Competing on something other than price, in specific terms

Aug 27
3 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

Introduction

Every owner being undercut has been told not to compete on price. Almost nobody is told what to compete on instead, which is why the advice so rarely changes anything.

The useful observation is this: customers focus on price when they have been given nothing else to consider. If every quote looks the same, the number is the only remaining variable, and the cheapest wins by default.

1. Competing on something other than price means giving them another variable

Understand why price conversations happen.

A customer comparing three indistinguishable quotes is not being difficult; they are making the only distinction available. Introduce a real difference and the comparison changes shape. Say nothing distinctive and you have chosen to compete on price.

2. Make the quote itself the difference

The most immediate and most neglected opportunity.

An itemised quote explaining what is included and excluded, why you have recommended this approach, what the risks are, and what happens next. Set against a one-line figure from a competitor, this reframes the decision entirely.

3. Compete on certainty

What customers frequently want more than a low price.

A fixed price rather than an estimate, a firm date, a named person, a written scope, a guarantee. Certainty has genuine value, particularly for anybody who has been let down before, and most competitors do not offer it.

4. Compete on speed where it matters

Timing is worth money in situations customers are already in.

An urgent repair, a deadline, a property completion, a broken machine costing them money daily. Being available now is frequently worth considerably more than a discount, and the customer will say so if you ask.

5. Compete on scope, not on rate

The practical way to hold your price.

Rather than reducing the figure, adjust what is included: a smaller first phase, a staged approach, fewer inclusions at the same rate. This keeps your pricing intact and gives the customer a genuine choice about what they buy.

6. Compete on reducing their work

An underrated differentiator in every trade and profession.

Handling the permits, coordinating other suppliers, dealing with the paperwork, managing the process, one point of contact. Customers pay to have things taken off their hands, and this is rarely what competitors are selling.

7. Compete on evidence

The most persuasive material available and the least used.

Named examples, results with figures, recent reviews, photographs of comparable work, references willing to be contacted. A customer choosing between an unevidenced cheap quote and a well-evidenced dearer one has a real reason to pay more.

8. Be willing to lose the price-driven work

The discipline that makes the position hold.

Some customers will only ever buy the cheapest, and pursuing them costs you margin and time you could spend on the rest. Losing them cleanly is part of the strategy rather than evidence against it.

9. Ask why you won and why you lost

The only reliable way to know what is working.

Ask successful customers what decided it, and unsuccessful ones what the difference was. Businesses that do this consistently discover they lose far less on price than they assumed — and that they lose more often on responsiveness, clarity and follow-up.

Keep a written note of the reason given for each win and loss. Recollection is unreliable and skews toward price, because a lost job is easier to explain as somebody being cheaper than as something you did not do well enough.

Conclusion

Give the customer a second variable, because price becomes the only consideration when nothing else has been offered.

Make the quote document itself a differentiator, sell certainty in the form of fixed prices and firm dates, use speed where the customer's situation makes it valuable, adjust scope rather than rate when pressed, take work off the customer's hands, supply real evidence rather than claims, accept losing the purely price-driven work, and ask both won and lost customers what actually decided it.