Outsmarting Goliath: How to Achieve Equal Footing with Companies That Are Bigger, Richer, Older, and Better Known [Paperback]

Debra Koontz Traverso (Author)

Book Description

Series: Bloomberg | Publication Date: April 2000

Business owners, consultants, free-lancers, and other entrepreneurs are all looking for easy-to-implement, cost-efficient ways to go up against the big guys. They can now get tips from an expert -- Debra Koontz Traverso -- an entrepreneur herself who coaches others to success. This book gives them a powerful equalizer for winning business that would traditionally go to players with bigger staffs and established reputations.

Despite the splash created by big budget ad campaigns, the fact remains -- big business can't always do the job. Its Achilles heel? One-size-fits-all service coupled with often inexpert sales help. Outsmarting Goliath helps small businesses defeat larger competitors.

This book shows how a single phone call, a cleverly crafted letter, an impressive catalog, a winning ad, or a skillfully prepared face-to-face presentation can influence customers to abandon big brand name products and services and embrace small business products and services that better address their needs. With these proven how-to strategies, small upstarts will capture more clients and challenge the Goliaths!

Editorial Reviews

Review

Entrepreneurs anxious to wrestle customers away from behemoth corporations will find a gold mine of guidance in this excellent resource. -- Today's Librarian

It provides small business owners and aspiring small business owners a plethora of marketing weapons to use against larger competitors. -- Fort

The author's insight into the needs of independent merchants in this time of accelerating change is remarkable. -- Oklahoma City

This book has it all. Common sense ideas you can use right now, technology tips for the future, and an easy-to-read, motivating style. Outsmarting Goliath is a must-read for every small business owner who doesn't want to stay small. -- Don Taylor, co-author of Up Against the Wal-Marts

This is not just a good read, but a handbook for coping. -- Full

Traverso provides small business owners with an artillery that includes tips on planning shrewdly, cultivating image, and marketing. -- Tradeshow News

About the Author

Traverso is a former journalist. She is co-founder and vice president of a management consulting firm headquartered near Washington, D.C. She lectures at Harvard University in crisis management, communications, and news media operations.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Bloomberg Press; 1 edition (April 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576600319
• ISBN-13: 978-1576600313
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,440,758 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Read!, April 23, 2001

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Outsmarting Goliath: How to Achieve Equal Footing with Companies That Are Bigger, Richer, Older, and Better Known (Paperback)

Debra Koontz Traverso presents a compilation of tips telling the entrepreneur or owner of a small business how to compete with established companies as well as other start-ups. Traverso includes a few personal examples, although this is mostly a how-to guidebook. Much of the advice may seem familiar to those who have read similar books or attended small business workshops, but Traverso does manage to throw in a few pointers that make you stop and think. For example: Stand up while you talk on the phone - it will increase your energy level. (Try it: It really works!) In addition, the book offers guidance on creating the right image, partnering with outsiders and family members, making the most out of mundane daily activities and marketing on a limited budget. Top executives may want to skim this to learn how start-ups and small businesses are striving to compete with them, but we [...] recommend this book primarily to entrepreneurs and small business owners who don't want to stay small forever.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wish I had sooner, May 17, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Outsmarting Goliath: How to Achieve Equal Footing with Companies That Are Bigger, Richer, Older, and Better Known (Paperback)

This book has many great ideas for the small business person that I wish I had before I started my business. For example, just how to pick a name for the company or how to look like a big company without spending a fortune. The book provides examples from people who have done it and adds credibility to the content. I recommend for all businesses but especially fo the smaller business and one person operations.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A complete guide to small business image development, July 20, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Outsmarting Goliath: How to Achieve Equal Footing with Companies That Are Bigger, Richer, Older, and Better Known (Paperback)

"Some entrepreneurs view their smallness as such a negative thing that they hardly make an effort to gain lucrative corporate clients. But even if yours is a one-employee home-based business, you can make it appear larger and give big firms confidence in your ability to do the job, according to (the author and this book). It's all a matter of image. . . (the book) is replete with instructions for self-assessment to determine your current business image and how to enlarge that image. . . . . In an easily read style, 'Outsmarting Goliath' is a complete guide to small business image development." --Carol Celeste, The Network Journal