. But, absolutely do something. Now is the time to talk to MarketGarden and come up with a modest plan, based on good intelligence, and deliberately aim at increasing your business. You can be the hands at the bottom of the cone. Catch everyone else's pennies as they fall off the map. Break the cycle and get on a reverse roll, so that when this thing does turn around, you'll be standing at the top. I'm at 214-750-6601 if you want to talk.