So what approaches can help you attract recession-battered customers?

5 Ways to Engage Customers In Recession

1.        Remove your customers fears. Right now your customers are watching way too many recession news stories filled with doom. They’re hearing about giants of industry going under, or coming close, they’re afraid they may be next…. How do you encourage them to lift their head and help them understand that change is a constant in life—and this economic melt-down will pass.

2.       Confirm their suspicions. Your customers see danger everywhere they look, and they wonder who is really there to watch over and protect their best interests, and who is there to fleece them of their shrinking income. Don’t deny the reality your customers perceive…. Recognise that the quickest way to bond and, most importantly, become an advocate on behalf of your customers is to first accept and validate (within reasonable limits) their viewpoint.

3.       Justify their failures. Don’t make your customers feel like losers. If they’ve yet to reach their goals, pat them on the back and then show them why. Show them that many factors, often beyond their control, contributed to their failure. Show them how you can decrease the number of failures they will face, and how you will increase their odds of success.

4.       Throw rocks at their obstacles. Identify the immediate threat or obstacle confronting your customer’s well-being, happiness and success. Join them in a justifiable hate fest. Heap scorn, ridicule and bad intentions on the perceived roadblock. And then quickly move on. Don’t wallow in that shallow pool, but splash there just long enough to gain your customer’s attention and confidence.

5.        Encourage their dreams. The product or service you sell are not made of metal, wood, plastic, bits and bytes or some intangible service, they are dream-makers. Do not deceive your customer into believing they can accomplish the impossible, or that the impossible is achievable. But if your product or service can indeed make your customer’s intentions come true, do not hide the truth.

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