How do you use competitive insights to make better decisions?

In the competitive business landscape, understanding the market through competitive insights is crucial. By employing consultative selling, we've been able to design solutions that address unique challenges. Our method is more than just transactional; we dive deep to understand our client's specific needs. Using our knowledge of the market and the competitive landscape, combined with direct client insights, we've identified opportunities that many overlook. This approach has propelled our growth, especially in the realm of cybersecurity, setting us apart and emphasizing our dedication to bespoke solutions

Utilizing competitive insights involves analyzing rivals' strengths and weaknesses to identify market gaps and opportunities. By understanding competitors' strategies and customer feedback, businesses can refine their offerings and make informed decisions that enhance their competitive edge.

Clients often ask where to start. Mapping your competitive landscape can seem daunting, but I helped a client tackle it head-on. Diving into sales losses and churn revealed key threats. Customer and sales interviews identified top 3 rivals and 2 stealthy disruptors to monitor. Reviewing those rivals' past moves going back 18 months - press, social media, podcasts - highlighted advantages to leverage and gaps to fill. With the landscape mapped, I armed sales teams with intel to win more head-to-head battles. Defining the landscape took focus - zeroing in on key elements like losses, interviews and monitoring. The result? Actionable intelligence that energized their strategy, messaging and growth, turning a daunting task into an opportunity.

Focus on the most important insights. Don't try to collect and analyze every piece of data about your competitors. Instead, focus on the insights that are most relevant to your business and that will have the biggest impact on your decisions. Use competitive insights to identify opportunities and threats. What are your competitors doing well? What are they doing poorly? What are the new trends in your industry that they may be capitalizing on? By understanding your competitors' strengths and weaknesses, you can identify opportunities to differentiate your business and stay ahead of the curve.

Identify Competitors. Analyze Their Websites. Research Targeted Keywords. Examine Backlink Profiles. Monitor Social Media. Analyze Content. Study Ad Campaigns. Review Customer Feedback. Understand Pricing and Offers. Keep Track of Market Trends. Perform SWOT Analysis. Continuously Monitor Competitors.

Start with the end in mind. Collecting competitive data to unlock insights, not just collect information. Think through how to leverage it. Maintain discipline tracking key sources to fuel decisions and beat rivals. Review the last 12-6 months for top 3 rivals and 2 disruptors using primary sources like 10Ks. Also use secondary sources - podcasts, social, etc. Create internal data for sales and marketing inputting win/loss and churn data into CRM. Identify patterns and trends that support or disprove hypotheses. Set alerts on key analysts and journalists for industry intel. Review monthly to spot trends and plan how to use insights for strategy, value props and sales knowledge. Connecting the dots turns competitive intel into insights.

Information Overload is a real issue. Filtering through all the noise and irrelevant information out there is a daunting task. If you want to effectively collect and monitor competitive data along with all the other news and information that is important to your business, it would become your full time job. Sometimes, the best practice is to rely on 3rd party to do this for you. In some cases these 3rd party companies, like Industry Intelligence Inc., cost less than if you were to hire someone internally to do this for you.

Competitive intelligence (CI) depends on robust systems for data collection. Methodical processes, thoughtful organization and smart tools turn raw data into strategic insights. The approach depends on context and goals, from SWOT to MECE to KANO. Start with a systematic, documented methodology. Begin with basics on Rival A, then layer in sublayers. Use spreadsheets to blueprint data cubes and feed requirements into analytics tools like Tableau, Domo etc. Document schema and dictionary. Structure data for easy filtering - product, region, time period. Normalize data for standardized querying. Connect disparate data to reveal insights. Maintain rigorous version control. Now you're ready to turn CI into actionable insights.

When analyzing competitive data, I first distill insights to reveal trends and patterns. For example, benchmarking features between you and top rivals. Bucket data by category - Customer Service, Ease of Use, Dashboard, Search Filters. Numerically rank companies in each bucket to visually show strengths, parity and weaknesses. This readable graphic lets executives grasp where you stand. But the best part is going deeper - using the visual to supply recommendations. Show where to double down on advantages, achieve feature parity, or improve. This actionable level transcends reporting into advising. Insightful visuals catalyze strategy. Data transforms into decisions.

Key point to make on competitive insights (CI). CI is one valuable input, not the whole pie, for strategy. The best CEOs use CI to complement planning. For one of my clients targeting increased sales and moving upstream, CI revealed GTM sweet spots, messaging, and battle cards. This enabled compelling pitches resolving real customer pains, driving double-digit sales gains and reduced churn. But markets change, so ongoing reviews and improvements are key. CI informs goals like share gains, quality, customer experience, and costs. It helps develop and execute plans for new products, markets, and pricing. But CI complements rather than replaces strategic planning. Used well, CI is a key ingredient for solid strategy, not the whole recipe.

Measuring effectiveness of competitive insights? Gains from competitive intelligence emerge steadily, not overnight, like taking a daily vitamin. Using Sales as an example, add predefined fields in CRM for lost deals, churn, and wins against rivals. Consistently capture this data. Trends and patterns will emerge to drive deeper discovery. This knowledge unveils market gaps to fill, and unseen opportunities to seize. Like fitness, small steps compound into tangible results. Refined messaging, positioning, and strategic pivots build on your intel. Bit by bit, insights infuse decisions and culture. Until one day, you've achieved an edge. Don't expect instant impact. Stay the course - competitive intelligence pays dividends.

The world of competitive intel is dynamic. Track 3 Key rivals (Rival 1, Rival 2, Rival 3) and 2 potential disruptors (Disruptor 1, Disruptor 2) require tracking. Monthly reviews of press, social, podcasts etc. to highlight gaps, capabilities and assets is crucial. Leaving this to GMs, VPs of Marketing and Sales to own leaves dangerous gaps. Best practice is a dedicated competitive intel team or outsourced experts focused solely on rival strategy, market pulse and actionable insights. This enables the CEO, Marketing and Sales to make the best choices armed with fresh competitive intel turned into actionable insights rather than outdated practices. Updating insights every 3-6 months is key to avoid missed threats and lost customers.

How often should you refresh competitive data? Annually doesn't cut it- you'll miss key insight into (like AI launches) developments and lose sales. Quarterly reviews are ideal to stay ahead. Weekly is overkill. Companies move fast, but not that fast. Quarterly finds the sweet spot. You'll catch feature rollouts, new messaging, and market shifts. With the insight gained, Sales will have sharp counters to competitor claims. Marketing will create messaging that resonates best with customers. Execs will be in position to make better informed choices. Overall, the intel translates into wiser strategies. And you'll capitalize on opportunities before rivals do. Regular, quarterly competitive reviews arm your company to win & dominate the market.