Don’t panic…

“Downturn”  Don’t you just hate that word?  Better hold on to your saddle horn; it’s going to be a wild and bumpy ride for a while. 

For many of us, we’ve seen these economic issues before.  And yes, it’s not a pretty picture.  If you’re concerned, you probably should be.  However, there’s no need to panic: 

Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is. 

German Proverb 

Lot’s of folks are forecasting that a recession is upon us.  (Seems like I’ve been hearing a recession is upon us for a year or two, you?)  

I didn’t realize it but according to Wikipedia we’ve had seven “recessions” since I entered the workforce in 1975:

1. 1973-1975; triggered when OPEC quadrupled oil prices (I remember the shortage and the lines of cars at gas stations)
2. 1980; triggered when the Fed dramatically raised interest rates to fight inflation (sound familiar?)
3. 1981-1982; triggered by the Iranian Revolution, oil prices (again), and the Fed (still)
4. 1990; triggered by the Fed raising interest rates to fight that darn inflation (again)
5. 2001; triggered by the dot.com bubble burst (which was triggered by the “Y2K panic”)
6. 2007-2009; triggered by the housing bubble burst (those darn bubbles)
7. 2020; triggered by Covid 

I was reading The Impact of Economic Downturn on the SaaS Industry survey results recently.  It seems the data was collected between 2021 and early 2023.  And yes, it doesn’t paint a pretty picture.  Here are a couple of excerpts (my commentary added in parentheses): 

The fact that we are in difficult times is evident. When we started sending out the survey, the market sentiment was evidently poor. There were already reports of layoffs in major organisations… By the time we collected responses, there were even more layoffs.  More layoffs were announced before we compiled the responses into a report, and right now, as I’m writing this sentence, two of the most successful companies in the world have announced that they’re shrinking their workforce. (We’ve noticed.) 

Your sales reps know we’re in a downturn. They’re aware of reports of lay-offs across the globe. This can lead to uncertainty, and a sense of panic across your workforce. (There’s that word panic, again.) 

Per our survey, more than two-thirds of companies did not hit their targets during H1 in 2022. Nearly 80% of them also responded that they faced a lot of challenges in achieving their goals. (“faced a lot of challenges”, thank you Captain Obvious.) 

Speaking of not pretty pictures… I’m reminded of an old painter I used to work with before I entered the technology sales business.  His first name was Karl and I remember he preferred whiskey that was finished in merlot casks.  When a painting mistake was made on one of our jobs Karl would say: 

Don’t panic… Jack was every inch a sailor. 

He was right; the jobs would turn out fine.  Makes me optimistic our economic “downturn” will turn-around and come out fine, too.  But I’m remaining cautious.  I’m paying close attention to how news is presented (aka “spin”): 

The phrase, “I have good news and I have bad news”, is really just bad news.  We know this because we learn of good news this way; “You’re not going to freaking believe it, but…!” 

I don’t know who Jack was but like Karl I’m not going to panic.  I’m confident in Jack, our sailors, and the prospects for getting through this darn “downturn”. 

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.