Enough about lemonade, let's get real about the opportunities

Hopefully, the worst is behind us. That is a comment and an observation I am hearing a lot lately. But usually as soon as those words are out of the persons mouth it is followed by a pause and then the obligatory, but (insert concern, conditions, risk). I think that all too common exchange describes exactly where we are, more eloquently than any other description could. As much as we try to be optimistic, we are all still a little haunted by the “but” are we not?

So, for this post I decided to look for some bright spots and opportunities as I see them. I always hated hearing (in my opinion cheap and lazy comments) “there are no problems, there are only opportunities” – because let us be honest, sometimes there are real problems, sometimes they are actually beyond our control. Sometimes you simply cannot make lemonade out lemons, the lemons are bad and nobody wants lemonade made from rotten lemons. These adages about everything being an opportunity are bogus at best and bad advice at worst. So that is not my intent here. This post is more about finding opportunities despite the very real situation we are all dealing with.

Its no secret that some companies have done well because of the lockdown – Netflix, Amazon and Zoom for example have thrived. On the other hand, all of us in tourism, travel and hospitality have been totally devastated by this crisis. That said there is what we call “pent up demand.” There is no doubt that people want to travel and get out of their homes, cabin fever is at an all time high, as soon as we can travel and equally important – as soon as consumers feel safe travelling, they will. So, the question for us all is this – how will we do when the business returns?

1)     First Opportunity: We all have an opportunity for a fresh start and to change our mindset. Let us begin by changing the question we ask ourselves. Some companies will ask this – “how can we take advantage of this pent-up demand?” or “how can we close and convert more of these travelers?” Those might sound like good business questions or even the right business questions, however they are in my opinion, horrible questions. They start you off on the wrong foot and put your focus on the wrong things! What if you change the question and thereby change the focus and therefore develop a different approach? What if that approach could be something the consumer is dying to hear and experience? So here is a better question – “what can we do to help consumers as they struggle to make the right choice?” or “how can we make people feel safe travelling and confident in selecting our company to assist?” Perhaps a subtle difference but think about everything that changes because of questions like these!

2)     Second Opportunity: Many of you will hate this one but I believe we can get a little less digital and a lot more analogue. Over the past 12 months the world has been forced, yes forced to live every day in the virtual – no touch, social distances, video conferences, streaming, e commerce shopping etc.…. people will want tangible, real, concrete. This does not mean the other tools go away but it does mean that differentiation, getting attention and conversion are more likely to happen in the environment that people intrinsically desire most and therefore gravitate to. This presents an opportunity to those who feel out spent on search or out done on creative content. If you can make people feel good, connected, understood, and cared for you will win. Many of us, even with cuts and reductions can still do this. We don't need to go into debt with another agency or another flavor of the month technology. Stick to the fundamentals until things stabilize.

3)     Third Opportunity: We do not need to wait; we can start immediately. Even though many restrictions still exist we have a window of opportunity as consumers start entertaining travel plans. The facts are that once some restrictions are lifted the market will be flooded with excursions and offers. Reaching someone early and getting them to consider you earlier than perhaps they have done in the past, is a real opportunity and might be the only way to compete. To do this we need to offer extreme flexibility and assurances to any potential customers, if you cannot do that then you might be forced to wait.

Of course, we all face challenges as we try and do any of this, we have reduced staff, slashed budgets, uncertainty around restrictions and of course we can only assume that greater economic pressures will continue long after the vaccine starts to change the way we can live. That said, going through a simple exercise to explore these opportunities is still a smart use of our time.