Should you downgrade your client profile during a recession?

When a recession hits customers are be harder to find. Sometimes it makes sense to slightly downgrade the caliber of customer you target. It can help make up the difference in business you might lose. In his report "14 Winning Methods to Sell Any Product or Service in a Down Economy, Robert W. Bly offers this this as a  suggestion. 

"You have a set of written or mental guidelines that determine which clients or customers are desirable to you ...and which are not.

During a depressed economy or personal business downturn, you may want to be more flexible in this area than you usually are.

For instance, if you normally do business with Fortune 500 companies only, you may want to consider taking on assignments from smaller local firms ...provided the pay is decent and their credit rating is good.

Or, if you normally work only on major annual reports, you might consider knocking out some small quarterly reports to generate needed revenue.

This doesn't mean you throw your standards out the window and work for anyone who calls you. Far from it. Instead, you are simply readjusting your acceptable client or customer criteria during this temporary lull to accommodate a wider range of prospects and projects.

How far should you take this? It's up to you. If, for example, you normally have a minimum project fee of $1,000, you might accept $500 assignments, but you probably should stick by your guns and not take on $50 assignments."

That was Bly's suggestion #9. Read the rest here

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