Marketing Myopia

A company I had hoped to work with contacted me last week to say that their biggest client had gone into administration and that it was " all hands to the pump" at the moment. As a result they couldnt undertake the marketing planning exercise we had talked about. Is my world just so marketing-centric I've lost touch with reality, or should they have been saying "can we bring the marketing planning exercise forward as now more than ever we need the right strategy to deal with our difficult challenges"? I dont understand why people dont understand - when your market is contracting you either need to take business from your competitors to survive at their expense,find new products to sell or markets to sell into, or sell more to existing customers. The success of any of these strategies is dependent upon your ability to get your marketing strategy and tactics right. Or is it just me?