How do you keep up with your competitors' product offerings and market positioning?

To stay informed about competitors' product offerings and market positioning, we employ a multifaceted approach. This includes monitoring competitor websites, analyzing marketing materials, and actively participating in industry events. We also keep a close eye on customer reviews and feedback to gauge market preferences. Utilizing competitive analysis tools, conducting regular market research, and maintaining open communication with industry networks contribute to a comprehensive understanding of our competitors' strategies. By employing these methods, we ensure that our business remains agile, responsive to market trends, and positioned competitively in the dynamic business landscape.

by deriving a unique competitive advantage.This is the only way to be a head of all the competitors.it may be services or products.

I believe that it's important to encourage entrepreneurs to prioritize "value creation" above all else. While keeping an eye on the competition used to be crucial in business, times have changed. Nowadays, the focus should be on the customer and whether they perceive your business as the best option for them. It's important to periodically check what others are doing, but most of your time should be spent on building rapport, trust, connection, and loyalty with your clients. The shift has moved from competition to the customer/client.

As an SDR, i have have to stay informed about our competition and these are the 3 steps i follow to keep up with them: Staying informed by regularly monitoring competitor websites, attending industry events, and subscribing to newsletters. Analyzing their product updates and market strategies to adapt and stay competitive. Utilizing market research tools and social media for real-time insights into their positioning and customer feedback.

To stay informed about competitors' product offerings and market positioning: Conduct regular competitor analyses. Set up alerts and monitor industry news. Subscribe to competitors' newsletters and follow their social media. Attend industry events and webinars. Analyze customer feedback and reviews. Engage in "mystery shopping" experiences. Benchmark your products against competitors. Use competitive intelligence tools. Build a network within the industry. Conduct SWOT analyses for both your products and competitors. Track pricing strategies and promotions. Conduct customer surveys. Collaborate with sales teams for customer insights. Foster a culture of continuous learning within your team.

The most important thing is for Marketing & Sales teams to have an integrated feedback loop. Your most important source of learning is in "deal loss analysis". When a new customer prospects decides to go with another supplier/vendor - its a learning moment for your organization. You interview customers you LOST and understand why you won deals with the ones who choose your company. That data will inform you in "real time" what's happening in terms of price, positioning, and functionality of your competitors.

This doesn't need to be a formal survey process. Attend events, drop by with some information and a treat, and listen. If you're asking thought provoking questions, that are relevant, and treat each interaction as discovery, you'll know more real life info that's important metrics to your prospects than any survey will provide.

Conduct surveys among your own customers to understand their preferences and experiences with your competitors. This can provide insights into what aspects of your competitors' offerings are resonating with your target audience. Monitor customer feedback and reviews for your competitors' products. Analyze what customers like and dislike, and use this information to improve your own offerings.

This is outdated advice. If you show a SWOT during a presentation, I'm logging off mentally if not literally. The premise of it is valid, and understanding this bits of information is good, but use it to craft their story with you. Nobody cares about company history or bells & whistles until they know that you understand their business and uncover their pain.

Agree with Topher. While SWOT is popular strategic planning framework, its not the only one. Some other options The SCORE analysis is an acronym for strengths, challenges, options, responsiveness, and effectiveness You also need to look at macroeconomic forces in this day in age. The cost of fuel, how war is changing buying behavior and overall consumer sentiment and mood.

Regularly update your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis, including a focus on your competitors. This analysis can help you understand where you stand in comparison and identify strategic areas for improvement.

Similar to SWOT, do not show this during a presentation. As sales professionals, we're starting from behind because people interact with bad sales people all the time. Be transparent and genuine. Understand what's important to them. If they tell you they're only looking for the cheapest option, you either haven't addressed pain, or only addressed the symptoms. Know your value, but listen to feedback if you're priced too high.

Check out Gartner magic quadrant. I use their framework for market position. But keep things simple - have you answered the customers 'Why your solution matters', 'How do you solve their problem', Do you even know what their problem is?

- Visual Representation: A positioning map is a visual representation that allows you to graphically compare and contrast competitors in your industry. - Criteria Selection: Choose specific criteria relevant to your industry or market, such as price, quality, features, customer service, or any other factors that are critical for customer decision-making. - Competitor Plotting: Plot your competitors' products or services on the map based on the selected criteria. Each competitor will occupy a specific point on the map, providing a clear visual depiction of their positioning.

If you're in the greater SaaS space, there are tons of tools to pull this data from. If you're not, then maintaining this manually may be your only option, but it's paramount that it's done. Use a shareable doc between everyone customer facing (Sales, Marketing, Customer Success) so that bits of information can be added from each part of the org. There are free or included programs and tools for this, so not doing it is too your own detriment.

It’s a good thing we have cutting edge technology that can help our research team with reliable data on the competitor’s digital activities. I sometimes wonder how we used to make informed decisions in the 90s (gut instinct ??) but now we have so many platforms that can pull relevant information to help with forecasting, route to market, product packaging and even market acceptance.

One answer - Set up prompts with ChatGPT, Poe and other AI tools to monitor competition and compare hallucinations/sourcing. If they are a publicly traded company all the information is available to put through GPT.

Good messaging and positioning is SIMPLE. Don't try to sound smart or use too much industry jargon. If your message is clear, relevant and reflects your customer why. You will conversion rate for cold call to meetings will improve.