In a bear market, the typical response is for a company to hunker down and play it safe. But that is exactly the wrong thing to do. A bad economy could be your window of opportunity. Anybody can make money in a booming market–a rising tide lifts all ships. But when times are bad, the innovators, the positive thinkers, and the hard workers separate themselves from the pack. A receding tide need not sink your ship.

Now is the time for action, not hunkering down. Now is the time to ramp up your sales effort and give your customers more reasons to buy. How? By questioning everything that you do. By mercilessly scrutinizing your internal processes. By rolling out creative and compelling marketing initiatives. By staying closer to your customers than you’ve ever stayed before.

Now is the time for training. If you haven’t trained your sales or customer service staff lately, seize the moment. Whether it’s my program or somebody else’s, any improvement in sales performance makes all the difference in a sub-par market. Focus your training efforts on the basics–new account production and customer retention.

Now is the time to be creative. Develop a loyalty program that’s too good to refuse. Put together a sales contest that inspires everyone on your team. Initiate service programs and product promotions for to new and current customers. Give your people, your customers, and your prospects something to remember, talk about, and act on.

Now is the time for customer communication. When customers are feeling the economic pain, they’re under pressure to overlook long-term relationships in favor of saving a quick buck. It’s understandable. So let them know about all the new efforts you’re making to help them through. Maybe it’s time for a business blog or a newsletter or a public relations campaign or adding an RSS feed to your Web site or maybe all of the above.

It’s imperative to take action before your customers start looking elsewhere for relief. When you help customers through tough times, they never forget it. If you appear to abandon them … they never forget that, either.

The really good news is that all the innovation and energy you put into your business today will produce even bigger results when business picks up. If you’re outrunning the competition with all these bumps in the road, think what you’ll do on a wide open highway!