Strategies to Help Your Business Recover from Coronavirus

The coronavirus is affecting all businesses and industries in unprecedented ways. The big events are being cancelled, flights are non-operational, and all sports leagues such as Olympic Games and English Premier League have been postponed. Almost every country is putting travel restrictions with an aim to keep the virus out of their home border, hospitals and public health officials are bracing day in and day out, doing the best they could.  In times of crisis, it can be hard to stay calm and be optimistic. Fortunately, for entrepreneurs and business leaders, ability to stay calm under pressure is part of their job requirement.

As a business owner or decision maker, you shall employ some proactive steps for business recovery in the post-coronavirus world. China – the original epicenter of the Coronavirus, is already showing signs of economic recovery. Here are a few important strategies to help your business recover in the post-coronavirus world.


1. Consider Your Clients

Since the effects of the coronavirus are affecting everyone, including your customers; therefore as a business owner, you must consider how the customer needs have changed, what you can provide to them and how your business is going to meet the customer needs and demands. Perhaps, you can put more focus on adjusting your sales pitch or designing your marketing tactics on how to address these specific challenges and worries. 

For example, are the customers:

• Worried about supply-chain disruptions?
• Stressed about employee management?
• Worried about travel restrictions?
• Struggled with general market uncertainty and slowdown in demand?
• Wondering on how to manage their cash flow effectively?
• Facing shortage of key inventories/ supplies driven by consumers panic-buying and stocking up?

All of these business challenges can be exacerbated by a crisis, so business owners or decision makers must figure out how to re-positioning your products and services, in order to address the specific pain points that your customers are confronting now. For example, if you are in the logistics business, it is actually a good time now to reach out to your customers with possible solutions to navigate the latest issues which affect the global supply chain.
 

2. Create New Sales Channel

One thing that many businesses are learning due to the massive shutdowns caused by coronavirus is to create multiple sales channels. Non-essential businesses which have only one sales channel, such as brick and mortar businesses are struggling. 

This is why flexibility and adaptability are important for every business. The easiest way to create a new sales channel is to market your business online or create an e-store. You could also create more virtual conversations on social media and LinkedIn instead of in-person sales meetings. However, many B2B companies are already well-positioned for this, especially companies which are selling IT or Digital Marketing related solutions. Their business operation still remains on-going all this while and it’s the good example for companies who are being left out during the crisis to learn and practice, also coping up with the pace of technology advancement.
 

3. Prepare for long-term investments

If you’re in B2B sales, the coronavirus crisis might be an opportunity for you to make some longer-term investments in your business. This could be the time to re-evaluate your operations, platforms and processes and conduct some long-term strategic planning.

If there are a few prospects in your pipeline now, it’s indeed a perfect timing to spend more energy into lead management and nurturing of those longer-term opportunities. Address the current situation, and put even extra energy into capturing/ converting these leads. By letting them know how your company is handling the current situation, proving the adaptability and the value of your business.
 

4. Prepare for Increasing Demand

Seeing the quick business & economic recovery in China, it is necessary for us to realize the measures taken and prepare ourselves to capture as many business benefits in the near future. As we know, cutting back on production could be beneficial from a cost standpoint, but high levels of cutbacks are not encouraged, reason being companies might be unable to bounce back and meet the increasing market demand once we have flattened the productivity curve. But we do believe that companies can put some good steps in place today to be positioned for bigger success tomorrow. There are always challenges and crises affecting our businesses. We can adapt and embrace the opportunities and bounce back stronger, even from a major crisis like coronavirus.