As an entrepreneur (or an emerging business, or a sales guy out on the field) fighting big competitors? how do you Win? You are constantly told to be a purple cow or a rounder browner, better-looking potato in a heap of potatoes (ok this one I just coined). This however does not work when you are facing a large competitor with years of presence and big names and whatnot! A little better does not help, you are already a purple cow (or a cute little fluffy red one.. who cares, they know you are small/newbie/just in, whatever you are standing out already, why try unnecessarily!) what do you do now?
Remember David vs Goliath? We know David beat Goliath.. but how and what do we learn from it? And how can we apply it in our businesses.. Read on:
David was a shepherd boy with ‘Just a Sling’ Goliath was a Giant with all the heavy armoury that one can think of (sounds familiar?). All that David did was stick a piece of stone in his sling, and hit Goliath between the eyes.. from a distance! Goliath fell like a heap dead. This sounds simple, was David just plain lucky? Or is there something else here? Let’s see.. Goliath was a Giant with heavy armour, Giants walk slowly, Giants cannot see very far.. David was a shepherd and he honed one defence (or offence) skill in his lifetime. His Sling and an Accurate Throw.
At a distance, with weak vision, and slow movement.. GOLIATH WAS A SITTING DUCK.. not a huge giant to be feared of! That’s a change in mindset!
I’ve worked both in large companies and startups, there are many places one can find the slings, it could be speed (It once took me 6 Weeks to get an NDA signed while working with a large company, approvals and hierarchy are such a pain) or Flexibility or price to value.. Anything… anything that gives you an unfair advantage, that sling… like you have an internal informer/guide within the target company, you have a teammate who has friends in the prospect company.. dig deep, whatever it is, map well.. Sometimes.. just one is enough!
As Malcolm Gladwell says “Giants are not as powerful and strong as they seem.. and sometimes, the shepherd boy has a sling in his pocket!”
BTW.. do read his book.. its amazing!
Using this concept, in my last company, we won some of the biggest clients, against established players, while we just had a product presentation in place and the India product was WIP.. We had 100+ companies in pipe, many large orders in place, even before the product launch… How? Will tell you this and more in some other stories later. Aaj ke liye itna hi 😊 (Enough for today).
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