Finance Monthly. Bus i ne s s & Economy 22 Fortunately, PLG is simple to achieve with SaaS sales experience solutions like Walnut, which specialises in facilitating highquality product demos that are engineered to convert from the bottom up. Walnut’s principal goal is to provide the most customercentric experience conceivable by supplying sales representatives with all the tools and capabilities they need to directly appeal to each prospect’s specific wants, needs, and pain points. Walnut does this with its simple, intuitive no-code software, which eliminates the need for back-end teams such as graphic design and IT departments to be engaged in demo production. This gives the teams presenting the demos complete control and creates an atmosphere in which prospects may freely interact with your products in a way that is directly relevant to their requirements, thus facilitating a product-led growth strategy. Drop unprofitable products/services During a market crash, cash is tight. Typically, this results in both consumers and businesses looking for methods to reduce expenses, and tech companies should be no different. However, it’s savvier to take advantage of a recession by eliminating any excess weight that your company has been carrying rather than cutting back on critical business operations. For example, if your organisation has multiple MVP dream projects that are depleting your cash reserves, it would be prudent to postpone them until a later date. Remember that a recession is a great time to focus resources on what is already working for the organisation, not experimenting on unknowns. Reduce customer churn As clients’ budgets tighten, subscriptions may be one of the first things they decide to cut. To overcome this issue, SaaS vendors could provide clients with incentives or discounts to help them weather the storm. Take Salesforce, for example, which released a new business grant scheme in 2020 designed to help SMBs survive the early stages of the global pandemic. While you don’t have to go that far, things such as modifying subscription prices/plans, providing free trials on paid features, or introducing live technical assistance might help to persuade clients to continue with their existing SaaS solutions until economic conditions normalise. The aim of the game is to provide the most value to clients in order to gain their loyalty and reduce churn. Don’t kill off your marketing Whatever strategy you use, it is critical that you resist the urge to halt your marketing activities when an economic slump is approaching (which seems to be what most companies like to do). For one reason or another, many organisations erroneously view marketing as a cost centre rather than a profit centre, especially when it comes to B2B companies. Unfortunately, organisations that reduce marketing expenditure and trim down content creation rapidly learn that the benefits earned by their marketing team in prior quarters are undone when they are let go or defunded. After all, search rankings deteriorate quickly, bidding strategies become ineffective, and algorithms change. While these companies may be more insulated from the shortterm effects of the recession, they will likely suffer in the medium and long run and may find it difficult to recover the momentum they once had. Conversely, tech companies can use poor economic conditions to their advantage by making smarter marketing decisions. Instead of cutting back, executives should view the recession as an opportunity to leverage a less competitive environment by raising marketing spending. In turn, this could create a competitive advantage over rivals, who could be scaling back and adopting a more short-term approach. Final word Tech companies must use this time to prepare for the worst by implementing strategies to protect themselves from what is to come. Although, as we have touched upon, economic downturns often present an unlikely opportunity for firms to grow. Rather than sitting back and playing defensive, the market crash may actually be a time that tech companies can use to seize a larger market share by ramping up marketing efforts, streamlining their product offerings, and focusing on delivering maximum value to their current user base.
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