Lessons learned from 2020: New hope on the horizon

2020 was a hell of a year for everybody and the majority of businesses. The COVID-19 pandemic caused consumer and business spending to retract as many adjusted to lower incomes, coped with restrictions applied to their day-to-day lives and sought to protect their cash flow. 

Health, family, friends, and simply coping with change became our top priorities. If ever we needed a reminder of what's important to us, 2020 delivered it.

There is hope on the horizon

As we welcome in a New Year and the virus appears to be mostly 'under management' with a vaccination plan underway, there is a renewed optimism for the year ahead. Despite the lingering uncertainty, it’s time to get moving again.

Businesses want to and need to grow again

It’s an urgent imperative. But it’s not about getting back to normal. A lot has changed, and the pandemic will irrevocably change the way consumers and businesses buy.

What's changed?

Every business has had to adapt in some way for fear of losing their competitive advantage. They've had to change their attitudes to many previously held assumptions because the old ways don't work like they used to. And through it all, business owners have had to find new energy levels to rebuild business and team confidence.

Practically, changing has included:

• Less face-to-face customer contact and the rise of video conferencing
• The management of distributed workforces (working from home – the new normal)
• Increased reliance on digital or work-around systems and processes
• Supply chain flexibility
• A broader view of risk
• The ability to quickly adapt costs to changing demand
• The need to be well-organised and stay up-to-date with government compliance to take advantage of government assistance

Most of all, hard times sharpen the mind and make the best compete harder to achieve success. After 30 years of continuous economic growth in Australia, many businesses had become lethargic. Particularly once JobKeeper ends in March 2021, there will be no room for complacency.

What have we learned?

In short, businesses need to deliver:

• Outstanding levels of customer experience
• Do so efficiently
• Be able to measure what’s driving success
• Be nimble enough to continue to adapt through a foreseeable period of uncertainty.

“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.” William Arthur Ward

Poignand Consulting is a strategic marketing and sales enablement consultancy that exists to unlock customer value for your business. We do this by helping enrich the customer experience at every point of contact – from the first seed of awareness to enquiry to opportunity, purchase, the post-sale relationship and repeat purchases. 

If you would like help with your marketing and sales, please contact us. Or why not take advantage of our obligation-free discovery session and gain commercial insights and a fresh perspective for your business.