how to beat larger competitors
TRANSCRIPT
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Competitive B2B Marketing
Christopher [email protected]
How to Beat Large Competitors at B2B Marketing and Sales
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Market Leaders
Let’s face it – there is only one top leader in every business
category: Apple in smartphones, Wal-Mart in retail, Cargill
in food processing, Microsoft in computer software and
Wells Fargo in banking.
This is equally true in smaller market segments. More often
than not, you are not going to be the biggest company in
your space and will have to adjust your strategy
accordingly.
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Underdog vs. Big Dog
Underdogs have some disadvantages. For example, the
market leader has more marketplace awareness. As the old
saying goes, “Nobody has ever been fired for buying IBM.”
But while they have a much larger promotional budget, the
big dog also has a few disadvantages:
• While you have the freedom to brand anyway you like – the big
company brand is so well-established that it is difficult to change.
• Big companies are driven by factors that are counter-productive
(e.g. politics or personnel decisions). While they focus on “This is
the way we’ve always done it,” you can focus on “This is the way to
get results.”
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More Marketing Disadvantages Faced by Big Companies
• Large companies (especially public ones) have an almost
pathological fear of taking risks. They have legal and PR
departments to appease and are often more concerned about
protecting the downside instead of pushing to create a better upside.
• Despite their large budgets, the people inside large companies may
not be the brightest and the best marketers. You can usually beat
them by utilizing the newest and most effective strategies.
• Unlike your ability to plan and execute quickly, big companies tend to
be slow. By the time they figure out what’s going on in the market,
your initiative is on the ground and working. And if it’s not working,
you can tweak and adjust it while the other guys are still in endless
internal meetings debating their Version 1.0.
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Embrace Your Underdog Status
As these points make clear, big isn’t necessarily better. As
the underdog, you just have to play a smarter and more
focused game. So what are some of the techniques you
can use to beat your big competitors? Here are a few
ideas to consider:
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Techniques to Win: 1
• Be a niche marketer. Go where they
aren’t! Every big company has
weaknesses or areas of poor coverage.
Instead of attacking on a broad front,
figure out where the gaps are and focus
on these areas. Your mission is to
differentiate yourself in ways that
translate into perceived market needs,
and then present an offer to take
advantage of these unique market
segments.
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• Take on the big player directly. Consider directly confronting your
competitor and embracing your
underdog status. People like to root for
the underdog (David), and if you have a
good story, the media can help you
spread your message about how you are
overcoming the giant company (Goliath).
If the big player wants to take you on
directly, so much the better because they
will expose you to a larger portion of the
marketplace.
Techniques to Win: 2
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• Utilize content marketing, pull marketing and social
media. Clever content marketing and low-cost pull
marketing tools like social media and PR can
differentiate you and boost market awareness. This is
an area where your flexibility and agility can really pay
off.
Techniques to Win: 3
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• Stress the soft, qualitative attributes like
responsiveness, customer service, etc. Even if you
don’t stack up well in the feature and functionality
category, you can beat the big player in ways that make
customers feel good about doing business with you.
One of my mantras is that people like to do business
with people they like and trust. This is true in both B2C
and B2B.
Techniques to Win: 4
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• Be relentless and disciplined about achieving metrics.
One way we have been successful in helping smaller
companies overcome industry behemoths is by carefully
designing and executing an end-to-end marketing and
sales process that achieves a high close rate and low
cost per new customer.
Techniques to Win: 5
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• Team with other big
players. When competing
against a big dog, it doesn’t
hurt to have another big
dog on your side. In other
words, if Oracle is your big
competitor, it doesn’t hurt to
have SAP on your side (or
vice versa).
Techniques to Win: 6
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Regardless of the market you operate in, I
hope these ideas show you how to
consistently beat your larger competitors in
B2B marketing and sales.
Consistency
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Learn More
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About Fusion Marketing Partners
Christopher Ryan, CEO
We Do This:
Brand building/messaging
Website optimization
Content creation
Lead generation
You Get This:Much greater levels of awareness
Higher quantities of qualified leads
Ability to generate faster revenue
Lots more information at:
http://FusionMarketingPartners.com/
http://Greatb2BMarketing.com (blog)[email protected]