Perhaps you’ve done some soul searching the last few months and have determined new strategic directions, new niche markets or new offerings are in order to help weather the current slow down in your business. (I hate to keep harping too much on this theme, but people don’t seem to want to talk about much else.)

My advice is to slow down, resist over course correcting, and take a good look at some ways to repackage what you’ve already got to make it more universally appealing. It’s a time tested approach in the consumer products world – new package means new product and new product launch.

So here are some tips on putting this into action in your business.

• Add something talkable – create or add a feature to your products or services that makes people take notice, or better yet, talk about what you’re doing. Outrageous guarantees, add-ons, and bundles are great ways to irritate your competition and get people saying – “how can they do that?” – now that’s talkable buzz that can drive business. Be bold here.
• Add value before discounts – One of the first places businesses cave is on pricing. Customers are getting a little tighter with the cash, so the inclination is to cut the prices to make the phone ring. It rarely helps and, long term, it hurts profit. I suggest lumping in more value, more you time, more service, more bonuses from partners to overwhelm your customer with something that is clearly more valuable then the offering that is 2 bucks cheaper.
• Create offers to act now – Now is the time to make your advertising and lead generation action oriented. Start creating reasons to act now. Offer special promotions, freebies, and bonuses as a reward for trying now, buying now and buying more.
• Mold low cost alternatives – If you’re experiencing a longer sales cycle these days or just flat out prospect paralysis, it may be helpful to create some lower cost or lower tier offerings. Think the good, better, best or try before you buy approach in an effort to lower the risk on the part of your prospect. Let them get a taste of how great your company is before having to commit to the full scale engagement. You might just find that you can create offerings at lower prices points that attract entirely new markets as well.
• Partner for advanced packages – Go out and get big, take on huge markets, and much larger competitors by teaming up with complimentary strategic partners to create markets and offerings that you could not even dream of taking on alone. A team of CEO level experienced SMB providers could wipe the snot nosed brats on the BigCo team all over the court. You know, if that’s what you’re into.

I’m not simply suggesting lipstick on a pig here, this is the shortest route to entirely new strategic opportunities. And, don’t forget to build your new  product launches promotions too.