While the economic data continues to send confusing and conflicting messages, the mood of the nation seems to be coming down on the side of increasing optimism. It’s difficult to decide whether we’re guided by hollow hope or well-grounded facts. It may be both or, quite possibly, neither.

But one thing’s for certain. Negative thinking has worn out its welcome. We want to believe that we’re on the verge of an upturn. Then, at the very moment when it seems as if the worst may be behind us, why is it necessary to suggest that there are things we need to do before it’s too late? “Too late for what?” The answer is simple and perhaps even obvious: before your business is left behind. Whether we like it or not, the winners are coming around the “far turn,” while most companies haven’t even left the gate.

Here are suggestions for playing catch up so you’ll be ready as the economic engine picks up speed — things to do before it’s too late:

• Don’t Wait for the Economy to Change

Because we hear it so often, we come to believe that our sales success is tied to a return of “customer confidence.” We pore over the polls waiting for a positive outlook. “Small business is, in fact, suffering, but yet still holding on, praying for better times,” someone commented about the fear that is paralyzing so many companies.

In reality, the lure of “better times” is the problem, not the solution. Samuel Beckett’s play, “Waiting for Godot,” accurately portrays the state businesses find themselves in today. Two men, Vladimir and Estragon, meet by a tree in a desolate, dump-like setting. They’re there to meet a friend, Godot. Even though there are unavoidable indications throughout the play that Godot is not coming, the two men stay put. There is even a green shoot, perhaps a sign of hope, on the otherwise dead tree, but it doesn’t last very long. At the end, the two men are still waiting.

This is an apt description of where many businesses find themselves today. They throw out the lures (sales, big sales, super colossal sales, unheard of sales, once-in-a –lifetime sales coupons, and a constant stream of incentives) and still the customers do not buy. Such an attitude appears to have paralyzed too many companies. It suggests that our future depends on the actions of customers. Like Vladimir and Estragon, we are still waiting.

• Fail to Tell Your Story — and You Fail

A recent Advertising Age article by marketing guru Al Ries is best summarized by it’s subtitle, “If you run a company by numbers alone, you’ll run it into the ground.”

One perceptive reader responded to the article this way, “I run a popular website, yet advertisers refuse to invest in brand awareness because there is no immediate CPA ROI. Duh! These customers are just becoming AWARE of your brands. Brands that, once selected, will likely be their brand for a lifetime.” Then she concludes with a particularly insightful sentence. “They won’t buy the product unless they become familiar with who you are in the first place.”

While her comment will certainly seem rather naïve to some marketers, there’s no need to look further than KIA for confirmation. At a time when auto sales were at “low tide,” Kia’s ad campaign drove home a consistent message: Kia outsells Lexus, VW and Acura. Others hunkered down waiting out the sales slump, but not KIA. That’s what the owner of the website is talking about. When the customer gets ready to buy, KIA has provided qualitative differentiation that gives consumers a powerful reason to check out the KIA line up.

If you fail to tell your story, you fail. Bank on it.

• Show Them What You Can Do for Them

Psychologist Robert B. Cialdini, who was featured in May 2009, Agency Sales, and the other authors of Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive, indicate that “because” is the one word that can make the difference between no and yes. They point out studies that prove the power of “because.”

At a time when many dry cleaners are floating thousands of coupons and cutting prices to attract more business, Glyndon Lord Baltimore Cleaners in Maryland, have raised their prices substantially — and the business is growing.

Why are they successful at commanding higher prices? Because they let customers know what they do for them: pick up and deliver, superior spot removing, wetclean 70% of all clothing, never lose garments, orders ready on time and always replace broken buttons. Simply put, customers get what they want and what they care about.

It’s the “because” that can change doubters into believers.

• Get a Clear Understanding of Marketing

No matter what anyone says, marketing is in a current state of disarray. Most newspapers are on life support as their former readers get their news online from the same newspapers that have yet to figure out how to support their electronic editions financially. Direct mail is down to a trickle, while broadcast and cable TV struggle to attract sufficient advertising in the face of a stubbornly weak economy.

With clients demanding lower costs and marketers struggling to find new venues to connect with customers, the social media are touted as the answer, the “silver bullet.” While the new media are replete with persuasive success stories, marketers are clearly trying to find their way. Solid answers are illusive, at best.

Many of those who initially spent hours a day “getting linked” are getting tired, primarily due to a lack of positive results and they move on to the next “solution.”

On a blog that raised the question, “Does social media marketing even work?” one respondent wrote, “I don’t get it. Everyone seems to think this is the next frontier of marketing. Perhaps it just hasn’t evolved. I’m fairly plugged into a number of social apps, programs, blogs, pages and I don’t see any results. Sure, you can make money telling and charging clients they need this or that, but does it increase their business? Not as far as I can tell.”

All this points to an important conclusion: Marketing is far more complicated than it was in the past when there were few ways to deliver “messages” to customers. Today, “messages” are passé and now the task is finding ways to “talk,” not “tell.” In other words, if you want customers, you can expect your marketing mix to have far more components than in the past. Marketing is more complicated and demanding than ever before.

Unfortunately, it’s popular to blame our current business problems on the recession. But, as the Financial Times recently pointed out, that’s a myth. The problem is “broken business models,” which “were broken long before Lehman filed for bankruptcy, and will remain broken unless executives use the downturn to begin fixing them.” General Motors, they suggest, is a prime example. “The automaker’s problems certainly did not originate with the current drop in consumer demand or higher retiree and medical costs.” Over a long period, GM was unable to build cars the customers wanted to buy. If the criticism of GM is accurate, it is far from alone.

It’s time to act — before it’s too late.