Being a Christian I get the David and Goliath story…you probably get the story even if you aren’t Christian. But there are similarities in this story for every organization. As a leader, here are a few things to consider when thinking of what actually happened.
To start with, David was the underdog without question. He was out sized and out armed by Goliath, the giant of a person with armor and weapons. David had a sling (different than a typical sling shot we know today, but a serious weapon in those times). By all accounts, no match for one another and if there had been a Las Vegas at the time, the odds would have been staggering against David.
Think about your own business. If you aren’t the “big dog” on the block in your industry, you are the David. Less resources, fewer people, smaller budgets…you know who you are. So how do you compete against the “Goliaths” in your industry? Many don’t, they just carve out a little niche and try to hang on and survive and hope they don’t get noticed by the Goliaths. We call this “playing under the radar.”
But like David, we have an opportunity today that never existed…using social media to create “word-of-mouth on steroids” with your audience. No big budgets or big staffs needed…just “passionate customer advocates” that will sing your praises and spread the word about you to their audiences…usually well into the thousands. Today, it isn’t about the big budget and trying to “interrupt” us with mass messaging at high prices…we know how to turn off that crap. Nope, today is David’s day…where the little guy, the one without the “big budgets” can win…and they’re doing it every day!!
Being the David is actually a great advantage today. It means you aren’t shrouded with all the overhead and policies and procedures and meetings. You are nimble. You can make quick decisions. You can dial into the passion of your customers. You can create an incredibly awesome customer experience that gets everyone talking about you. And you can do it much quicker and at a significantly lower budget than the Goliaths. The David’s can once again slay the Goliaths.
The word about David slaying Goliath spread incredibly fast…but was one-to-one or one to a small group. Just imagine the impact it would have had today if they could have spread it from one-to-thousands! Today it can happen…have you created an audience of “passionate customers” who can’t wait to tell thousands about you? It’s never too late to become the true David and slay the Goliath. And I get to work with the David’s every day…how great is that!!
