Do you chalk up everything that happens and call it an "extraordinary"
time and ignore it? No.

These black swan events, or one time incidences are going to repeat.
For the same reason you don't cancel flood insurance the day after the
100 year flood, you don't ignore the lessons of this past year.

Anyone who managed to thrive in this economy has been providing a core
need. Companies that went out of business were supplying wants. The
tricky analysis is done on the companies who can look around and say
that one year has passed, but no growth, no progress has been made.

Their initial idea didn't work. Conditions have changes. Now what?
One year less money in the bank. One year older, one year where the
customer base is prepped but not buying.

Simple solution: fire your sales guy and get someone who can either
sell or tell you why your customers won't buy. And if you learn that
your customers will never buy, stop what you are doing and do
something else.

Go out and keep talking. If you can be a sweetener to your customers,
do so. If you can afford it, tell them that you want to do a trial for
them. Make it short two weeks or so. Track all additional revenue you
earn for them during the trial. If it is really accretive then take
75% of the new revenue. After all it is money they wouldn't have
gotten otherwise.

If there is no money made, the you don't know the market, the
consumers, or the industry as well as you need to. The good news is
that you are one step closer.

and now they've survived. .55";9

and don't know if the past year was somethign to learn

last year sucked
how much did you learn.