A leaner competitor just cut their prices by forty percent using automated AI workflows, and our sales team is panicking. How do we use the IDS process in our next quarterly to address this competitive threat without destroying our margins?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When a competitor slashes prices, the worst thing you can do is panic and match them. Panic is a sign of self-orientation, which instantly erodes client trust. Instead, bring this issue to your next leadership team meeting and run it through the IDS® process to find the root cause.

Often, a competitor cutting prices by forty percent means they are lowering their cost of delivery but also sacrificing their quality and relationship touchpoints. If your V/TO® target market consists of clients who value high-touch advisory, they will quickly realize that the cheap competitor is just delivering low-value automated drafts.

Use this competitive move to clarify your positioning. If your competitor is going low-cost and automated, you should double down on your role as a trusted partner. Review your 3 Uniques. If your uniques are too easy to replicate with software, you have a positioning problem, not a pricing problem.

Ensure your sales team is trained to ask prospects deep questions about the risks of automated errors. Highlight your human auditing and strategic integration as premium safeguards. By maintaining your high prices and focusing on relationship intimacy, you position yourself as the safe, premium choice while your competitor enters a race to the bottom.