Small Fish in a Big Pond? Tips to Crush the Competition

The challenger brand? David versus Goliath? Small fish in a big pond? Man versus Ape? Call it what you want, but small businesses can have a tough time elbowing out some room between larger competitors. The big guys have the money, the teams, the loyal customers. So what’s the little guy to do?

This article from Entrepreneur offers four smart solutions to move in on the competition and to grow customers and sales. Each of the four tips identifies not only what to do, but how to do it along with a key takeaway to get to work and take action immediately.

For example, “pick your angle and flaunt it” is one tip. Ferret out your competitive strengths and then flaunt them all over your marketing to customers. Some strengths might include the timeliness of responses to customers or perhaps you offer faster deliver service. You’ve got those assets, now run with them.

Jeff Charney, CMO at Progressive Casualty Insurance, markets in a highly competitive space, which can be just as challenging. He offered six recommendations to “out-create” competitors:
• Do not follow trends.
• Set a very high bar
• Data doesn’t tell you much, look for the insights
•Fire yourself and start the next day fresh
•Take risks on who you associate your brand with

Charney took a risk several years ago with Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch. Lynch had been angry over a controversial call by the coach during the Super Bowl and answered every follow up media question with one word “yeah.” His interviews got lots of buzz and put Lynch in the spotlight. Charney saw the interview, contacted Lynch and created this spot that “went crazy.”

Another tip from Entrepreneur is to take advantage of being a small business. You might be the challenger brand, but you have plenty of power and differentiators that big biz doesn’t. You’re more agile and nimble allowing you to be quicker to respond to inquires or complaints with news of that great customer services traveling fast in word-of-mouth. Read the article …