Now is the time to invest in your marketing and customer development programs.  With the elections near and all the media hype associated with elections, global politics, terrorism and the troubles our country faces, it’s easy to understand how people can slip into a negative mindset.  I’ve heard that thousands of people in the United States are quietly sitting on billions of investment dollars, hedging their investments until “the economy improves”.

Guess what.  This is how the economy is.  It is what it is.

It’s been proved historically that companies who invest in their marketing and customer development process experience larger sales gains as the economy continues to stabilize for future growth.

We all know that our path to success with our businesses will be determined by our ability to plan forward and design new ways to achieve greater levels of competitive advantages and positive points of differentiation that appeal to our prospects and customers.  We need to communicate our core competency and how it resonates and is relevant to the needs of our customers.

Here are two good articles on the subject that are must reads.

Harvard Business Review – “Roaring Out of Recession” written by Ranjay Gulati, Nitin Nohria, and Franz Wohlgezogen.   http://hbr.org/2010/03/roaring-out-of-recession/ar/1

iMedia CONNECTION – “How brands thrived during the Great Depression” written by Dave Chase.  http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/20821.asp