There are a lot of advantages to being the biggest, baddest business around.  Big companies have big budgets, big teams, and big brands to help them achieve their big objectives.  All this “bigness” can leave a smaller biz feeling like they don’t stand much of a chance of capturing people’s attention. The wealth of advantages of being the big player does however bring about one distinct weakness: people perceive the biggest companies as being too big to provide the level of personal attention they desire.

Big Co., may very well provide a less expensive product or service in a prettier package.  But when the customer needs to ask a question or a slightly customized solution,  they are often paralyzed by their size and unable or unwilling to react in a meaningful manner.  Suddenly the decision to buy from Big Co. is costing the customer more in terms of lost time and increased stress.

In today’s high stress world, the old adage “Time is money” could be better stated as: “Time is even more valuable than money, and less stress is golden.”

Many small companies falter by trying to replicate Big Co.’s in areas which they cannot sustainably compete, such as price and flashy advertising.  A small biz won’t be able to advertise it’s products or services at the same level as it’s Big Co. competition.  But rest assured for all the glitz and glamour of mass advertising according to a recent global Nielsen Internet survey, titled Trust in Advertising (pdf file), “despite an ever-expanding array of advertising platforms and sources, consumers around the world still place their highest levels of trust in other consumers.”  A small biz that takes the time to build relationships with customers has a clear advantage over Big Co’s in relation to generating word of mouth buzz and referrals, and as the survey results clearly shows, these trusted marketing techniques really work.

The Personal Advantage
In a recent post titled, ‘There is Nothing Small About Everything,’ Brain Forth, owner of a web development firm in Tacoma, WA, describes the many ways his company serves clients, employees, and the community through its business, and the important role that all small businesses play in our economy.  SiteCrafting is a fast growing but relatively small firm; they make no effort to attract customers through flashy ads or discounted pricing.  They have and continue to build their business by delivering exceptional work for their customers and benefit immensely from the satisfaction those customers experience with their projects and people.

Obviously, any business that fails to deliver satisfaction will fail.  Many large businesses provide marginal satisfaction and rely heavily on advertising to keep a fresh stream of customers coming in the door to minimize the impact of the less than satisfied ones heading for the exits.  Small businesses do not have that luxury, but do have the distinct advantage of being in a position to build more personal and meaningful relationships with their customers.  This interdependent relationship between delivering satisfaction and growing through word of mouth and trust is what makes small businesses so exciting and valuable.  Without the little guy doing it better by being more personal, we would be left with fewer options and less satisfying customer experiences, and that is indeed a bleak proposition.  So go ahead and embrace your smallness in the face of your Big Co. competition; people crave the promise of personal attention and highly satisfying experiences that small businesses are uniquely positioned to fulfill.

Technorati Tags: small business, referral marketing, trust in advertising, competition, competitive advantage

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