How Can David Beat Goliath? Part A: Getting Special Access
In a recent post, I mentioned that a debrief after a loss taught me that my small firm could compete against a big one and set me on the path to winning work that transformed my firm. A reader, whose small firm competes frequently against big ones, asked me to elaborate on that subject.
A big firm has many advantages, when competing against a small one. It spends more on marketing and does so many more engagements with so many more clients that it usually has a stronger brand. The marketing team can help put together stunning proposals and presentations. Big firms can devote more hours to a pursuit. They have greater depth and breadth in their professional teams. Offering multiple services, the big firm is more likely to have an established relationship with someone at the targeted account. Professionals at big firms can point out that one-stop-shopping for an array of services lessens project management cost and complexity for the client, and that there are less likely to be gaps between services, a common frustration for clients who parcel out a project in pieces to multiple firms. The list goes on.
Yet small firms do win against big ones and do it frequently. Sometimes they win on access to key people in the client company. I will review some of the special forms of access that they can benefit from in this post, and describe other ways they compete with big firms in the next.
If you can learn about a client’s need early, and get in front of the buyers quickly, before competitors do, at the very least you have the advantage of more time to learn about what the client wants and the potential to make your case more frequently. At best, you can shut out competitors before they even realize the client has a need. Here are some tips for gaining early access:
Tip #1: Seek to develop a referral relationship with people who sell to the same people you do. Focus especially on those who compete with big firms in one area, but don’t compete with you. If a client has a need for your services, such people are unlikely to refer a mutual competitor. If they know and trust you, they will be happy to recommend you—and, of course, you should do the same for them. I belong to a formal networking group made up of representatives mostly of small firms, will sell to professional service firms. There are many such formal and informal networks.
You can also develop a relationship with competitors and their colleagues at large firms which may be conflicted out of the opportunity to work for a client, who would rather see the work go to a small firm, like yours, rather than to a firm which competes with them on many fronts. Working with such people provides you with extra eyes and ears in the marketplace, identifying opportunities for you.
Tip #2: Figure out who wants you to win and see if they might have opportunities to introduce you to decision makers. You can also get special access through former employers, colleagues, employees, because they want you to win. Many small firms get started when the founder leaves a job at a company, but continues to work for it as an independent advisor.
Tip #3: Figure out what can you do that will give you special access. It had best be something you like to do, because it will absorb large amounts of your time and energies. Sometimes you can do something difficult for a large competitor to imitate that gets you access. The founder of a small consulting firm I know is getting many meetings with senior executives. They meet with him because his recently published book which captures their interest and because his professional meeting-getter knows how to use that interest to obtain meetings. I have seen others gain access through organizations they found and promote, from a golf tournament to a full-fledged professional association. These channels take a lot of work, but can deliver huge payoffs. Most small firms that have grown to midsize have done so by investing heavily in some such vehicle.