As a research firm which focuses on market research, polls, surveys, among others, we hope to bring insights to you through today’s article on the critical importance of market research when a business experiences a sharp decrease in demand, otherwise referred to as business slump. Typically, business slump depicts a scenario where demand for a businesses goods or services suddenly or continuously decreases, in most cases to very low levels which may drive the enterprise into loss-making positions. That certainly irks every serious businessperson as it is a sign of the evaporation of a business’ going concern. In simple, business slump is a sign that you may soon not be able to pay salaries, rent and financial obligations and this is why we need to address this matter today.
The irking slumps
Way back, most businesses in this country would not have had to deal with business slumps as the country experienced constant economic growth, mainly driven by the mining industry. Unfortunately, the advent of COVID-19 brought slumps to reality to many entrepreneurs through reduction in sales, disruption in distribution chains as well as loss of clients. This situation, as if it was not bad by itself, was worsened by the Russia-Ukraine war which has seen fuel prices going up by close to 80 percent since the war started. That technically means that entrepreneurs will constantly have to increase their prices but that will not be feasible if a business has already started seeing a dip in demand. This irking reality of loss of business is so relevant to, among others, the travel and tourism sectors as they probably recorded the most significant slumps emanating from travel bans and border closures which were implemented to tackle COVID-19.
Whilst it may be clear why business slumps may occur, most entrepreneurs may not be able to easily discern the reason for such decline in sales. As an example, some businesses which conduct training have noted that most of their clients no longer attend training courses, even when they try to incentivise them by holding such trainings online. This leaves entrepreneurs in that industry in a quandary as to what really will be happening but the results are obvious; sales take a sharp dip.
Market research, the cure
Therefore, market research i.e., a process of getting into a business’ market and asking clients as well as relevant stakeholders targeted questions regarding the demand for goods and services will provide clues as to what needs to cure business stagnation.
The market research may reveal that the goods or services may no longer be needed or may have been replaced by new ones. At times, the research may simply show that most consumers then need to cut on their expenditure and it may be necessary for the business to find ways of reducing prices. On the other hand, it may turn out that the business will need to improve on service delivery or increase the quality of goods and services. Therefore, in a nutshell, if your business has stagnated, the cure is for you to the root cause and that can be done through market research.
Research now or sink
You need to seriously consider conducting market research as soon as you experience a slump in business or you may sink whilst your competition thrives. We certainly hope that you had some insights from today’s article and that it will help you stay in business even in tough times.
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