The Down-Market Full-In Rule
Adapt the offer and preserve visibility while competitors retreat
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 96%
Lund responds to a down market with two coordinated moves. First, she accepts that the market cannot be controlled and asks what the business can change: which products now help people, where demand remains, and how the team should shift. She gives HELOCs as one response to the recent mortgage environment. Second, she protects brand visibility rather than treating marketing as the automatic first cut. Her father used the same principle in the 2008 crash, keeping the company's long-running radio presence even when doing so required borrowing. The mechanism is countercyclical: adaptation creates useful near-term activity, while continued visibility prevents customer memory from decaying before conditions recover. The rule is not permission for blind spending; the investment must preserve a credible brand and support services people still need.
Origin
Lund connects her response to recent rate pressure with her father's decision to keep investing in coaching and radio during the 2008 mortgage crash.
Core principles
- 01Do not waste energy fighting conditions you cannot control
- 02Find changing customer needs inside the downturn
- 03Shift products and activity rather than waiting
- 04Preserve marketing so the market remembers the brand
- 05Expect the return after conditions improve
How to run it
- 1
Accept the condition
State what changed in the market and stop treating the external condition as something the company can argue away. Shift attention to controllable decisions.
Pro tip Separate the market fact from the team's emotional reaction to it.
Watch out Acceptance does not mean passivity or pretending the downturn is harmless.
- 2
Find the live need
Look for customer problems that remain or intensify under the new conditions. Identify products or services the business can credibly use to help.
Pro tip Start with existing capabilities before inventing an unrelated business.
Watch out Do not force a product merely to replace lost volume.
- 3
Shift the activity
Redirect sales conversations, education, and operations toward the relevant need. Give the team a concrete alternative to waiting for the old market to return.
Pro tip Lund cites increasing attention to HELOCs in the changed mortgage market.
Watch out A verbal pivot without changed daily activity produces no adaptation.
- 4
Protect market memory
Continue the channels that keep the brand known so customers do not forget it during the contraction. Evaluate marketing as a future-demand asset, not only a current-month expense.
Pro tip Prioritise channels with demonstrated long-term recognition.
Watch out Preserving visibility is not the same as funding every campaign unchanged.
- 5
Carry capacity through recovery
Retain valuable people and service capacity where financially possible so the company can respond when demand returns.
Pro tip Protect the employees who already believe in and understand the company's vision.
Watch out Do not conceal an existential cash problem in the name of optimism.
In the wild
Rather than only complaining that rates were up, Lund says the team asked how to shift and help people, including doing and promoting HELOCs. The product shift gave the company an actionable response to conditions it could not control.
→ The team redirected effort toward a need that remained relevant in the downturn.
Lund says her father believed staying on radio was so important during the 2008 crash that he borrowed $40,000 from her future husband while waiting for a Texas property to close. The company maintained a channel Lund says had helped make the name a household brand in Arizona.
→ The brand remained visible instead of disappearing during the industry's contraction.
Common mistakes
Waiting for the old market
Dwelling on rates or demand leaves the team without a useful response to current customer needs.
Cutting marketing first
Automatic marketing cuts can erase brand memory before the market improves.
Confusing courage with blind spending
Countercyclical investment still needs a useful offer, a credible channel, and enough financial capacity to survive.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for established businesses with a trusted brand, viable adjacent offers, and enough runway to keep serving through a contraction.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal when continued spending threatens solvency or the proposed offer does not solve a real customer need.
From the transcript
“instead of fighting the market instead of worrying about it what can we do to we're not afraid of change right what do we need…”
“when times are down like that's the time to jump all in that's the time to invest in yourself”
“most people think when times are tough the first thing they do is they cut marketing cost that's a wrong thing to do”
From the episode
Continuing the Mortgage Legacy with CEO Lisa Lund