Since December 2019, the new crown pneumonia epidemic has ravaged the world, and it is now the third year. Although the current domestic situation is basically stable, there is no sign that the epidemic has completely passed, and there are occasional outbreaks in various places. Angels in white are fighting on the front line against the epidemic, and another war without gunpowder smoke is taking place. The protagonists are those many small and medium-sized enterprises that are still stubbornly struggling to survive under the epidemic.
In the face of repeated epidemics, dare to ask where is the way for SMEs in 2022?
Survive first to have a future
On March 28, 2022, Huawei held a press conference for its 2021 annual report. "Survive and survive with quality" became the theme of the conference, which is an elegant portrayal of many leading companies. However, for many small and medium-sized enterprises, especially most fast-moving consumer goods companies, fighting for survival, survival is the fundamental, and only the future, even if it is a near-death. Judging from the recent data released by Caixin, some economic data "dream back to 2020" has been beaten back to its original shape, which shows the difficulty of the current economic environment.
Due to the repeated epidemics in recent years, market activities cannot be carried out effectively, making it more difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises to survive. Especially in order to ensure an appropriate amount of cash flow, companies have to cut costs and save expenses, which will reduce the already fragile market competitiveness, especially in the traditional fast-moving consumer goods industry, which generally grows slowly and has already entered the stock stage. In addition, in recent years, a large number of new consumer brands have emerged, meeting the consumption upgrade needs of mass consumers and further intensifying the involution of traditional fast-moving consumer goods. As a result, the operating costs of small and medium-sized enterprises have increased, profit margins have been compressed, and the operating conditions of increasing income without increasing profits or even serious losses have occurred. How to survive has become the top priority of many small and medium-sized enterprises.
Strengthen the foundation and improve the survivability
At the moment of the epidemic, the business of small and medium-sized enterprises must focus on its fundamentals, forge and strengthen the construction of its core capabilities, especially to improve quality and efficiency, in order to achieve stability and long-term success.
Recently, the author came into contact with a traditional edible vinegar production enterprise, which processes the associated flour and then uses the bran to produce edible vinegar. It has achieved good performance in the northwest market in the past few years. Under the repeated epidemics, the edible vinegar market has also encountered bottlenecks. In less than two years, the company has successively launched several new products such as edible soy sauce, Sichuan-flavored red oil, and rattan pepper oil, which seems to have created a "seasoning kingdom", but its performance has continued to decline. Just imagine, this company does not work hard on its own business, but instead makes a great leap forward to bring forth the new, and the products are always adding, not to mention the quality of the products, whether the carrying capacity of its team and sales channels is competent?
Therefore, the author suggests that in order to improve the viability of enterprises, we must do a good job of subtraction. Abandon some development projects that drag down the main business and cannot be effective in the short term, concentrate on the main projects, raise the "big tree" of the main projects as high as possible, and occupy as much market share as possible in the industry. Of course, if the enterprise really has no achievements in the main business, it is another matter if there is no recovery.
Keep upright and innovate, keep iterating
At the moment of the epidemic, the opportunity cycle of the industry track is getting shorter and shorter. How can companies keep the category dividend period? Only continuous innovation and iteration.
Facing the epidemic squarely and facing difficulties, it is not difficult to find that window opportunities for some industries have also emerged during the epidemic. For example, some companies have seized the long-term home consumption scene of consumers in time. In the fast food category, they have created new consumer brands such as Ramen Talk, Haohuanluo, and Zihai Pot.
In late March, the author went to a tea house called Pujing in Chengdu. The variety of teas in this tea house is dazzling and dizzying, especially the teas from different producing areas and different seasons add to the diversity of teas. Listening to the introduction of the tea masters, I have doubts, how can I be unique among the many self-owned brand tea houses? Can these single teas, like the blending of Moutai, make some compound teas with richer taste and more appearance? Can teas of different origins, seasons, and temperatures be neutralized and make the story of tea more lively and interesting? These half-baked thoughts kept popping up in my head. Perhaps when these self-created small categories continue to innovate and iterate, the market window will gradually open.
Work hard to improve your competitiveness
First, practice inner strength. Regardless of the brand or product, it is necessary to rely on internal strength to cultivate and improve the enterprise's ability to resist risks. This is the best way to survive the epidemic.
Second, build enterprise organizational capabilities. Organizational capability is a necessary capability for an enterprise to realize its strategy and business model. The strategy of many enterprises cannot be implemented, and the core reason is often that the enterprise organization is not adjusted in time.
Third, the role of business owners is crucial. The epidemic is a touchstone for business owners' leadership, and a severe test of their business will, strategic layout, and resilience.
Fourth, improve the operational capabilities of enterprises. Under the epidemic, the first test is the overall operational capability of the company. In the past two years, the entire market has fluctuated greatly, and some companies with relatively poor operational capabilities or narrow sales channels have been very painful to survive the epidemic.
Embrace intelligence and improve market customer acquisition capabilities
Under the epidemic, many cities have adopted strict sealing and control measures, resulting in the failure of express delivery, the failure of companies to see customers, and the interruption of marketing activities. These are a huge blow to the sales industry. How can companies break out of the situation as soon as possible and achieve contrarian growth?
At this time, it is especially important to actively embrace smart tools. For companies that rely on customers to come to the door or to introduce customers passively, the impact of the epidemic is fatal. In order to find ways to effectively develop customers and turn passive customer acquisition into active attack, companies can introduce intelligent tools such as the Quest Smart Sales Cloud to precisely target target customers.
For example, to develop technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises that have the need for new trademarks, in the industry, screen labels such as technology services, manufacturing, and the Internet; in the company name, screen labels such as technology, machinery and equipment, and network technology; , the current financing round and other dimensions to target small and medium-sized customers. After layers of screening and portraits, the precise target customers are finally found. Through the digital model of "customer acquisition-reach-transformation", the problem of difficult customer acquisition under the epidemic control has been effectively solved.
Start online sales to bail out offline channels
1. Build online marketing channels. The first is to build its own channels, such as WeChat public accounts, WeChat groups, official websites, and small programs. The second is to build third-party platform channels, such as Taobao, Jingdong, Douyin, Kuaishou, etc. Whether you search through search engines, e-commerce, service provider platforms or self-media platforms, you can find relevant information about companies and products. As SMEs, it is more important to build their own channels. Deploy the private domain traffic matrix of enterprises, and continue to release original high-quality content to lead by establishing an official self-media content dissemination matrix, including WeChat official account, Toutiao account, Baijia account, Zhihu account, Douban account and industry self-media. When users search for relevant content of interest, they can see the highly relevant content released by the enterprise, thereby generating trust in the brand or enterprise.
2. Match products and services that can be delivered online. Including service online and product online.
In addition, after the channels and products are established, the key is operation. Drainage, fission, transaction, repurchase, referral, etc. should be gradually tried, constantly optimized, and found suitable for their own products.
Attach importance to brand building and expand consumer awareness
In the past, small and medium-sized enterprises and brands were often transmitted to consumers through agents, distributors, and terminal stores. It took a long time and a lot of capital investment to build a brand to achieve the effect of enhancing brand awareness and reputation. This is a common practice in large companies. At the moment when streaming media is popular, there are many successful precedents for small and medium-sized enterprises and brands to go out of the circle. Brand is a strong link between users and enterprises, and it is an important factor for users to choose. With the cognitive foundation of the majority of users, market recognition is more likely to attract industry attention and public opinion. Under the quarantine of the epidemic, the brand's trust endorsement is more efficient.
To sum up, this is the author's thinking on the way out for small and medium-sized enterprises under the repeated epidemic situation. There is a saying that seems to be very popular recently: "Every year in the future is the worst year of the past ten years, but it will be the best year of the next ten years.
" Are SME owners ready to rise to the challenge?
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