Posted by Gerard on February 17, 1998 at 21:34:23 :
In Reply to: What would you do? posted by Carl Jones on February 17, 1998 at 07:25:15 :
: the biggest problem i am up against in my city are the restaurants
: who try to help their ailing businesses by catering.... they underbid
: me, get the job, screw up, then stop catering.... meanwhile, i have
: to wait a year to get the annual banquet... by then, there is a
: new committee without knowledge and another new caterer underbidding
: again.... it is a vicious cycle... fortunately, we prevail as many
: groups (especially corporate) refuse to work with anyone except
: my company....
: last year i lost 3 large events to restaurants who under
: priced the events to get them... each event (and i attended them)
: was a disappointment to the guests and an embarrassment
: to the client.... it was so humerous watching them panic
: i am well known in my city and the "restaurateur" would
: see me and turn red, knowing that i know how bad he is
: screwing this up... and they know they under cut me and
: they KNOW we would have done a great job, and they KNOW
: that they look like the village idiot at this point...
:
: ANYWAYS, as fun as that sounds, i am crying as i pass the
: bank.... we need to be proactive!.... come on, what do
: you think???
: what would you do to proactively market against this
You can't stop them and as they're cut'n in you're going to have to compete.
That might mean changing the way you do things, cutting out frills, offering multi levels of product/service.
Same way you can get a 330mhz computer for $1300 but it won't work unless you also order them to install a hard drive and monitor.
Lower the price, make it up in volume, reaxamine EVERYTHING you do.
That doesn't mean lower quality, quality is free if you put it in the first time.
Competition is good, you might cater better but they are competing better.
Theres no such thing as unfair.