"Does it make sense to continue marketing during a recession?"

He went on to explain:

"If no one is buying at the moment, why keep marketing? There's no sense spending precious resources on zero-return marketing efforts. Or is there? What happens when a business stops marketing during a downturn? Is your company continuing the same marketing activities as before the recession or have you cut back? Why? Are you doing things differently now than before the recession?"

There are several reasons to continue marketing during a recession:

(1) You'll face less competition in getting your message through. With fewer competitors, the signal-to-noise ratio improves.

(2) You'll remind your clients that you're alive and kicking and active. That enhances your credibility.

(3) You'll practice your client-getting skills. Like lifting heavy weights, by the time the economy improves, you'll be in the right shape to take advantage.

(4) It forces us to ask, "What is VALUE to our prospects?" This disciplines us to deliver what they'll pay for, now.

(5) I believe in The Law of Large Numbers, also the title of my audio seminar with Nightingale-Conant. Do enough and you'll survive, Do more, and prosper. Outdo that level of activity, and you'll become a legend!

Stopping, or severely cutting back our activity, are always mistakes. I have seen enough feast-and-famine cycles over the course of the past few decades to tell you that trying to adapt your activity level to the economy is worse than timing the stock market.

You'll never get it completely right. Typically, when you think you can cruise, you should be ramping-up.

I believe it was the head of electronics giant, TRW, that once said every businessperson should "Act as if someone, somewhere is inventing a product or service that will put you out of business."

This is starkly similar to what billionaire Bill Gates warned: "Only the paranoid, survive."

Keep pitching, and never stop or cut back, irresepective of what you think is happening in the economy.