Our competitors are aggressively using AI automation to bid fifty percent lower on large projects, forcing us to defend our pricing. How do we use Keith Cunningham's Thinking Time and our V/TO® to identify which parts of our delivery model remain highly defensible, and how do we pivot our marketing strategy to target buyers who value risk mitigation over cheap execution?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When competitors use cheap technology to undercut your price, trying to race them to the bottom is strategic suicide. This is not a predicament to accept, but a problem to solve by redefining your position. You must find the buyers who are terrified of the mistakes that fully automated, unverified AI delivery produces.

Schedule a dedicated Thinking Time session. Use these prompt questions to find your leverage. What are the catastrophic consequences for a client if our competitor's automated delivery fails or produces an error? What specific risk mitigation steps do we perform that a generic AI cannot replicate? How can we package our human-in-the-loop validation as an insurance policy for our clients?

Once you identify your defensible value, update your V/TO®. Your target market needs to shift away from buyers looking for the lowest transaction cost and toward buyers with high-stakes projects where quality and compliance are non-negotiable. Your Three Uniques must focus on your flawless execution, guaranteed accuracy, and strategic partnership.

Train your sales team to stop defending your price and start highlighting the hidden costs of competitor errors. Your marketing should focus on case studies of recovery from automated failures. By aligning your V/TO® with high-value, risk-averse buyers, you render the price-cutting competitors irrelevant and protect your profit margins.