Stay ahead of your competition with Competitive Intelligence
In order to stay ahead of your competition, it’s wise for companies to have a Competitive Intelligence team in place. This team can help identify potential threats and opportunities and communicate these findings to all stakeholders within the company. Additionally, a competitive intelligence team can also help monitor competitors’ activities and strategies, which can give businesses an edge over their rivals. This article discusses how to stay ahead of your competition with Competitive Intelligence.
So, you want a Competitive Intelligence team. So, where do you start?
1. Get up to speed quickly
- Subscribe to trade magazines and relevant publications
- Buy a year’s worth of back issues of the most valuable publications.
- You will be astonished at what happened in your industry you did not know about.
2. Listen to your own staff
They are the eyes and ears. Feedback and opinion are vital. They can also help identify the needs for future product improvements.
- Resolve inevitable inefficiencies
- Suggestion box. Introduce an award for the best idea
- The sales team will provide competitive information. They have contacts
- New employees will offer an excellent external perspective. They ask silly questions, but they will likely point out a copy which isn’t clear or functions not convenient
- They may come up with the next big thing
Creative dissent can enhance business. Listen to it.
The propensity to maintain silence is widespread and damages your company. Execs should not cut people off due to their certainty of the decision taken.
Decisions as seldom better because the disserting voice has been silenced
3. Host mandatory meetings to feed the company’s mindset and collaboration on information
Write dissenting papers. Be the devil’s advocate. Vigorously put forward the argument against approval. If proven the greater confidence and support from staff and alert to problem areas
4. Clever solutions from the unexpected
Give the people in your organisation who spot obvious weaknesses the opportunity to share. Entry-level employees are the obvious ones.
5. Use technology
Google alerts for blogs and news.
6. Reevaluate what you have known for years
- Have your new competitors entered the market?
- What are their strengths and weaknesses?
- What are the implications for you?
- Has the market changed? If so how
- Have your customers changed? If so how
- Do customers still buy from your distribution channels
- Are your distribution channels unchanged?
- What features or products have they introduced
- Have some existing competitors fallen out
- Can you identify what makes them unique
- Do you know which end of your market are they targetting
- Are there some emerging?
7. Monitor the market for any shifts
Monitor the market for any shifts- and don’t dismiss anomalies without checking them out. Market shifts are your opportunity to keep up with your customers.
While examining the customer and the marketplace, note any disturbances in the water. Don’t be too hasty to dismiss those aberrations that don’t fit preconceived notions of what the answer should be.
8. Read Beyond Your Usual Horizon: You’re Not Alone; Others Are Also Interested in Your Market
In an increasingly tumultuous marketplace, you have to keep seeking and learning. Because the more you learn, the more likely you are to stay ahead of change and implement changes when and where necessary.
Have a voracious appetite for knowledge from anywhere and everywhere that ultimately Leads you to improve the depth of your understanding.
Do all this to pursue different ideas, concepts, and changes affecting your product, market, and customers. Explore the larger world to identify tomorrow’s opportunities for your business so that you are not blindsided
9. Consult the Blogosphere about Your Company and about your Competition
Monitor conversations about your brand
It’s tempting to dismiss comments as mere opinions. It is tempting to dismiss comments as mere opinions, as that viewpoint is irrelevant. Opinions are precisely what people hear and pass on.
10. Go Beyond Mere Data Collection
When we are asked for data, we probe the company to determine the purpose and use for the data. It’s often clear that they don’t need data; instead, they need information and intelligence. Remember, data only reveals the past.
11. Do Your Homework
Expand your industry thinking and find general business trends and industry trends. Scan the table of contents from two publications, one from an indirectly related industry. Get ones from totally different industries.
12. Establish Excellent Communication lines
Customers, suppliers, and distributors expect companies to communicate and be easy to reach. The lack of transparent and open communication channels is rarely discussed, but it creates an undercurrent of annoyance and a decreased desire to do business.
Stay ahead of your competition with Competitive Intelligence
In conclusion, having a competitive intelligence team in place is essential for businesses looking to stay ahead of their competition. By identifying potential threats and opportunities, this team can help companies stay on top of their game. If you are looking to create or improve your competitive intelligence team, be sure to keep the information in this article in mind.
