3. You probably don't have to reinvent the wheel.

Probing questions can help gain insight into specific product or service sales performance. Ask yourself:

• Can you simplify your go-to market strategy and pick one or two initiatives with the most viable opportunity to focus on?
• Which products offer the highest margin?
• Are key product categories lagging in sales?
• Can you proactively shift some promotional emphasis to products that perform better in soft markets?

The answers to these and similar questions can help you decide if you should reallocate media or creative assets to provide additional support.

Meanwhile, looking deeper into your business can uncover additional ways to achieve revenue numbers, namely by supporting your sales team. Examples include methodical, strategic and prioritized solutions:

• Target direct marketing to top trade prospects
• CRM activities for pros and consumers
• Lead generation and conversion programs

4. You can always have a plan B.

We don’t have a crystal ball, but we can all still support and fuel business through highs and lows. Take these steps to maximize opportunities.

• Choose agile digital channels to help safeguard your campaigns so that you can shift your dollars and focus as needed more easily.
• Lean into organic social media to help compensate for potential reductions elsewhere.
• Create a slush fund for opportunistic initiatives.

5. ROI forces us all to ask tough questions, and that's a good thing.

Today’s marketing teams have increased pressure to make measurement paramount. Return on investment isn’t a nice-to-have — it’s a standard cost of doing business.

Push for KPIs first and pull them into initial conversations before a campaign ever goes public or even gets created. Based on your goals, identify tools and metrics to ensure the work performs at every level — and that you can continually capitalize on untapped opportunities.

6. You don’t have to do it alone.

A good agency partner acts as an extension of your marketing team. Your mindset is their mindset. Your stress is their stress. Strong agencies can think and plan alongside key marketing stakeholders, and they have the fortitude to plan and forecast against their clients’ marketing budgets, staff for them and work together to accomplish goals.

At Wray Ward, getting ahead of the curve is our priority. How can we plan earlier — 18 months or more in advance? Can we work together to select top goals? Have more frequent conversations, in turn becoming more agile?

With careful planning, you can transform even your most difficult business challenges into powerful creative solutions.