Case Studies
Beating competitors on their patch

Executive Summary
Listen to your competitors
Say yes first!
Be innovative, particularly when not asked!
Hire talented people
Do something that’s hard to imitate
Be dedicated to your customer’s success



Listen to your competitors
"This customer complains all the time about our inability to deliver on time - our main problem is that we also have other products and we are often too busy to meet their demands". That was music to our ears! If our competitor had better things to do, fine, we'll just take all that turnover away from them!


Say yes first!
The following week we were with their customer's Head Buyer. "We have 5% of your business, we can show you how we could handle all of your business, with 100% on-time delivery and pass on substantial savings to you." "That’s quite a claim - I will let you have a bit more business than usual over the next three months, if you perform to the levels you are claiming, I will recommend to senior management that we put all of our business out to tender later this year, are you sure you can cope with all this extra work?" "Yes, we won't let you down."


Be innovative - particularly when not asked!
The tender duly arrived, hundreds of pages long. We were determined to demonstrate we understood our customers markets, products and issues. Our objective was to go beyond what was being asked, so we decided to be innovative and create a multimedia presentation as our response to the Tender.


Hire talented people
In 1991 multimedia was still in its infancy, but we had talented people. They produced a multimedia cartoon presentation that demonstrated our commitment to the customer, their markets and products. The employee team organised the recording studio, designed and wrote the script. They were ready to role!


Do something that’s hard to imitate
On the morning of the presentation the buyer informed us that our decision to respond to the tender in multimedia format had engendered so much interest that he had moved our presentation to the main client presentation auditorium and most of their senior management team would be attending!

The presentation went well - and created a great deal of interest and discussing. Two weeks later the customer decided to award us 90% of the contract.


Be dedicated to your customer’s success
Six months later the number one competitor closed their business, putting 150 people out of work. The following year the customer (a Fortune 100 company) awarded us their prestigious "Vendor of the Year Award". In awarding it - the customer said that we had demonstrated a commitment to their success that was simply irresistible!

We had listened to our biggest competitor and learnt how to beat them!


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