The Battles of Stories: How You Can Win Business Against Bigger, More Established, Competitors

The secret is to tell a story which emphasises your strengths and negates your weaknesses.

Welcome to my consultancy newsletter. If you want to build a thriving consultancy practice in your niche, I want to help. Please subscribe to my newsletter and check out my other articles. If you enjoy today’s article, then feel free to share it.

You’re Not The Only Game In Town

It’s relatively common for clients to reach out to several consultants for a project.

If you’ve done the work we’ve advised already, you’re likely to be one of them.

But what happens if you find yourself competing against a larger consultancy - or consultants with more experience than you?

How can a relatively new consultant compete against this kind of competition?

It’s time to understand psychological Jiu-jitsu.

Psychological Ju-Jitsu

You need to tell a story which turns your disadvantages into advantages and your competitor’s perceived advantages into disadvantages.

For example, if you’re small and your competitor is big, you need to be clear about why being small is an advantage.

If you have less experience than others, you need to be clear about why that’s an advantage.

How Solo Consultants Can Compete Against Bigger Organisations

One of my biggest frustrations for many years was losing potential projects to bigger firms.

I was a solo consultant, my competitors were often larger organisations. If our proposals were anything near the same price point, it seemed a far better deal for the organisation to go with the larger firm. After all, they were getting a team of people instead of just me.

After missing out on one project, I invited a friendly contact at the prospect to hop on a call and go through the reasons why they thought a bigger firm was a better fit. The answers were illuminating.

1. A larger organisation brings a more diverse skill set.

2. No single point of failure if a contact gets sick / is unable to work.

3. Paying so much for one person didn’t feel like ‘good value’.

4. A team could work on multiple tasks independently - a solo consultant couldn’t.

I could try to debate each of these points, but please defence is always a losing battle.

Any time I spent arguing against any of the above, I was fighting a losing battle. I was competing on their turf. I needed to start having competitors compete on my turf.

I needed to shift the battle to a terrain where a solo consultant had unique advantages and larger organisations had natural negatives.

When competing against larger organisations in the future, I began to tell a story which included:

The story included.

1. In larger organisations, all the work is done by junior staff often only a couple of years out of college. The experts who you engage with in the sales process won’t ever work on the account.

2. If you hire me, you get me. You can see my track record and know my expertise. Who do they prefer doing the work? Junior staff members or me?

3. I have the freedom to bring in top experts to projects when needed. These are people I’ve worked with before and have a proven track record. You get access to the best of the best.

4. I won’t be juggling dozens of projects. I only take on a small number of clients at any one time, agencies take on dozens. I can become a close member of your team and spend more time with stakeholders.

5. If you’ve worked with larger organisations before, you know information keeps getting lost between staff. The churn rate at organisations is incredibly high. Just look at the Glassdoor reviews of these organisations you’re considering.

6. In agencies, most of your spending is going to overheads - not the project.

The prospect now has two distinct stories to consider.

The more time the client spends thinking about your story and the benefits of working with you, the more likely you are to win the contract.

Naturally, the flip side works too.

If you are the bigger firm (by size) competing against smaller firms, you can use exactly the messaging from before:

1. A solo consultant has a single point of failure. If anything happens to them, you lose everything. Why take such a big risk? We have multiple staff - each of whom can jump into each other’s projects as needed.

2. Solo consultants have more than one client. This means you’re paying a lot of money for a fraction of one person’s time rather than an entire team. You might be getting just a day or two a week. Even at a cheaper rate, it works out to be a lot more expensive.

3. Larger organisations are faster. We can put several members of staff on to a project tomorrow. We can run parallel streams of work at once. We’re set up and designed for that.

4. Diversity of experience. The solo consultant doesn’t have the diversity of experience our team brings to the place.

Again now you’re providing a clear benefit that plays to your strengths.

Better yet it gives the prospect what they need most - a clear choice based on the pros and cons of each approach. If you’re not telling your story, you’re not giving the prospect this option.

How To Compete Against Cheaper/Costlier Competition

A similar approach works if you’re competing against competitors who you know will charge less than you.

You might imagine all things being equal that a company will hire the cheapest option. Sometimes that is the case - especially in rigid RFPs with fixed criteria. But even the most rigid RFPs usually weigh the price difference against other factors. What matters isn’t so much the price, but the value.

If you know you’re likely to be the higher-priced option, you have to tell a story which justifies your delta. This might include:

1. Do you really want a project that’s this important to be handled by a cheap consultant? The price point reflects the value and past results. There is a reason they charge less.

2. You charge more because you’re the less risky option. You have the track record (case studies, testimonials, references, examples) to back it up - cheaper consultants don’t. You’re not a newbie consultant just getting started - you’re the real deal.

3. You charge more because you bring a skillset others don’t have (list the skills here).

4. You also charge more because demand is higher. Cheaper consultants are desperate for the business, you’re not.

5. If you pay less now, you’re likely to end up having to redo the work later. Pay for the best and get it right the first time.

All of this helps create a compelling story which turns your higher price point into an advantage instead of a disadvantage. Again, it all benefits from being true (or at least it should be true!)

But what should you do if you are the cheaper option?

If you’re the cheaper option, you might tell a story about why that’s the case. This might include:

1. You charge less because you don’t want to gauge clients. You want them to invest more in the project, not in the consultant.

2. You’re not charging them for overheads of other firms or fancy perks you give yourself. The money the client spends on you goes directly to the staff doing the work - not admin systems and free lunches.

3. You’re charging less because you want to build a long-term relationship with clients where they can afford to come back to you again and again and can make additional investments in your services if they need it.

4. You’re a customer-first company, not a profit-maximising option. You’re not in this business to earn millions, you’re keen to take on work you’re proud of doing and show great results.

Again, the client now has two price points and stories attached to the price points to consider.

How To Compete Against More Experienced / Less Experienced Competition?

This is perhaps the most challenging one.

After all, why would anyone hire a less experienced consultant to do the job?

The first thing to remember here is there is a law of diminishing returns about experience. The difference between one year of experience and five years of experience is significant. But the difference between fifteen years and eleven years is far less material.

What can someone with fifteen years of experience do that someone with eleven years can’t do?

Like everything else we’ve covered here, if you have less experience than others then embrace it. Tell a compelling story about it. Explain why it’s a positive - not a negative.

This might include:

1. You became a consultant because you saw the industry was rapidly changing and what worked a few years ago doesn’t succeed today. A new approach is needed and a new breed of consultants is needed to guide clients through that approach.

2. Share examples of how the old approach has failed existing organisations recently. Create a list of organisations which aren’t adapting to the new way of doing things and why this is because of the old approach propagated by consultants

3. You have recent ‘hands-on’ experience’. Existing consultants have been ‘out of the game’ for too long and don’t have the recent ‘hands-on’ approach which you have or experience ‘on the streets’ which you bring.

4. You bring expertise from other industries, not just one industry. The future is multidisciplinary and expertise in multiple industries is needed - not just repeating the same experience in just one industry.

Notice here you’re telling the story of change. You have to explain why a change has occurred which makes experience invalid.

If you are the more experienced option, you can tell a different story.

1. You’ve worked with enough organisations to know what really does and doesn’t work. You know the principles which are timeless and which aren’t. You’re not just jumping on the latest fad.

2. You know how to improve outcomes, not just deliver recommendations. You have a skillset and experience not just making recommendations but working with stakeholders to ensure they are implemented.

3. You’re not a newbie consultant just getting started, you know how to deliver successful consultancy projects from start to finish. You know how to get set up with a client, undertake analysis, problem solve, and skills newcomers haven’t had a chance to develop yet as a consultant.

4. You can prove your methods work with case studies, examples, and experiences, you’re not a risky option. You have expertise that is backed up by proof.

Here you’re primarily telling a story about risk and results. You are positioning newcomers as risky and you as the safe option.

Your Story Must Be True

The critical thing about all of the above is the story you tell must be true.

If the story isn’t true, you’re lying to prospects and, believe me, people can smell inauthenticity a mile away.

If the story isn’t true today, you have to make it true for you. You have to do the hard work of ensuring that your unique circumstance is a strength which a prospect should consider.

If you can get this right and tell your story consistently, you will find yourself winning a lot more business.

This doesn’t mean you will win every project you are brought in to discuss, but it does mean you can offer clients the very best option for your unique situation.