While there is no one-size-fits-all approach for what constitutes competitive intelligence, here’s a good place to start.

In our combined years of working in the CI field, we’ve found that analysts were spending a lot of time responding to sales teams who needed “critical” help to win competitive sales deals. If you are a CI analyst, you’re undoubtedly aware of this scenario: you’re working on a research project and you are called off of it to support a sales team. The sales team is up against a competitor, and they need to know what to do. So you put your research project aside, and you help the account team gather information, and then you go back to your work. The next day it’s a different account team who needs something just a little bit different, so you set your research aside again and help them gather information. It’s a constantly interrupt-driven process.

But I’ve found that you can defray most of these “911 calls” if you make a certain set of information available to your field by helping them find the information they need and ensuring they have access to it whenever they need it.

What is the ‘right’ set of competitive intelligence?

The world of CI is vast, and there are lots of different things to know about a competitor, but here are our suggested “Items to Know” that will empower the sales teams to compete in most situations effectively:

Know your competitor’s products or services

It sounds basic, but many companies spend a lot of time training sales teams on their own products, but relatively very little time on the competitor products. If you can let your field know at least what the competitor’s product or service is, what it looks like, and the high-level description of it, it puts them in a better place to understand what they are up against. If phone manufacturers had insight into just how game-changing the first iPhone was going to be, Apple might have faced some worthy competition in 2007.

Know your competitor’s positioning strategy

Sales teams are frequently provided guidance on how to position their own product. What they get less of is how the competitor is going to position and attack. Marketing will often tell the sales teams all the hard-hitting things to say about their own products. But don’t leave your sales teams blindsided by forgetting to tell them the objections your competitor is going to raise, and how to handle those objections. Also, make sure your sales teams know how the competitor positions themselves and how to effectively deposition the competition.

Know the major areas of cost for your competitor

In the early stages of a deal, the sales teams most likely don’t need your competitor’s full price list. What they need to know are the significant components of cost: Is service included? What are the major options to the competitor product? What does your product include that might not be included on the competitors? This will help address the “…but your product costs twice as much as your competitor’s product…” argument. Yes, it costs twice as much, but it includes two times as many features which are all extra-cost options for the competitor.

Know how to compare the product or services

Instead of giving your sales teams the competitor data sheets, where they will have to spend time making the document work for them, allow them to see a side-by-side pre-prepared comparison of your product and that of the competitors, and let them know what areas to highlight. Putting this in their hands will give them the edge they might not have reached alone due to time constraints. And you can go beyond the datasheets too. Consider the things that your customer is going to decide on—it might not be a feature of the product, but instead might be a quality of the company: the service and support mechanisms, locality, or experience of employees.

Know where to get other information

Who are the experts that can be referenced regarding competitors, or where does the sales team find more information? This could be a Sharepoint or intranet site, or email alias. Make sure the account teams know all the resources that exist for them. Sometimes they call you as a CI analyst because your phone number is the only one in their address book. If you can have this information readily available to your sales teams before they approach the customer, your phone will be ringing far less.

While there is no one-size-fits-all approach for what constitutes competitive intelligence, the above list is a good place to start. What’s most important is getting the information into the sales team’s hands fast, so that you can help them close more deals.

If you’d like more information, read our competitive intelligence resources and for personalized point of view on your CI needs, leave a comment below or get in touch. We’ve only just scratched the surface here.