How Competitive Intelligence helps understand how decision-makers think
This article describes how Competitive Intelligence helps understand how decision-makers think. Often, this is where people looking at Competitive Intelligence for the first time go wrong. They direct their efforts into what information is required. They look and worry about how to find the information. Which websites or expensive databases will reveal what they are looking for?
Just subscribe to a costly database or platform without understanding what you will provide with everything other than a hefty bill and something else no one will use. Any database or platform will not provide you with any Competitive Intelligence. It’s what you do with the information consistently. Competitive Intelligence analysts should initially ignore the required information. And target their thoughts on what the decision-maker needs to make their decision. Read more: How does Competitive Intelligence Early Warning reduce unpleasant surprises?
Be strategic, not tactical
It’s essential to understand the decision they need to take so you can offer the options open to them. The possibilities are based on the Intelligence you are going to find. Many use Competitive Intelligence to collect sales, marketing and pricing information. But these tactical actions are only a fraction of what the activity can do for you. Read more: Competitive Intelligence Analysis Thinking Needs to be Diverse and Rich.
Look at what your competitors are going to do. How are they going to do it, and what decisions will they need to make:
- Are they looking to enter a new market, or indeed leave the market they are in?
- Are they worrying about new competitors entering their sector?
Take your decision-maker’s thinking into account and that of your competitor’s primary decision-makers. As well as the decisions do they need to make, you also need to know:
- What timeframes are they working to?
- Are there any constraints a decision-maker is working to?
- What is a decision-maker trying to do?
- Are the decision-makers team capable of carrying out what has been decided?
But remember, they are not the same as you, so they may not think like you.
Put the problem and the necessary decision into another person’s perspective. Try to understand the decision-makers from your point of view. But never assume that they think like you without believing they have your resources, ambition, capability, and ways of doing things.
Finding their resources, capabilities, ambitions, and how they do things will help you. Try and think like them as them with their capacity and capability, not yours:
- Then, move one step further by taking the view of their customers and suppliers.
- What challenges do they see coming, and how will they tackle them?
- What are they likely to want to do to beat you?
- And what will they do in response to the decision you eventually make?
You should, of course, know these sorts of things about your own company. If you don’t, you may struggle to understand your competitors. Read more: No time to die but which of your competitors will kill you off?
How Competitive Intelligence helps understand how decision-makers think
This article was called How Competitive Intelligence Helps Understand How Decision-makers Think. We hope we have helped you know that CI is more than collecting information. It’s also about getting into how your competitors think and make decisions.
We are Octopus. The Global People-Powered Competitive Intelligence Agency.
Outsmart your competition. Make the unknown known. Octopus helps you gain clarity in complex markets. With clients and tentacles around the world, we deliver sharp, actionable competitive intelligence through a blend of deep primary (HUMINT) and secondary research. If you’re looking to make smarter decisions, beat the competition, and reduce uncertainty, we’re the partner you want on your side.
