If there is a single word to describe today’s worldwide business environment it is “directionless.”  Business and consumer spending are slowing to a crawl until some economic direction (even downward) is identified.  People and corporations alike are simply holding cash until they see clear and safe places to spend and invest. Global indecision. This state of economic ambiguity will hit many parts of the technology business hard.  In the B2B space, customers are spending only on things that are essential, such as replacing broken servers and PCs.  Even then they are restraining spending and eking the last I/O out of those aging boxes (not me – I’m buying a new laptop this month to do my part in reviving the Chinese economy).  B2C sales are slowing even in the hotter-than-Hades mobile market.  With unemployment rising and a looming federal deficit – currently standing at 8% of GDP and with new … Continue reading →

I have been very busy lately. Not only does business at Silicon Strategies Marketing rise in a recession (people sense their strategy is imperfect when they start losing money) but I have been giving a nearly endless series of presentations on marketing technology in troubled times. Part of that presentation appears in an article by the smart folk at SoftwareCEO in two series on recession survival tactics. My contribution to their article “How to recession-proof your software firm, part 2: 18 tips on sales and marketing” relates some of what I say in my presentations — that aligning your marketing efforts to the Market Disciplines of your main customers cut through their newly raised recession filters. The gist of it is that aligning everything you do with the Market Disciplines of your core customers is essential during economic chaos. During recessions, enterprises revert to the original and lasting disciplines that … Continue reading →

Woe be to technology marketers in the next year … or two … or three. Despite overly optimistic projections by some analyst firms, the tech industry will sink into recessionary doldrums like everyone else. With dropping stock prices, slowing revenues, and more picayune buyers, marketing strategy will again take the lead in leading tech companies through tough time (I know — Silicon Strategies Marketing had their best years to date in the dot-bomb era). The situation is so sire that I will be giving a talk on how to market technology during tough times at Software Business 2008 at the end of October. The damage has already started. Everyone in Silicon Valley with a pocket full of stock options is crying nightly in their collective beers as they watch the information technology index, the NASDAQ and the S&P fall faster than the price of disc drives. The indexes have slid … Continue reading →