Revenue Journal®

There comes a time in the course of inevitable economic ups and downs, when "everyone" starts to feel like "things are going to hell in a hand basket." The media is filled with stories of business and industry failures, people start hoarding and cutting back on their expenses, sales that used to be easy become difficult, and company budgets are cut.

There is a sense of impending doom, and financial statistics are reported that reinforce that sense. We are in one of those periods now.

It doesn't really matter how we got here, or how much of it is real and how much is mass hysteria. Having been through a number of these periods, I've come to pay less and less attention to the "why."

Financial market operators and politicians are always talking the economy up or down, having first positioned themselves to benefit from the direction they are yakking about. There are hundreds of pundits, each with their own explanation of what's going on, why, and what is going to happen next. Clueless reporters parrot the words of the manipulators they socialize with. If someone really knew what was going to happen next, he would own the world, in short order.

The point is, when it comes to the success of your company, "why" really doesn't matter. What really matters, what matters more than anything, is what you and your company are going do about it.

The first thing you have to face is that one of your roles is "Comforter In Chief." When there's a sense of impending doom, it is one of the most important hats you wear.

Your employees are looking to you, to tell them everything is going to be OK. Your customers are watching to see if your employees believe - and behave - as if everything is going to be OK.

How does all this play out in your business every day? How does all this affect your revenue?

Let's take a look at two scenarios, starting with the one where the CEO isn't aware of the need for comfort, and thinks it's sufficient to be the "commander" in chief, without bothering to comfort the concerned.

The usual scenario: "Commander" In Chief

When times get tough, a lot of CEOs and entrepreneurs decide it's time for them to get tough, too. They gather the troops and make a speech about how difficult things are going to be over the next few years, how everyone will have to watch their spending levels, and "buckle down."

The CEO leaves this meeting thinking, "Great. I've helped them see the reality. I've made them see how important this is. They'll work harder now."

Unfortunately, he's mistaken.

Employees leave this meetings thinking, "Man, things must be really bad for him to be talking like this. We must be in trouble. Maybe I should update my resume and start looking around."

Employees start talking amongst themselves, around the water cooler and in instant messages. They start spending hours every day - literally - fraternizing instead of working, fretting about the company's health. They also spend less time focusing on customers; after all, customers are "out there, somewhere," and the seriousness of their financial situation - and their feeling of impending doom - is "right here, right now."

When they look at the family pictures on the desk, they wonder, What if I lose my job? What will we do? They absentmindedly type a note to a customer, while thinking, This is all meaningless. I could be laid off tomorrow.

Customers don't get the enthusiastic, helpful response they were expecting from the employee in the email. When they're on the phone with the employee, they sense that the employee is distracted - and, in some cases, downright discouraged.

When a customer has a long-standing relationship with a salesperson, the customer may say, "Are you OK? You don't sound very happy today." The salesperson will then "confess" to the customer that he's concerned about the company's future, and may even go on to describe the decisions that the company has made that, in the salesperson's opinion, have damaged the company's chances.

You might expect this to happen when the customer asks the salesperson what's wrong. Unfortunately, the most common reality - the one that would horrify you if you were a fly on the wall - is that the salesperson volunteers his perspective on the company's precarious future, without the customer asking. This happens all the time when salespeople are "out of earshot."

I have been the customer in this conversational scenario more times than I can count. There have been times when I knew that the salesperson could have gone on for an hour talking about his concerns and fears, if I had let him. I had to be the one - even though I was the customer - to keep the conversation focused on the job the salesman came in to do: "sell" me.

Of course, what happens in these situations is, the customer becomes less inclined to buy from your company. The salesperson, a company insider, has made it clear that the CEO is concerned about the company's future.

In an "impending doom" economy, customers want to buy from companies that will be around during the recession and during the recovery that follows. They don't want to buy from a company that will not be there to support them. They don't want to buy from a company where the employees are busy looking for other jobs. They don't want to buy from a company that is cutting important support services right and left.

The CEO, who thought he'd given a great uplifting speech, actually set a negative chain of events in motion.

An alternative scenario: "Comforter" In Chief

When things get tough, it's true that employees need to be made aware that things are tough. I'm not suggesting otherwise. But CEOs and entrepreneurs often fail to realize how important it is for them to also serve the role of comforter-in-chief. Many of them are downright uncomfortable with the concept and the role. But, if they can find a way to pull it off, it can pay off handsomely for them.

Let's go back to that company gathering where the CEO or small-business owner is talking about the company's future. He still explains that sales are down, budgets are tight, and that he needs them to be especially focused and productive.

But, then, he takes the talk in another direction. He starts to explain why the company is going to make it. He makes a point of explaining what the managers are doing to make sure they make it. He goes into detail about some of the projects underway.

He also says these words:

We're going to come out of this tough time stronger than ever. We're going to use this time to get stronger, not weaker. But I need your help, and your managers need your help.

We need to be more focused on our customers than ever. We need to be where they are, understand what they're thinking, and work hard to give them what they need. Where they go, we go. That's the best economic insurance policy we have - to be where our customers are, to be knowing what they want, and to figure out, together, how to give it to them.

Your job is to listen and to convey what you hear to the rest of us. Your job is to let the customer know how important they are to us. Your job is to look at what you're doing every minute of every day, and think, "How could I be doing this more effectively?"

This approach is a rallying cry. This kind of talk gives employees hope, and gives them something to do besides fretting. It is comforting.

In the absence of hope, people fret. If they are left to fret long enough, they will take action on their worries. The best employees will leave first, and their replacements won't be as good as the encultured stars that left. You will be scrambling to replace them, which is disruptive and damaging to your business.

I'm not suggesting that CEOs and other company leaders become wimps. I'm suggesting that one of the most critical roles a strong leader can play is that of a comforter. Just like a parent convincing a child that "everything's going to be alright," employees need to hear these words from their leaders. It gives them the confidence to face each new day with a renewed commitment, in spite of the general gloom and doom. It causes them to work even harder and to look for new ways to contribute.

The role of the comforter-in-chief is important in any economic climate, but it is absolutely mission-critical when there is a sense of impending doom.

Tips for the Comforter-In-Chief

Here are the "who, what, when, how" aspects of being a Comforter-In-Chief:

Who: Everyone. Don't assume that anybody, even your top managers, are immune from the gloom and doom atmosphere. You have to comfort them, and plan future moves with them, so your managers are confident - and can convincingly comfort their own teams.

What: Real comfort comes from the knowledge that you are steering the company in a safe direction - by paying attention, gathering data, and making good decisions. Comfort is not cliches and platitudes. It's the facts, and a full accounting of how the current situation is going to be handled and managed.

When: When the atmosphere is really, really negative, meet with whole departments or the whole company - depending on the company's size - as frequently as once a week. Remember to put your comforter's hat on in every single meeting. At the end of every meeting, summarize the fact that you have just solved some important problems in the meeting or before the meeting (which you did, of course), and that those solutions will help you get through a slowdown. Encourage everyone to keep their eyes open for new opportunities to grow revenue or cut costs.

How: Again, it's not about empty words. It's about taking action, solving problems, meeting new needs, taking new risks, making wise decisions - and then communicating those positive actions to everyone.

I can't tell you how many times I've seen a sales force (and every other type of employee) go from frantic fretting to full-out productivity, just because the CEO spent a little time explaining how worrisome problems are being solved.

They just want to know: Do the people in charge know how bad it is? Are they doing something? Does it make sense? When they are reassured, they think, Great. Now we can go back to work.