My most favorite sister-in-law, an IT professional, and I were talking about the company she works at during the Patriots game on Sunday. Welker had blown out his knee, Brady was in, then out, then in again, and attention to the game was drifting since we all knew it meant nothing anyway. I’ve looked at the company she works at from time to time, considering whether or not they’d be a good candidate for PR support, but knew from her that they handled it internally.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t too upbeat on the future of the company, even though they have a great product, with potential for use in other applications than what it was initially developed for.

I asked her what initiatives the internal PR folks where taking. The answer was – in my opinion – a recipe for disaster: “well, they were laid off, so nothing is being done in that regard.”

Now, I’m no rocket scientist, and I didn’t sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but I’m pretty sure that when things are tough is not the time to stop talking to your customers about what is going on. And it is especially not good when things are just starting to pick up again!

Communications with your target customers, editors and analysts should be a priority when things are tough, so that they know you are still there, able to meet their needs. And, so they remember you are there when the economy turns. Even if you don’t have an agency or internal staff, some one must keep up the flow of information. Like the billboard I saw on the highway in New Jersey at the start of this downturn: Stop Communicating, Lose Your Customers, Lose Your Sales, Lose Your House. If you stop communicating, you start losing…

I’ve offered to help her with her resume, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that…

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