July 15, 2026
How To Compete Against Cheaper Bids
On today’s Ditcherville LIVE, someone asked:
How do you compete against cost-based bids with value-based prices that are higher?
You don’t.
If the buyer sees you and the cheaper option as basically the same thing, they should pick the cheaper option.
Why wouldn’t they?
A higher price only makes sense when you are meaningfully different in a way the buyer cares about.
Not “better” in general.
Better for their specific situation.
This is why value pricing does not start in the proposal.
It starts in your marketing.
It starts in the problems you write about, the risks you name, the language you use, the examples you share, and the situations you become known for handling.
If your marketing says, “I build software,” your proposal has to do too much work.
If your marketing says, “I help companies in this exact situation avoid this expensive mistake,” the proposal is just paperwork.
Yours,
—J
P.S. This is the sort of question we tackle in Ditcherville LIVE every two weeks. If you’re an independent consultant who wants to stop competing on cost, join us: