What competitor information must you know to help beat them?
This article introduces you to what competitor information must you know to help beat them. It’s a basic introduction to Competitive Intelligence and its techniques. Tools that can help you gain more certainty and competitive advantage.
Help your sales team
To help your business and your sales team, they must know the competition they are up against. They need more than just information about their competitor features and tactical pricing. They should know the following information for each of your key competitors:
- What are your competitor’s value proposition, and how do they differentiate
- What’s their reputation like?
- How popular are they in the market?
- How do they position themselves in your market? Do they dominate the market by being seen as the experts? Or brilliant customer service, or are they cheaper than the rest?
- How long have they been in the market?
- What are their strengths and weaknesses?
- Do they have a strong sales team?
- Who are the suppliers that enable them to be more competitive than you?
- Which well know customers do they have?
- How flexible are their terms of business?
- What is the best way to differentiate your solution from them?
- What is better about your offering?
- Where do you outperform them?
- Are they on the acquisition trail?
- What are they going to do next?
Basic product analysis
Look at their products and make a list of them all. Then work out which one’s you directly compete with. List them and define each of the products features and benefits. Then look at the characteristics of each one and see what is similar and what is different. Are there any features that you don’t have? If so, what would you like to have? If none of the features is similar then why?Determine what are the essential features to your industry? Do they have them and do you?
Then you’ll want to figure out what your product is and what it is not. This is not as simple as it sounds, and it’s a really important step. By doing this, you are defining who your target audience is and what isn’t.
Central repository
It’s essential to get as many of your teams as possible involved. But, it’s also necessary to keep all the information you collate in one central place. Whether on paper, spreadsheet or in a database.
What competitor information must you know to help beat them?
This article introduced you to what competitor information must you know to help beat them. An introduction to the sort of things Competitive Intelligence techniques can help. So can you gain more certainty and business growth and profit.
