Marketing in a downturn

Only 20 percent of salespeople are prepared to offer real value during a sales call. In a tough market, this won’t cut it. Sellers who prepare for sales calls with general industry knowledge are not able to demonstrate the unique value required to sell in today’s increasingly challenging environment.

To successfully close deals, sellers need to be customer-centric and develop a deep understanding of their customer’s business objectives and success metrics, aligned to the organization’s specific context. This approach builds sellers’ credibility, conversational agility, and their ability to adjust their talking points to address clients’ different motivations, which are critical when spending isn’t really on the table.

Customer centricity also allows sellers to engage with clients throughout all parts of the sales cycle, which enables them to find unexpected opportunities. A seller who can shift gears mid-conversation by listening for cues will be able to address business priorities that genuinely land with the client—and get them invited back for further meetings. When sellers can see things from the customer’s perspective, they become trusted advisors.

By leveraging a customer-centric mindset to position themselves and their organization as a true partner for success, sellers will demonstrate value and win business, even in a tough economy. To build your teams’ customer centricity, sales leaders should facilitate the following steps:

1. Gather deep industry knowledge

It’s not enough to have company-specific history and context in your back pocket; industry expertise and context is critical to build rapport and trust. Going beyond “show me you know me” and demonstrating exactly how a product or service provides value to your customer and represents an investment is crucial in today’s market.

Sellers also need to gather in-depth information about the people seated across the table—prospects and customers specifically. To prepare, sellers should comb through social channels, read 10-Ks, and keep up with industry press, and ask: What challenges are keeping your prospects up at night? What innovations do they have in progress? Who are their competitors? Are there any recent shifts in customers they’re targeting? The context allows the seller to speak directly to prospects’ pain points and develop custom, thoughtful solutions.

2. Develop the skills to secure a meeting

For salespeople, of all the skills to master, getting introductions tops the list. In fact, 70 percent of customers value “connected processes,” otherwise known as contextualized engagements. Think of this as a seamless hand-off between a person in the seller’s network and a decision maker at a company.

Introductions go beyond the introduction itself. They also require sellers to share a strong point of view and ask the right questions so that customers will open up about their businesses. It’s all about being relevant and bringing value to the conversation.

3. Understand customers’ metrics

Many salespeople enter the room with some understanding of their customer’s business challenges. Not as many come in with knowledge around the financials, initiatives, and KPIs used to measure success. Knowing how a client will measure success allows a seller to speak to those points specifically.

The seller must focus on the customer by providing insight, following up regularly, and even helping to strategize next steps. The goal is to ensure that customers see the value of the company’s products or services and seek to adopt them. Success will encourage additional purchases, and over time, generate steady revenue streams.

4. Pair the offer with the value proposition

Without a clear understanding of how the company’s products or services deliver value for clients and how to present this in a compelling way, sellers will consistently fail to close deals. Understanding and delivering the value proposition is so mission critical that it should be built into every organization’s training and enablement.

One way to prepare sellers is through simulations, which immerse customer-facing teams in their customer’s challenges. Being on the inside of their customers’ business allows sellers to become more intuitive and thoughtful about developing solutions. Furthermore, they get to practice having challenging conversations, whether with their manager or a professional coach, in a safe environment that helps them to develop confidence.

Developing a customer-centric mindset is ever more critical for sellers who need to close deals in a challenging economic environment. Knowledge, conversational agility, and consultative skills enable sellers to become strategic client partners, win new business, expand critical accounts, and foster successful long-term relationships with important stakeholders in the market.

The hardest sell is not the one you have to make, it’s the one your buyer has to make internally against other priorities andinitiatives.

As a seller, you can feel it coming. When recession looms, a company’s first impulse is to dramatically cut spending. But you can work the downturn to your advantage—helping buyers position your solution not as just another cost competing for space in a tightened budget, but as the key to thriving in hard times.

These four steps will enable you to make it easier for yourbuyers to buy.

1. Improve your understanding of the situation‍

Take a macroeconomic view of how a downturn is affecting your customer’s business. Examine the trends moving against the company’s ability to purchase, in particular the implications of how these trends impact the budget areas where you sell today. Customers who were previously looking for 20 percent year-over-year growth are likely now aiming for something more conservative, or even hoping just to remain flat. Maintaining revenues and market position are more important than ever in a recession.

Even during market downturns, however, customers still have problems that need to be solved. Consider the decision levers influencing purchasing amid these macroeconomic trends by identifying high-level trends that customers need to focus on in a downturn. These will fall into at least some, and maybe all, of the following categories: technology, people, strategy, key initiatives, competitive landscape, and business performance. Examining the internal communication of your own company and any changes in how decisions are made mayalso give insight into what your customers are experiencing.

2.  Improve your understanding of the situation

Even your strongest business relationships can now look much different due to economic pressures. Most customers will be facing increased scrutiny on any purchasing decision, with new stakeholders involved in the buying process who require higher levels of justification. A longer sales cycle has wide effects on your ability to manage your pipeline and territory and forecast your year. In a downturn, sales fundamentals are more important than ever, so you need to take these three actions:

Evaluate your customers. Looking at your book of business, who are your most critical stakeholders? Taking the time to evaluate which relationships are essential to sustain and beginning to formulate a game plan will keep you focused.

Discover and align to changing goals. Particularly for your most essential customers, you will need to be intentional about understanding how the looming recession is affecting their business and their decision-making processes. Often a short-term strategy is put in place to maintain financial health throughout the downturn. As a good partner, you need to be able to align with the new success targets and be proactive in the process.

Uncover the new competition. A downturn can bring a source of competition you haven’t faced before: other initiatives inside of your customer’s company competing for the same budget dollars. With waning confidence in growth, C-suite leaders have little choice but to tightly monitor costs throughout the organization. Inevitably, this ratchets up the internal competition for funding as finance departments try to decide which initiatives are mission-critical and which could wait for better conditions.

Getting back to basics and spending the time to deeply understand how the external pressures are creating new internal processes for your customers can help you better position yourself throughout the downturn.

3. Position yourself

Now that you fully understand the new strategy of your key accounts and any potential internal competition, you are ready to position yourself. While you may be tempted to look at shorter contracts or discounting, any amount of discounting can have long-term effects on your relationships and signal desperation. More than ever, it is critical that you create a value proposition for your customers. In addition, you must present a creative value proposition that is broad enough to appeal to the new stakeholders at the table. You may find yourself with C-suite executives involved in conversations that previously required lower-level sign off. Being able to confidently present your offering and think on your feet will be essential. Be sure to understand what value your offering brings to different areas of your customer’s organization and know what levers you have at your disposal to help a deal move along. Remember that just as your customers want to avoid any short-term missteps for their business, you must protect your business as well. Look for creative ways everyone can win.

4. Identify new opportunities

Finally, you need to be more proactive and agile during this time. While maintaining major accounts and relationships is important, finding new areas of business may be even more important. You might have built a book of business around an industry that is widely affected by the downturn. Networking with your team and staying current on market conditions can you help you find marketplace shifts and lead you to new opportunities. Communicating with your sales and marketing leadership on what you see and hear in the field may help everyone uncover new applications, industries, and customers for your products.

There’s no denying that selling in a downturn presents a new set of challenges. But by leveraging empathy and insights into the internal and external forces impacting customers, you canpartner with your buyers to make a winning business case—even in a downturn.

How will your business survive amidst surging inflation and increased costs for energy and raw materials?

How will you ensure customers buy your products and services when they need to spend more on almost everything? Right now, these questions are top of mind for you and other business leaders. Unfortunately, most factors that contribute to inflation are out of your control. However, there are a few key strategies you can leverage to mitigate the consequences of inflation.

1. Rethink your value proposition

More than ever, a clear, targeted value proposition is mission critical. To reach customers in a time when they are hesitant to spend, you need to address their specific needs and desires, which requires having deep insights about them. Without this understanding, it’s impossible to highlight the value that your offering provides. To dig deeper, conduct customer focus sessions or interviews to understand what they value most and why. Leverage the following process to structure how you rethink your value proposition.

• Customer Understanding: Know your customer better than anyone else and appreciate the difference between customers.
• Customer Segmentation: Gain a solid understanding of the segmentation process. Segment your customers based on your customer understanding.
• Specific Value Proposition: Develop segment-specific offerings based on customer insights. Create segment-specific value propositions.

2. Redesign your pricing approach and strategy

Amidst high inflation, price is a sticking point for customers – but increases are often necessary for the longevity of your business.

When considering price increases, ask yourself, what do we want to achieve? Your pricing approach and strategy depend upon how much of a price increase you can afford. Do you want to gain market share with your premium brand? Do you need to defend against a private label? You must consider these questions when rethinking your pricing strategy because price increases should not jeopardize your overall strategy.

Regardless of which path you choose, use insights you’ve gathered about customers as you reevaluate. Your pricing should reflect the benefits of your offering.

Depending on your customers’ price sensitivity, their reaction will be different. Consider these factors when redesigning your pricing strategy:

• Customer’s income statement / financial status
• Customer’s willingness to pay
• Customer’s industry and product segments (necessities vs. luxury goods)
• Availability of alternative products and substitutability

However, your price increase shouldn’t be too moderate (< 2%). An increase needs to be worthwhile and secure your margin, so you don’t have to raise prices too often.

3. Communicate your price increase

Raising prices without a thoughtful communication strategy can backfire and harm your relationships with customers. Remember, your customers are also facing higher prices for almost all goods and services, so be sure sellers are equipped to approach the situation with care.

Create a compelling story that sellers can use to frame the price increase highlighting the value your customers will receive when purchasing your offering. What additional benefits will they receive at this new price? Why should they be willing to pay more?

As part of the story, sellers should only plan to mention the increase in input costs as a secondary factor. But, if higher input costs are the reason for the price increase, sellers should not be afraid to communicate this. Transparency counts.

Decades of psychological studies have proven that calling it what it is – a price increase – and avoiding euphemisms is important to customers. Sellers will often call it “price update” or “price adjustment” because they are afraid of customers’ reactions. However, customers value authenticity and honesty more than diluted messaging.

Another important factor is time. Since your customers might need some time to adapt to your increased prices, the earlier sellers communicate, the better.

In summary, before communicating the price increase to customers, be sure your sellers are prepared to do the following:

• Create a value-first storyline without neglecting external factors
• Avoid euphemisms and let customers know what they can expect
• Communicate in a timely manner

Whether you’re restating your value proposition or adjusting your prices, collecting feedback and insights from customers enables you to build trust and serve them better. This is especially critical during inflationary periods when price can be sensitive and communicating changes must be approached with consideration and care. However, putting in this additional work will be rewarded with steadfast customer loyalty even if price increases persist.

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En todos los sectores, la seguridad está experimentando un cambio estructural. Lo que antes se gestionaba principalmente como una función de cumplimiento o una métrica de desempeño se entiende cada vez más como un reflejo de cómo las organizaciones están diseñadas, lideradas y mejoradas de forma continua.

En entornos complejos y de alto riesgo, la seguridad no se logra únicamente mediante un mayor control o programas adicionales. Surge de la interacción entre el comportamiento del liderazgo, el diseño operativo, los entornos de decisión y la capacidad de la organización para aprender y adaptarse.

Basándonos en la ciencia global de la seguridad, el enfoque de Human & Organizational Performance (HOP), la investigación sobre seguridad psicológica y nuestra experiencia en transformación en múltiples industrias, identificamos ocho cambios clave que están definiendo la próxima evolución de la cultura de seguridad.  

1. La seguridad como valor organizacional central

La seguridad está dejando de tratarse como una prioridad cambiante. Las prioridades compiten. Los valores guían.

Cuando la seguridad se convierte en un valor central, influye en la toma de decisiones, en los compromisos bajo presión, en la planificación operativa y en la asignación de recursos. La seguridad pasa a ser una consecuencia natural de cómo funciona el sistema, en lugar de una iniciativa añadida a la producción.

Este cambio también redefine el rol de las funciones de seguridad: de supervisar el cumplimiento a habilitar un desempeño seguro y sostenible.

2. El aprendizaje como disciplina operativa

Las organizaciones están integrando el aprendizaje continuo en las operaciones diarias. En lugar de centrarse solo en lo que falló, exploran señales débiles, casi accidentes, fricciones operativas y adaptaciones exitosas.

El aprendizaje se convierte en una capacidad clave que acelera la generación de insights, fortalece la resiliencia y mejora la calidad de las decisiones.

3. Responsabilidad del liderazgo en todos los niveles

La cultura de seguridad se reconoce cada vez más como una capacidad de liderazgo, no solo como responsabilidad del área de HSE.

• Los directivos marcan la dirección y el tono.

• Los mandos intermedios traducen las expectativas en decisiones operativas.

• Los supervisores configuran el entorno de decisiones del día a día.

Las organizaciones exitosas convierten las expectativas de seguridad en comportamientos concretos de liderazgo y rutinas diarias, generando claridad y alineación entre niveles.

4. La seguridad psicológica como infraestructura

Una cultura de seguridad sólida depende de entornos donde las personas se sientan seguras para hablar.

Cuando los empleados perciben seguridad psicológica, las señales débiles emergen antes, los riesgos se discuten abiertamente y el aprendizaje se acelera.

La seguridad psicológica es una infraestructura operativa, no un tema “blando”.

5. Amplificar lo que funciona

Existe un reconocimiento creciente de que la mayor parte del trabajo se realiza de forma segura, a menudo en condiciones variables.

Estudiar el éxito revela la capacidad adaptativa y fortalece la resiliencia. Esto complementa el análisis tradicional de incidentes al reforzar la experiencia y la confianza.

6. Alinear el trabajo “imaginado” con el trabajo “real”

Los procedimientos y planes rara vez capturan perfectamente la complejidad operativa.

Las organizaciones líderes reducen la brecha entre políticas y realidad operativa incorporando la perspectiva del personal de primera línea y empoderando la autoridad para detener el trabajo.

El objetivo es una mejor alineación entre diseño y ejecución.

7. Diseñar para la toma de decisiones humana

Los incidentes suelen derivarse de sesgos cognitivos predecibles como la normalización de la desviación, el sesgo hacia la producción, el exceso de confianza y el sesgo retrospectivo.

Reconocer estas trampas en la toma de decisiones desplaza el enfoque de culpar a las personas hacia fortalecer los entornos de decisión.

8. La evolución cultural como capacidad a largo plazo

Una cultura de seguridad sostenible requiere integración en lugar de reinvención, desarrollo estructurado de capacidades en lugar de programas puntuales y medición del impacto conductual en lugar de métricas de actividad.

Las organizaciones que tienen éxito:

• Integran la seguridad en los sistemas existentes de liderazgo y operación

• Diseñan itinerarios de aprendizaje que apoyan la aplicación en el día a día

• Miden el cambio de comportamiento y los resultados operativos

• Refuerzan el progreso de manera consistente en el tiempo

La evolución cultural es un compromiso sostenido con la alineación del sistema y el desarrollo de capacidades.

Conclusión

La evolución de la cultura de seguridad trata menos de añadir controles y más de fortalecer sistemas.

La seguridad es algo que las organizaciones producen: a través de la claridad del liderazgo, el diseño operativo, la seguridad psicológica y el aprendizaje continuo.

Quienes integren estas capacidades de forma consistente no solo reducirán riesgos. Construirán organizaciones más resilientes, sostenibles y de alto desempeño.

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Sources & references:

• WorldSteel Association. Safety Culture & Leadership Fundamentals.
• Norsk Industri (2025). Safety Leadership and Learning: A Practical Guide to HOP.
• D. Parker et al. / Safety Science 44 (2006). Development of Organisational Safety Culture

• Hollnagel, E. (2014). Safety-I and Safety-II: The Past and Future of Safety Management.
• Hollnagel, E. (2018). Safety-II in Practice: Developing the Resilience Potentials.
• Conklin, T. (2012). Pre-Accident Investigations: An Introduction to Organizational Safety.
• Edmondson, A. (2018). The Fearless Organizations
• Reason, J. (1997). Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents.

• Resilience Engineering research (Hollnagel,Woods, Leveson and others).

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Across industries, safety is undergoing a structural shift. What was once managed primarily as a compliance function or performance metricis increasingly understood as a reflection of how organizations are designed, led and continuously improved.

In complex and high-risk environments, safety is notachieved through stronger enforcement or additional programs alone. It emerges from the interaction between leadership behavior, operational design, decision environments and the organization’s capacity to learn and adapt.

Drawing on global safety science, Human & Organizational Performance (HOP), research on psychological safety, and our cross-industry transformation experience, eight key shifts are shaping the next evolution of safety culture.

1. Safety as a Core Organizational Value

Safety is moving beyond being treated as a shifting priority. Priorities compete. Values guide.

When safety becomes a core organizational value, it shapes decision-making, trade-offs under pressure, operational planning and resourceallocation. Safety becomes the natural consequence of how the system operates,rather than a campaign layered on top of production.

This shift also redefines the role of safety functions, from compliance policing to enabling safe and sustainable performance.

2. Learning as an Operating Discipline

Organizations are embedding continuous learning into everyday operations. Rather than focusing only on what failed, they exploreweak signals, near misses, operational friction and successful adaptations.

Learning becomes a core capability, accelerating insight, strengthening resilience and improving decision quality.

3. Leadership Ownership at All Levels

Safety culture is increasingly recognized as a leadership capability, not solely an HSE responsibility.

Executives define direction and tone.
Middle managers translate expectations into operational decisions.
Supervisors shape the daily decision environment.

Successful organizations translate safety expectations into concrete leadership behaviors and daily routines, creating clarity and alignment across levels.

4. Psychological Safety as Infrastructure

A strong safety culture depends on speaking-up environments.

When employees feel psychologically safe, weak signals surface earlier, risk trade-offs are openly discussed and learning accelerates.

Psychological safety is operational infrastructure , not a soft topic.

5. Amplifying What Works

There is growing recognition that most work is completed safely, often under variable conditions.

Studying success reveals adaptive capacity and strengthens resilience. This complements traditional incident analysis by reinforcing expertise and confidence.

6. Aligning Work-as-Imagined and Work-as-Done

Procedures and plans rarely capture operational complexity perfectly.

Leading organizations reduce the gap between policies and operational reality by inviting front line input and empowering stop-work authority.

The goal is better alignment between design and execution.

7. Designing for Human Decision-Making

Incidents often stem from predictable cognitive biases such as normalization of deviance, production bias, overconfidence and hindsight bias.

Recognizing these decision traps shifts focus from blaming individuals to strengthening decision environments.

8. Cultural Evolution as a Long-Term Capability

Sustainable safety culture requires integration rather than reinvention, structured capability journeys rather than one-off programs, and measurable behavioral impact rather than activity metrics.

Organizations that succeed:

• Integrate safety into existing leadership and operational systems
• Design earning journeys that support day-to-day application
• Measure behavioral change and operational outcomes
• Reinforce progress consistently over time

Cultural evolution is a sustained commitment to system alignment and capability building.

Conclusion

The evolution of safety culture is less about adding controls and more about strengthening systems.

Safety is something organizations produce — through leadership clarity, operational design, psychological safety and continuous learning.

Those who embed these capabilities consistently will not only reduce risk. They will build more resilient, sustainable and high-performing organizations.

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Sources & references:

• WorldSteel Association. Safety Culture & Leadership Fundamentals.
• Norsk Industri (2025). Safety Leadership and Learning: A Practical Guide to HOP.
• D. Parker et al. / Safety Science 44 (2006). Development of Organisational Safety Culture

• Hollnagel, E. (2014). Safety-I and Safety-II: The Past and Future of Safety Management.
• Hollnagel, E. (2018). Safety-II in Practice: Developing the Resilience Potentials.
• Conklin, T. (2012). Pre-Accident Investigations: An Introduction to Organizational Safety.
• Edmondson, A. (2018). The Fearless Organizations
• Reason, J. (1997). Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents.

• Resilience Engineering research (Hollnagel,Woods, Leveson and others).

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Most sales meetings don’t fail.
They just don’t lead to a decision.

And that’s where value is lost.

Today’s customers are more informed, more selective, and more time-poor.

They don’t need more product pitches.
They need conversations that help them prioritize, decide, and move forward.

And yet, 58% of sales meetings fail to create real value.

Not because sellers lack capability, but because conversations are not designed to move decisions forward.

“Customers don’t act on every need they recognize.

They act when something becomes a priority.”

 In this short executive brief, you’ll discover:

• Why most conversations inform… but don’t drive action
• What actually makes customers prioritize and move
• How to create urgency without damaging trust
• The shift from presenting solutions to enabling decisions
• What separates conversations that stall from those that accelerate momentum

If your teams are experiencing stalled deals, delayed decisions, or slow pipeline movement, this brief will help you understand why, and what to do differently.

Download the Executive Brief and learn how to design conversations that actually move decisions forward

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