Global hotspots in the United States, China (trade talks), the United Kingdom (Brexit), and other countries of the world have recently left some market analysts wondering if the world is going yet again into a global recession. Though a decade has passed since the 2009 global recession, organizations should be more than just ready to identify and prepare for long periods of economic uncertainty.
Based on our experience of working with top clients across the world, here are some of the best ways by which you can “recession-proof” your business.
1. Know Your Customers
There is no denying that every customer should be important to your business. However, there are possibilities that you may have different challenges, relationships, and opportunities across your customer base at any point in time. A high-performing organization should always be disciplined around identifying market trends, routine analysis and development, and revenue tracking.
With the right processes and systems in place, you can precisely and accurately determine which customers and markets are most profitable. This will also help you track key performance indicators that will help you identify the risk of attrition. The sooner you gain access to this knowledge, the sooner you would be able to act.
You would be able to find out which markets, customers, and opportunities are least profitable so that timely actions can be taken by you sooner than later. Conversely, this would simply be a matter of adjusting the delivery model, making changes to the pricing structure, or even targeting an altogether different audience.
The best thing is that doubling or even tripling down on the recurring revenue models will help your organization gain access to more stability to get easy to go past markets’ ebbs and flows.
2. Diversify Your Revenue Streams
Traditionally, investors view a diversified portfolio as a great way to improve returns while cutting down on risks. Success-driven organizations must opt for different revenue streams in the same way. In a “recession or slowdown” period, organizations with diversified revenue models are likely to enjoy more stability than organizations that rely on a single product or service.
It is also vital for profit-driven organizations not to rely heavily on a single large customer. Instead, they must try to develop a wide variety of revenue streams that involve more experimental product and service innovations along with established, bread-and-butter models.
3. Get Everyone On The Same Page
It’s a story we all have heard repeatedly from the individual contributors and C class professionals. An organization with service data in one place, financial data in another, and sales data in yet another is at an increased risk of facing some severe concerns down the road.
This is where a reliable customer relationship management (CRM) system such as Salesforce comes into the picture. Salesforce consists of different out-of-the-box products – Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Community Cloud, and more – that help you reconcile data across financials, CRM, and services. Due to this, the managers and employees of an organization don’t have to worry about data integrity and instead more on the core business activities.
4. Turn Data Into Human Intelligence
Every day, organizations across the world are creating a vast trove of data. However, it is essential not to get overwhelmed or bogged down. The biggest question should be – What are the top 5 critical metrics that must be regularly tracked to ensure the organization stays healthy and agile?
These would be the standard data points around cash flow and days sales outstanding (DSO) for Chief Financial Officers and other finance leaders. Now comes the exciting part – some organizations have even become sophisticated around revenue forecasts. By looking at the backlog data, existing projects, and opportunities, forward-thinking business leaders can effortlessly create fairly-accurate revenue forecasts to gain a distinct edge.
Final Words
It is not the data itself that will strengthen your organization but rather human intelligence powered by accurate, precise, and future-driven data.
Choose Cloud Analogy, the world’s premier Salesforce Development Company, can help you streamline your business operations. Give us a call or email us now to find out how certified CRM experts at Cloud Analogy can assist you in empowering your people with analytics and helping you make accurate and robust business decisions.
Sachin Arora
Scrum Master and Principal Solutions Architect
Sachin, a renowned Scrum Master and Principal Solutions Architect at Cloud Analogy, has rich experience when it comes to working on process improvement in a fast-paced environment maintaining high level of quality in all deliverables. Sachin's expertise lies in varied hardware and software environments including Cloud technologies such as Salesforce, AWS, Cloud Foundry & Google App Engine and Mobile.Hire the best Salesforce Development Company. Choose certified Salesforce Developers from Cloud Analogy now.
