November is always a hot month for companies and consumers, yet this year the spotlight won’t be on early Black Friday deals, there will be plenty of those, it will be on the 60th Presidential Election. We have already seen the effects of the election on the economy and as we close in on November, the discourse will be impossible to avoid. Elections are volatile for the economy as a potential change in leadership creates apprehension in the marketplace. Businesses and consumers alike become more hesitant to make deals or spend until they have a better grasp on how things will play out. That is where the importance of a presidential debate comes into play. A debate offers candidates the platform to discuss their policy and poke holes in an opponent’s agenda. In a perfect world, Americans will conclude Thursday’s debate with a firm grasp on where President Biden and former President Trump want to take the country. Unfortunately, this debate could become as volatile as the economy.

These two candidates have no love for each other, and we have already seen them do battle in 2020. Those debates had the pandemic as a backdrop, yet things have changed significantly in the last four years. The rising costs of goods and services have become a real problem for consumers. So far this year, shoppers have pushed back on current pricing strategies and shown an unwillingness to spend the way they have in the past. For businesses, this has led to falling traffic in most major industries. We are already seeing industry-wide pivots in order to increase value and drive consumer trust. In the meantime, the economy has suffered and stagnated with low customer traffic.

The economy is just one of the major issues facing America and we can expect both candidates to begin outlining their plans at the debate. We expect President Biden to be criticized on the current state of the economy and former President Trump will have to answer questions about his policies to lower taxes on wealthy Americans and to increase tariffs on imported goods. Both candidates will have the opportunity to further flesh out their policies and assuage the concerns of millions of Americans. With the current political climate, the debate becomes somewhat unpredictable, and it is hard to say which topics the candidates will deem most worthy of their airtime. We could end up in a situation where a lot of words are exchanged without anything really being said. In that case we would conclude the debate with no clearer view of either President’s future plans. Should that happen, anxiety would increase as companies and consumers would be left in a holding pattern about what to do with their finances.

Regardless of how informative the debate is, we already know that the worst approach for businesses is to wait and see. We are facing countless unknowns about what policies will change and how they will affect business, yet we have been here before. Historically, those that wait around to see what will happen have the hardest time adapting. Our own polling has shown that the election has caused revenue to decrease, yet that is to be expected as consumers want to hold onto their funds in times of uncertainty. Businesses can’t make the mistake of believing that consumers will suddenly feel more comfortable following a debate or even the election itself. Unless companies push consumers to engage in the economy, it will remain stagnant. Tomorrow we will know more about each candidate, yet today is the time to act for both B2C and B2B. We know what happens to businesses that “waited to see” during the last recession and pandemic, and many of them did not make it through. Stay tuned as we will provide a follow-up to tonight’s debate as-well-as some key strategies to making it through tough and uncertain times like the 2024 election.