“Big companies tear up forecasts.”
This was the LinkedIn news headline last Friday, about how corporations are responding to tariff uncertainty. Executive leaders are going back to the financial projection drawing board, looking for ways to cut costs and adjust growth strategies in the next fiscal year.
It’s also a precarious time for communications departments that haven’t earned the C-suite’s trust. In-house teams and agencies alike risk cuts to their budgets unless management believes in their value.
“Communications leaders should be expected to help C-level executives communicate the way forward for all stakeholders—internal and external,” said Evan Boyer, a senior communications strategist. “Too often, the function operates in a reactive mode, asking, ‘What do you need us to do?’ But in moments of uncertainty, we have a big opportunity to earn trust with leadership by proactively showing leadership what’s coming, what it means and how to get through it.”
And it all comes down to speaking their language, proactive planning and solid execution.
First, Understand the Boss’s Pain Point
Sales, supply chains, operations, you name it—all matter to executive leaders. But the number-one priority is fiduciary duty to the shareholders. This is an especially important obligation in an economic downturn, when the C-suite must earn confidence both with the company’s internal fundamentals and compared to the competition.
And when growth is uncertain, that’s when budget cuts begin—starting with dollars seen as the most expendable. That’s bad news for communications departments when leaders are ignorant of marketing and branding value.
“When you cut the comms budget or team outright, you lose brand visibility and trust—and it will likely delay the company’s recovery post-downturn,” said Stephanie Roberts, Chief Communications Officer for Hitachi Industrial Equipment Systems Co. “Communications requires consistency. It isn’t something you can turn on and off like a faucet—and every time you turn it off, you also damage internal morale and culture. By pointing out these facts, you also highlight how investing in brand and comms during downturns can create future demand, brand equity, maintain customer loyalty, uphold employee satisfaction, etc.”
It’s easy to point fingers at executives for viewing our departments as largely discretionary budget items. But the blame is often on us when we speak different languages, using vague terms like “brand awareness” instead of translating to bottom-line successes and saying something more like, “20% more of our target audience now knows we exist, and here’s how we made it happen.”
And without translating these successes, C-suite decision-makers will never listen when we point out that marketing and branding dollars go furthest when times are tough.
Now, Plan Ahead
Once we understand senior leaders’ pain points and how to translate comms-speak to C-suite, it’s time to plan ahead. This is about more than just getting the earnings report and press releases in advance of the investor call.
“Investors, analysts and shareholders need to hear a story about how the company addresses an urgent problem, because that’s what moves the market and builds overall confidence,” said Joshua Mansbach, a fractional Head of Corporate & Product Communications for global pharmaceutical and biotech companies. “Great communications strategy will drive a clear narrative that uses milestones as business inflection points to demonstrate growth. The CEO then becomes a powerful storyteller who can show a wary investor how, for example, R&D progress translates directly to positive business impact.”
Senior executives at global corporations, of course, rely heavily on their communications team before, during and after earnings calls; and they have undoubtedly spent months preparing for how tariffs will impact the ones issued in 2025. For junior comms folks, here are some principles that may help you be part of the solution:
- Don’t be intimidated. You belong at the table—whether the senior executives’ table or the department table—as much as the head of HR, operations or finance.
- Empathize with the pain points executives are feeling. People spent money with those they trust—in this case, investing in your services.
- Then provide solutions to the pain points. Again—”open rates” and “media coverage” need to translate into bottom-line solutions.
- If executive leadership agrees with your solutions, lay out what you need to achieve the agreed-upon goals—whether that’s more budget, more flexibility with the budget or some combination thereof.
Solving Leadership’s Pain Point: Keeping Investor Confidence
This leads us to how communications can help keep investor money as stable as possible as tariffs shake up the summer earnings report season.
“Clear, trusted investor communication is always essential for publicly traded companies,” said Brad Gorman, a fractional communications consultant and former senior GM and Whirlpool communicator. “But in times of uncertainty—like shifting tariffs or global currency crises—it comes under even greater scrutiny. Every slide, every word in a press release, every social post is dissected and can shift shareholder perceptions. That’s when trust and lockstep alignment with your CFO, legal team and CEO matter most.”
Warren Buffett famously believes that it’s best to be confident when everyone else is afraid. That’s as true in marketing and branding as it is when investing in the stock market. So, as executives rip up decades of reporting norms, encourage them also to rip up corporate communications norms and double down on comms to increase market presence for cents on the dollar.
Dustin Siggins is Founder of Proven Media Solutions.