How do you use competitive intelligence to identify and assess new market opportunities for your clients?

As a consultant, I first need to understand what the client wants to know within the scope of competitive intelligence. I build a checklist that the client pre-reviews and approves before I start. Invariably, there are always changes that come from reviewing my organized checklist and little epiphanies. I also examine substitution challenges from Michael Porter's 5 Forces and Blue Ocean tactics regarding untapped opportunities there are in the market, how my client can create a new market space, and how we can differentiate beyond comparison. Finally, I analyze what the market wants to buy rather than what the seller wants to sell. Works every time!

As an experienced corporate B2B CI practitioner, developing a CI capability is a multiyear initiative. It's all about identifying and collaborating with your key stakeholders, as well as determining what is most critical to them doing their job. It starts with stakeholder conversations around the company's strategic plan, the market segmentation (e.g., geography, industries, etc.) and what are key issues that are keeping them up at night. It also about understanding what they already know and what they need to know on an ongoing basis, as well as how they consume insights. This becomes the basis for a multi-year plan.

In my experience, I prioritize the competitors by how easy it is to copy them and how I can one up them. Some are just "easy pickins." Some are tough to compare. I won't go after all of the items listed to begin the prioritization. Instead I start with low hanging fruit and start nibbling away at their market share, growth potential, innovation, and sameness. I look for differentiators on which I can deliver brand differentiation with measurable success.

As I mentioned above, the discussion I have with stakeholders form the scope of competition. Other players who can impact competition, leveraging Porter's Five Forces model are also incorporated in the scope. For example, for new entrants, I do not just look at the immediate rivals, but also take it one degree beyond, identifying potential ones that have the money and capability to enter a market. The bottom line is it is not just your current competitive environment, but the one that you may see the next few years. It is about anticipating the future.

Competitive intelligence (CI) like any "intelligence" is helpful for you to assess the industry landscape, points of parity, and points of differentiation. Remember = best practices are useful, but it's not strategy. My favorite ways to collect CI ethically: a) visit trade shows, talk to everyone b) interview employees who USED TO work there c) create a CI system so that sales people report their wins/loses

The best competitive intel analysts are creative in finding non-obvious sources. Example: Is a competitor planning to enter a new market? They may not announce that publicly, but they probably do have to do some things in advance that can provide tip offs. Job openings posted on their website, for example, can sometimes provide information that can be pieced together to get a picture of their unannounced strategy. The best competitive intel gatherers put themselves into the shoes of the targets and think about the breadcrumbs they must be leaving behind somewhere along their journey.

It starts with selecting the key marketplace topics, including competitors. Collecting and organizing data is an ongoing process that requires using third-party CI platforms that mine the web, as well as having periodic data collection from front line staff and others who are exposed to the market on a daily basis.

In my experience, the analysis is only as good as the quality of the data and the skills and expertise and experience of the analyst. There have been times when I analyzed the same data as my predecessor consultant only to yield a very different interpretation and value proposition within weeks of the predecessors' outputs.

Using hypotheses can be much more effective than just data crunching to figure out what competitors are doing. Come up with a list of potential strategies competitors may be doing as hypotheses. (e.g., "They are going to enter these new markets." "They are going to start a price war.", etc. )Then test each hypothesis against the data you have to see if it suggests it is the right one. That is a better (and less time consuming) approach than diving into the data, producing piles of analysis, and throwing it at the wall to see what sticks.

There are many different ways to analyze insights collected as mentioned, but what is appropriate is based on how to help your stakeholders use it in a constructive way to make key decisions. I always start with a key question once must ask in analyzing and interpreting market insights is "why should my company and/or stakeholders care?" The I ask, how would I ask how would be the best way for stakeholders to understand and leverage it. If I can answer those questions, I will find the appropriate analytical framework.

Communicating findings is about understanding how your stakeholders consume information. In this day and age, most stakeholders have very limited time and will need some kind of teaser with a brief thought provocative conclusion and if you are successful in catching their attention, then they will want more.

Less is more. Start with a one page executive summary that clearly states the problem you are solving, the solution you recommend, and the key analysis that told you your recommendation is the right one. Present that first so the audience knows exactly what you are proposing and can think about their biggest questions and concerns. If you have done your job well, you will have a slide in the presentation for each of their major questions. Overall you should shoot for no more than 10 or so slides in your whole deck. Every slide after #10 is likely to be an interesting but distracting tangent that is not essential to answering the question at hand.