David vs. Goliath Competition: David Wins

The consumer retail market giant, Amazon, has now turned its attention to the B2B world with the launch of AmazonSupply. Boasting over 500,000 industrial products, parts and supply managers will no longer have to source their needs from collections of old-fashioned paper mail-outs or log in into a dozen separate websites. Whether you're fitting out a shop with drill bits and sheet aluminum, stocking the janitorial closet with paper goods and cleaners or equipping a lab with instruments and electronics, AmazonSupply will have it.

Doubts about Amazon's ability to claim a massive share of the B2B market would be ill-founded and smaller players are preparing for the impact. The question is how can the smaller company compete when paired against such an overwhelming competitor.

Traditional distributors are already hard-pressed negotiating the transition to the B2B world with customer demands for increasingly sophisticated business technologies and more robust online ordering systems. It often appears that only major players such as Amazon have sufficient budgets to fill the IT money pits.

Lacking the resources to compete on the technical level, companies often focus on product. Certainly, product is the foundation, but product easily becomes commodity. Once you begin to think of your product as a commodity, you've entered a race to the bottom as larger companies undercut prices with economy of scale. The more specialized your product, the better you'll fare, but it's still the wrong direction.

Today, I met a salesman. I bought the same sort of commodities from his company that I could buy online for a marginally smaller sum. In a strictly business sense, I made a bad decision. I did it because I was buying the brand. I know the company, have no question of its ability to fill the order and know the kind of support I will receive if needed.

My story also illustrates the continued importance of customer relations. That salesman was the face of that brand. Each customer has complex and specific needs that can't be met without human interaction. Highly trained and accessible - whether it's by email, telephone, smartphone or in person - sales people communicate the brand and create the best possible user experience that generates repeat sales.

The key is not to compete with the giant, but to make the giant compete with your brand. The uniqueness of your product, your reputation, your ability to deliver and your customer service make up the DNA of your company and create a brand individual to your company. They can always go elsewhere for a commodity, but they have to come to you for your brand.

Your brand and the people representing it are David's sling and stones to bring down the giant.