We have had many calls from people looking for various discounts, so I am truly happy to see all of your smart readers above commenting that lowering prices/discounts isn’t necessarily the answer.

In the end we looked at the quality of our product and what we provide and have decided to stand firm.

Thanks for all of the great thoughts!

Realize, that there is rarely a quick fix to slumping sales. But for the long-term I have found one of the best ways to turn sales around and avoid slumps, is to continously train your people.

For more ideas, contributor Zane Safrit has a follow up post, Sales are down. Now what?

Then, I eliminated employee support in favor of outsourcing through virtual assistants.

Now, I am increasing revenue sources through other skill sets.

In my “former life”, I was a therapist specializing in counseling Adult Children of Alcoholics and other family members impacted by alcoholism.

Being an active listener with intuitive insight enables me to coach and mentor real estate agents and other small business owners. The original focus was improving their social networking skills. Today, I find our focus is providing a safe environment for the self-employed to talk.

I’m not saying it works in every case, but it’s worth considering.

Perhaps the other part of this is to make sure that you raise prices as one part of an overall strategy to improve your customer service and rebuild your business.

Thanks for another thought-provoking contribution, Derrick.