How Coronavirus HAS Hit Your Business Model & What To Do About It

Maslows hierarchy of needs presents a pyramid where the foundation is the base from which all other needs grow.

Food, shelter, clothing.

Once those are covered, it moves up to the next level of needs

Love, career, esteem etc

Makes sense right?

If you don’t have food and water, career is not your top priority.

It's the same for business.

First resolve cashflow because that is a matter of survival.

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Stabilize the ship.

Business is about providing solutions that customers are seeking.

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And there are numerous methods through which demand is generated for these solutions such as events, tradeshows, inbound marketing, outbound marketing, direct response and others.

Demand generation is defined as a comprehensive marketing strategy that starts with identifying the ideal customer audience. Then channeling the audience through a process that touches every stage of the conversion process.

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In fact: 

Businesses that employ a documented demand generation plan are 538% more likely to report success than those who don’t. 

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As a result negative changes to demand channels can have catastrophic effects to the business.

For example:

Businesses that run awareness campaigns (i.e. primary conversion touchpoint) through events, conferences or outbound direct business development, have seen a marked drop in customer acquisition in the past few months due to the lockdown, curfews and social distancing efforts to prevent the spread of the virus.

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A recent study by Topo found that the demand generation pipeline for 87% of respondents has been negatively impacted.

Moving forward:

We can anticipate a shift in demand generation strategies to begin focusing on more efficient use of outbound marketing and increased digital marketing.

This is so that businesses position themselves to be better prepared for similar circumstances in the future.

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Here's how.

As for B2B businesses:

There is no shortage of companies that have put projects on hold, slashed commissions, reduced salaries, reduced marketing spend and more.

So whether B2B or B2C, customers are re-assessing priorities and if a product or service does not classify as a “need” they are quickly dropping out.

Now add the finding that 65% of a company’s revenue comes from previous/repeat customers and that a 5% increase in customer retention can lead to a profit increase of 25 - 95%

And the importance of customer retention during Covid-19 becomes even more enlarged.

Looking to the future, one can anticipate that the sting customers felt from this current experience may extend beyond the lifetime of the coronavirus.

This means that customers will scrutinize solutions a lot more and extend decision making time before making purchases.

For example:

Consider table service restaurants. 

It would not be far fetched to assume that even post-covid 19, customers might not enter if tables are too close to one another. Or if tables don’t have sanitizers on them or if people are allowed to serve themselves at a buffet rather than by a waiter with gloves on.

Refers to how the company spends and invests it’s income in order to maintain its competitive advantage, generate revenue and achieve it’s value proposition.

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Generally, this can be divided into:

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• COGS
• Overheads
• Marketing spend
• Investments

With the forced lockdown, many companies that previously believed they could not function digitally have been given a totally new viewpoint.

For example:

In a conversation I had with a Senior Partner at a leading international law firm, she explained that they had never considered remote work.

But since they have been forced into it, they have been surprised to find that it is possible for them to function remotely.

She said "this has been a huge wake up call and we have serious decisions to make regarding our structure".

Which makes sense.

Because they can now consider downsizing office real estate in a prime location to be used for in-person meetings and still save on overheads.

Furthermore, they would reduce utility bills, telecom bills, transport bills and more whilst staff continue remote work.

All of which means increased net margins or further availability of funds that can be re-directed towards marketing for brand awareness and lead generation.

Such shifts in cost structure are difficult to ignore and may result in permanent adoption of these changes for some industries such as the legal industry in this case.

To drive the nail home on the point of optimizing cost structures, management consultancy firm Oliver Wyman has shown that almost 70% of manufacturing companies will experience a negative earnings before tax in 2020.

Here's a page from one of the worlds fashion leaders on how they're optimizing cost structures.

By distribution channels we're referring to how to optimally place your product for brand awareness, authority positioning, price structure and sales.

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The type of distribution channel selected depends on many factors such as:

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• Type of product
• Do consumers want to interact with a salesperson
• Would consumers need to see and and hold the product before making a purchase decision
• How quickly products need to reach consumers i.e. what is the risk of holding inventory?

For example:

Square’s distribution strategy involved partnerships with Apple Store, Walmart, Wal-greens, Best Buy, Radioshack, FedEx Offices and many more resulting in being available in 20,000 stores around the US in 2012.

Today, with the closing of malls, retail outlets, factories running at reduced capacity and employees staying at home, distribution channels have taken a big hit.

Disruptions in the chain of how goods or services arrive in the hands of end consumers are unwanted.

For downstream distribution channels:

This means monitoring the impact of the current situation on direct sales, wholesalers, distributors, retailers, agents, brokers and other possible service providers in the chain.

However, upstream channels may also be impacted i.e. 

Who are your suppliers and how have they been impacted?

Answering these questions is critical to maneuvering the current crisis.

As research from McKinsey & Company have shown that immediate action across the supply chain can help meet consumer demand during the coronavirus pandemic.

Your revenue streams are linked to your sales process.

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It represents all the different ways your business can generate cash by creating value for customers.

If you have several ways of selling your goods or services, then you have an increased probability for sales conversions.

As the old saying goes “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”

If 100% of your revenue is generated from a single stream, then creating a fallback option is a priority in case that stream is one day no longer viable.

And this applies to all industries.

Advertising giant Publicis' revenue streams took a dive due to major customers like the FMCG companies and Automotive companies scaling back on their advertising spend.

Not to mention, cancellation of huge sporting events like the Champions League, NBA and NFL games.

Resulting in their recent announcement to slash costs by $545 million. 

Looking to the future:

E-commerce businesses are expected to recover faster post covid-19. 

However, “in-person” businesses will likely take a lot longer to get back to profitability. 

As a result, generating alternative revenue streams and getting those creative juices flowing is needed more than ever.

One such example is the story of the company Dynamic Events. ​

Which is a team building and corporate events company that was poised to have a fantastic revenue generating year.

But they felt the first blow once the travel bans were announced. This meant that all the business meetings, hotel bookings, activities from international companies dried up instantly.

Soon after, the social distancing and lockdowns were implemented which meant they lost all their local business too.

They went from a full schedule to absolutely zero event bookings for the next 6 weeks and the foreseeable future.

Their business would not survive such a loss.

Something had to be done. And they did.

They looked at "Remote Team Events" and found that more than ever, employees at home were isolated and disengaged.

So they quickly developed a series of virtual team activities that they can deliver through their award winning event technology. 

They now offer virtual team experiences that encourage employees to shoot motivational videos, run virtual pub quizzes and work on team challenges.

Corporations were massively responsive to this as it aligns with the WHO concerns over employee wellness and mental health. 

They created a new revenue stream.

In fact,

It is a fundamental shift in their business model whereby the value proposition, delivery, promotion and revenue generation of their product has pivoted.

And the quick response is paying off.