"Don'ts" for Difficult Times

1. Don't panic. You can't sit still, but you also don't want to swerve like a drunk on ice skates. Cycles happen. Sometimes they happen hard, but we'll come back around eventually.

2. Cut fat, not muscle. And marketing is muscle. A slowdown is the ideal time to snatch up market share.

3. Don't water down your sales message to "go wide." When you're desperate for customers, it's easy to try to widen your market appeal. Stick to your focus. Just get better at it.

4. Watch out for "discount training." If you keep offering "special deals," eventually the deals are no longer special. And all you're doing is training your customers to learn to wait for the next deal instead of buying right now.

5. Don't ignore the facts, just have a plan. You can't wish away the economic crisis by ignoring it. Mention it to your employees, but do so in the context of showing leadership on how to get past it.