What is competitor positioning, why is it important and what to look for?
Competitor positioning is a strategy to differentiate your offering from that of a competitor. This article explores what competitor positioning is, its importance, and what to look for.
Competitive positioning emphasises the unique features of a product or service. Enabling you to target a market segment with a quality offering. Or pricing a product or service lower than your competitors. It is also important to understand your competitors’ positioning.
What is competitor positioning, and why is it important in business strategy?
Answer: Competitor positioning is how a rival presents its product or service in the market—through pricing, messaging, quality, and other differentiators. Understanding it helps your business tailor sales strategies, highlight your strengths, and win in competitive situations.
Competitor positioning reveals how rivals compete for your target customers—what they offer, how they price, and what they emphasise. By analysing this, your team can craft sharper messaging, exploit gaps, and sell more effectively in crowded markets.
The situation of your sales team
You and your sales team are competing head-to-head with competitors for every account. And there isn’t any uncontested competitive space anymore. You’ll always have to beat someone to get wins in your business sector.
Your sales team are up against the intense competition. They must approach prospects and current customers heavily armed with competitor intelligence. It doesn’t matter in what format as long as it’s accurate and easily comprehensible. They need to quickly and easily understand what a competitor is offering. Also, know how they position that offering and how their product’s service compares to it. Easy to understand. And not because salespeople are stupid. They are busy, and if they dont understand something, they will move on. The format could be a battle card, with as much detail as possible in as few words as possible.
Useful insight
The sort of insight that is useful to you includes competitor product descriptions. This will consist of their features and benefits. And just as importantly, the advantages and weaknesses of their products. Then detail how they communicate their sales in the form of their:
- Words
- Marketing
- Website
- Brochures
- Social media
What is Competitor Analysis?
Competitor Analysis evaluates your competitors. To understand and compare them to your way of doing things. To know their current and future direction, how they do business, their strengths and weaknesses, why customers buy from them to increase your competitive advantage.
How they cover and present the tech they use, and how important they think customer service is. And note the tone of voice when they demonstrate what they do. Understand how they sell their products and what they emphasise in their message. Do they discuss their technology and focus on providing quality customer service? Do they sell direct or via partners? Are they targeting a niche market by emphasising the quality of the product? How comprehensive are their products or services? Or are they getting stuff out their door and promoting how cheap they are? Are they seen as specialists and experts, or is their offering just run-of-the-mill?
Pricing strategy
Then look at their pricing strategy. Are they selling the product on price or quality? And what’s the structure of their pricing? Are there flat rates, hourly rates, hidden costs, and optional extras? What deals do they typically offer, and do they provide a discount for bulk orders? Are they any areas of their pricing strategy you can exploit? How does the company come across in your dealings with them? Do their customers agree?
- Are they professional or sloppy?
- Are they old-fashioned or able to think creatively?
- Or are they flexible and easy to change?
- Or are they stuck in their ways and reference their business terms as a defence mechanism?
Details to consider
So, in summary, looking at competitor positioning, you need to consider these:
Product
- Features
- Benefits
- Advantages
- Weaknesses
- How they compare
Sales messaging
- Technology
- Customer service
- Quality
- Price
- Expediency
- Breadth
- Specialist
Pricing
- Structure (hourly rates, flat fees, extras)
- Sales incentives
- Volume discounts
- Strategies
Company image
- Professional
- Creative
- Flexible
What is competitor positioning, why is it important and what to look for?
In conclusion, competitor positioning is a key strategy. To be used to differentiate a product or service from those of its competitors. This article asked what competitor positioning is, why it’s important and what to look for. By emphasising the unique features of an offering, a potent competitive edge is created. To be successful, you must continually evaluate your positioning strategy. To ensure that it remains relevant and appealing to consumers.
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.
