Tips for building 'growth muscles' in weak economy.

• Author: Heffes, Ellen M.
• Position: COST REDUCTION - Book review

If you're trying to grow your business-to-business company during this recession "using old, costly, innefficient methods, you're probably doomed to failure," says Dan Adams, president of Advanced Industrial Marketing Inc., and author of New Product Blueprinting: The Handbook for B2B Organic Growth (AIM Press, 2008).

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Indeed, Adams says, companies saddled with a shortage of cash and senior management who believe the right response to the recession is to hunker down, slash costs to the bone and wait for the storm to pass, have it wrong. He believes you can aim for growth during a serious economic downturn. In fact, Adams adds, now is the perfect time to do so, while your competitors are distracted.

You just need to consider alternate (read: cheaper) ways of going about growth, and Adams offers several small-budget growth ideas:

* Find out what your customers really want--not what you want to give them. Profitable, sustainable organic growth starts when you have a deeper understanding of customer needs than your competitors.

* Conduct customer interviews remotely. (It's more effective than you think.) Jetting around to interview customers is understandably unpopular when travel restrictions are the rage. So, consider the Web...