Within the US alone, over 600,000 new businesses launch every year. Business environments are becoming aggressively competitive and staying afloat not only requires better business practices but insight on competitors. There is normally a lot of grey area around gathering intelligence about competitors. In order to best approach the situation, Competitive Intelligence was instituted. It covers an ethical gathering and analysis of competitor information. Ethical information gathering methods include understanding publicly supplied information, signing up for methods of gaining secondary information like purchasing products or recruiting services and in some cases, even going on factory tours.
As the business landscape evolves, the strategies to gather competitive intelligence grow and develop. The top trends in CI today are;
1. The Age of Disruption: Product Marketers
A large number (87.4%) of product marketers interviewed by the Product Market Alliance look for unique ways to market their product to differentiate between themselves. In order to best understand how to stand out in a market filled with innovation, 80.7% of interview respondents have looked at how competitors are performing.
This information helps product marketers understand why their competitor’s product is selling and how to create a new and unique take on the same message. Additionally, understanding the competitors angle helps the product marketer run simulations. The simulations assess the possible outcome of the competitor and business going head to head.
2. The Scope of Product Marketing Teams
Product marketing is a multi-faceted role. The generic definition of the departments that hold competitor information has changed. While some data stays with the product and corporate strategy development teams, a vast majority of the information stays with product marketing.
This is one of the reasons product marketing is becoming a highly sought after position. According to The State of Product Marketing Report from 2020, 66.5% of respondents were current employees looking to stay and develop their roles while 33.3% are looking to migrate into the professional space.
3. CO-VID19/War Room Boards
The ongoing global pandemic has hit businesses across all industries sparing no country. However, 2021 has begun an era of hope with more organizations adapting to the new normal. War Rooms are spaces used to gather intelligence and strategize around the same. A growing number of organizations have begun incorporating them either virtually or physically to determine how customers are impacted by the pandemic and how competitors are approaching the same.
A special focus is also brought to internal information and understanding employee roles across all departments. This ensures the entire business team is working towards a common goal.
4. Innovate Around the Use of Foundational/Tribal Knowledge
Tribal knowledge describes information well known within the field or professional community. Especially for new businesses, understanding what their competitors already know is key. Gathering this information can be an efficient and effective task with a sales rep at the helm. Sales reps are aware of the best practices to track competitor movements and monitor their on ground activities. Another way to expand the sales representative role is to have them constantly update other teams and departments about the information learnt during reconnaissance.
Sales representatives can introduce two key solutions; consistent updates with competitor boards to limit the expenditure (of both time and resources) to gather the same information and second, sales reps can create a database of business relevant assumptions or rumours that need to be verified and translated down to business plans.
5. Strategy Based Decision Making
CI is transitioning from watching specific competitors to observing trends and changes within the market landscape. Translating this information to relevant teams has become more imperative. Common methods to relay the same include;
- Newsletters : Newsletters are a quick and visually appealing way to communicate highlights to multiple teams about market conditions. Higher level teams may require a different newsletter incorporating elements like forecasts and updates around the competitor landscape. Sales or customer success teams require different information. This could center around a more grassroot approach to sales including competitor pricing tactics and customer segment insights.
- CI Committees : Introducing a new team focused on competitor and market intelligence is a great way to build stronger engagement with CI information. The committee should consist of professionals from various fields for a comprehensive analysis of market information. The advisors are then able to offer insight around strong CI efforts, collecting internal information and methods to propel engagement around competitive content.
- Presentations : This is not a new concept, however presentations are becoming an undervalued component of strategic decision making. Businesses are now encouraging presentations around CI to higher level executives. Additionally more businesses are exchanging information between departments around who is still active within the competitor landscape and what is evolving within pipeline deals. This data helps teams work together to craft well rounded strategies to come out on top.
6. Support The Sales Teams
Sales teams need competitive insights now more than ever before. This information not only helps them close deals but maneuver around competitive behavior that could be causing a hindrance to the same. Offering sales teams information about competitors helps limit the likelihood of losing a deal to them. Battlecards or pockets of critical information need to be offered to support sales teams and can be used to enhance revenue by redirecting customers.
However, it is just as important to equip the sales team with “what not to say”. Especially under global pandemic circumstances, staying sensitive is critical. Tone deaf responses and emails are a simple way to drive customers away. CI teams are now offering guidance around the same. By understanding the dynamic market landscape and how competitors are approaching the same, businesses can craft unique communication methods that capture the same essence; cautious problem solving.
Businesses new to CI methods and teams can minimize costs and resources around experimentation by hiring Competitive Intelligence Consulting organizations. Competitive Intelligence Services pinpoint areas that need to be added, addressed or removed for a comprehensive end to end solution.
Competitive intelligence must be a non-negotiable part of your organization’s data gathering abilities. Strong CI methods could be the difference between sinking and swimming at a time of more cautious and concentrated business activity.
