Growth & Strategy Conversations
You will not out-spend them. You do not need to.
A larger competitor opens nearby, or a national brand starts selling online, or a big buyer demands a lower price. The usual response is to cut prices and hope, which a smaller business rarely wins. This session looks at what small businesses can do that bigger ones find hard, how to choose where to compete, and how to respond calmly when a large rival arrives.
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Large companies have advantages. They also have constraints.
A bigger company can usually buy cheaper, advertise more widely and survive a price war. A smaller one can decide in a day, know customers by name, change a product for one buyer and answer the phone itself. Neither set of strengths is permanent, and neither decides the outcome alone.
Competing well is mostly a matter of choosing the battlefield. Owners who try to match a bigger rival on everything usually lose. Owners who find the customers who value what they do best, and serve them in ways a large firm will not bother with, often do well. This session helps work out which side of that line a business sits on.
What the session covers
34 topics across 7 areas. Seven parts, from honest assessment to a written response plan.
An Honest ComparisonWhere you are stronger, and where you are not.5
- Price and cost: can you match them? Usually not
- Range, availability and convenience
- Speed of decision and of delivery
- Customer knowledge and personal service
- Quality, customisation and local understanding
Write the list as a customer would, not as a founder would.
Choosing Your GroundServe fewer people better.4
- Which customers are least well served by large firms
- Niches by product type, place, size or need
- What those customers would pay extra for
- Why saying no to some customers is a strategy, not a weakness
Pricing Without a Price WarDo not race to the bottom.5
A hypothetical example, with round and made-up numbers, shows how a modest discount can wipe out most of a small business’s profit on an item.
- What customers actually compare, which is often not the headline price
- Bundling, service and convenience in place of discount
- When to hold your price and when to match it briefly
- Knowing the lowest price at which a sale is still worthwhile
- Why unplanned discounts usually do not come back up
Relationships a Larger Rival Cannot Copy EasilyCloseness is a form of advantage.5
- Knowing customers’ names, habits and problems
- Following up after the sale
- Handling complaints personally and quickly
- Giving a small group of customers a better deal than anyone else
- Asking customers what they would miss if you were gone
When a Big Player ArrivesPlan before the day.5
- What changes immediately, and what takes months
- Staying in touch with your best customers first
- Not copying their offer by reflex
- Watching your numbers weekly for early signs
- When it makes sense to specialise further, partner or step away
Dealing With a Large Customer or BuyerWhen the big firm is your client.5
- Dependence on one buyer as a risk in itself
- Understanding what they value beyond price
- Terms, payment timing and what happens if they leave
- Spreading your sales so that no one buyer sets your fate
- Checking the current rules on timely payment to small suppliers
What Not to DoA stop list.5
- Copying a larger rival’s range
- Spending on advertising you cannot measure
- Cutting service to protect margin
- Competing for customers who will never be loyal
- Hiding from the competitor instead of watching them
Exercises owners do in the session
- Write the honest comparison table against one larger rival (not named to the group)
- Describe their best-served customer in five lines
- Work out the lowest price they would accept for their main product, and why
- Draft a one-page response plan for a larger rival opening nearby
What participants leave with
- The comparison table and response plan
- A short customer-call script for the week after
- A stop list for the next quarter
- A checklist for tracking early warning signs
What this session is not
- A way to beat any particular competitor
- Advice on pricing that breaks any law or contract
- A promise that a smaller firm can always survive a larger one
How the session runs
A facilitated conversation of about two hours, in a small group. A practitioner who has worked in or alongside smaller businesses facing larger rivals shares how others have chosen their ground. Owners then complete the honest comparison and a response plan for their own business, and discuss them with the group. Owners from the same line of business may prefer a mixed room, so that nobody has to reveal plans to a direct competitor.
What your students leave with
- A frank list of where they are stronger and weaker than a larger rival
- A chosen group of customers they will serve better than anyone
- A pricing approach that does not depend on matching the big player
- A response plan for a large rival’s arrival or a price cut
- Ways to deepen relationships with existing customers
- A decision on what not to do, written down
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
Choose your ground, hold your price with reason, and look after the customers a larger rival will not.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.