Competitive intelligence is data driven research about competitors that helps businesses better understand customers’ needs and create business strategy aligned with these needs. Often times this involves identifying new market opportunities, such as product features or pricing.

Most competitive enablement professionals agree that the most reliable source of competitive intel comes from internal stakeholders. It is easy to collect and analyze information by creating a competitive intelligence channel within your internal messaging platform.

Market Analysis

Competitive intelligence services will help you stand out from your competitors by allowing you to identify opportunities and capitalize on them. This can be as simple as learning that customers want digital payments other than traditional credit cards and implementing those features, or as complex as uncovering the strengths of your competitors’ marketing campaigns and using those as a starting point for your own.

Conducting a market analysis requires collecting data about the products and services your competitors offer, the prices of those products, and the ways in which they are promoted to consumers. This information is then analyzed to determine a competitive advantage and inform strategic planning efforts.

The most basic form is to identify your company’s top competitors and analyze their marketing strategies, pricing policy, product offerings, customer acquisition techniques, and pricing policies. A market analysis may also include evaluating the customer reviews of competing products in order to uncover themes about their strengths or weaknesses.

While it may be tempting for you to focus on your entire competitor list, it is important to limit the scope of your competitive intelligence research only to those companies that are the most dangerous. These are usually the competitors your ideal customer would choose, if you didn’t offer your product or service.

Depending on your industry and the type of business you operate, it may also be worthwhile to track your competitors’ sales metrics, such as their win rate or overall revenue. You can then compare those numbers with your own to see how you stack up against your competition. This type of competitive information can help you prioritize your marketing and sales efforts. In addition, it can also be a helpful way to determine what areas of your business need improvement.

Product Analysis

Product analysis is an important component of competitive Intelligence. It is the process of evaluating products and services from competitors. This helps companies identify the strengths and weaknesses of a competitor, which they can use to develop a go-to market strategy that gives them an advantage. A product analysis can also help companies make better decisions for future product development. For example, companies can learn what features are being used by their competitors and which marketing campaigns they use to attract customers.

Conducting a product analysis also allows companies to assess whether their existing products are delivering on the promises made on their websites and in their marketing materials. If the product does not meet customer expectations, then they can use this information to improve and make necessary changes. For instance, a competitor’s feature that is getting a lot of positive feedback can be used as an inspiration for a new one.

Product analysis can be conducted at any stage of the product lifecycle, from its early inception (getting customer testimonials during different stages of development to help create the final product) to post-launch (analyzing real user engagement data to understand what’s working and where the product is falling short). It can be used in conjunction with a benchmarking exercise for competitors to ensure the product is on track and achieving its desired results.

In the end, the goal of a product analysis is to maintain a team’s connection with its customers and users. This ensures the product does what it is supposed to do and can be used effectively.

Competitor Analysis

The final part of competitive intelligence involves competitor analysis, which includes a look at competitors’ business plans and operations. It also examines what events have an impact on the businesses and marketplaces of competitors. Performing this analysis allows businesses to learn from competitors and to avoid potential mistakes.

Competitor analysis can be done using a number of techniques, but the best approach is to take a comprehensive look at the competitor’s business in terms of both their strengths and weaknesses. This includes evaluating customer base, strategies for meeting the needs of customers, and overall market conditions.

This information can be collated into reports and shared internally. Include a mix of direct competitors, those who have gained ground in the industry and competitors with similar business models to yours. This gives you a complete picture of the competition so that you are able to better understand your competitors’ marketing and sales approaches.

Businesses must be proactive in their efforts to gather competitive intelligence. This means that they should not wait until a problem arises before taking action. This may mean adjusting product offerings to meet the changing needs of consumers, creating new products and services to fill a market gap, or even purchasing companies or assets to enhance the company’s portfolio.

To develop a robust program of competitive intelligence, every member of the team must be involved. The program will be successful if everyone feels comfortable with sharing competitive intelligence.

Conducting win-loss interview with prospects and clients is another key aspect of competitive Intelligence. These interviews can uncover valuable information about why a prospect decided to go with your company instead of a competitor. This information can then be used by sales teams to adjust their pitch and by marketing teams to fine-tune their content.

Customer Analysis

When it comes down to competitive intelligence, you can approach the research in two different ways: by gathering the information and by analyzing it. Gathering the intel involves going out and looking at competitor products, websites, teams, announcements, social media engagements, content, and more. This is the most time-consuming part of a CI programme, but it is essential to understand what makes competitors succeed or fail.

After you have collected the data, the analyst or competitive Intelligence manager will analyze it and explain its implications for your business. Prioritizing your goals is the most important part of this step. Although all data can be considered competitive intelligence in theory, you should focus on those that are relevant to your goals. For example, if your goal is to refine your marketing strategy, you should pay attention to social media profiles, competitor websites and whitepapers.

This analysis can help your team identify what the key differentiators of your product or service are. This analysis also allows you to learn from your competitors’ mistakes. As the old adage goes, “know your enemy” and you can use that knowledge to better yourself and your business.

In addition to identifying your direct competitors, it’s essential to consider the indirect and perceived competitors as well. These are companies who offer similar value propositions, but do no directly compete for customers. The goal here is to learn from these businesses and identify the ways they are succeeding, and in turn, leverage their best practices in your own business.

Understanding your competitors well can make or break a company. By implementing a robust CI program, you can ensure that the information you collect is accurate, personalized and proactively distributed to the right people in your organization. This will help your company stay ahead of your competitors and offer your customers a compelling value proposition. When done right, CI will transform your company into a leader.