Competitive Intelligence Notes Part 1: The Goal of Competitive Intel
Unlike most competitive intelligence articles, this one does not start with ‘what is competitive intelligence?’
We have enough of those (linked in the resources section).
But what’s missing are more articles that build on that baseline knowledge. Ones that dig a little deeper and bring the boots-on-the-ground nuances.
Throughout my 5+ year career in marketing, I have not only learned (and continue to learn) from my own experience conducting competitor research but also from so many product marketers online and in person who have set up competitive intel programs.
This 6-part series is where all those lessons converge:
Part 1 - The Goal of Competitive Intelligence (You are here)
Part 2 - Gearing Up for Competitive Intel (Coming Soon)
Part 3 - Collecting and Synthesizing Competitive Data (Coming Soon)
Part 4 - Getting Adoption (Coming Soon)
Part 5 - Sustaining Competitive Intelligence (Coming Soon)
Part 6 - Stepping Into A Company Where CI Is Already Set Up (Coming Soon)
*Disclaimer 1: These notes talk about setting up a competitive intelligence program from scratch, not about stepping into a company where CI is already happening. To know more about how to do the latter, please go to Part 6 (coming soon).
*Disclaimer 2: As with other product marketing concepts, there isn’t ‘one’ way to do competitive intelligence. This is one possible method among many others!
Most Common Goal of Competitive Intel
For most companies, competitive intel is about increasing market share or revenue by increasing competitive win rates.
Competitive Intel helps with understanding the market landscape, differentiating products and offerings, catching up on the features the market demands, preventing churn, and more. So this intent is understandable.
But as product marketers, we know that there is more going on than meets the eye.
What I Infer Competitive Intel’s Real Goal Is For Product Marketing
Imagine a customer tells you in the interview that their aim is to increase revenue. You stop the interview right there, and you say, “I know exactly how to do that for you!” without asking more questions to understand why revenue numbers are not moving.
Is it a positioning problem?
Is sales using the tested messaging?
Do most leads submit contact info like ‘justbrowsing@notreallyinterested.io’?
Similarly, competitive intelligence goes deeper than just ‘increasing market share’ or ‘improving competitive win rates’.
If we go down the funnel, winning more customers means the product is useful and intuitive, sales says the right things, CS catches and engages with high-risk accounts effectively, and demand generation shows resonant ad messages to the target audience.
Competitive intelligence combined with customer research makes this possible. It arms cross-functional teams with the confidence to make higher-leverage customer-facing decisions and take action.
Better product decisions, better customer conversations, better ad copy.
Here, better = more relevant to the Ideal Customer Profiles’ needs, pains, and requirements.
❗An important note: For any GTM goal, CI is best when combined with real conversations. Focusing only on competitor moves can provide a false sense of confidence when customers are asking for something completely different in sales calls or win/loss interviews. In fact, if there ever were a bandwidth issue, I would always opt to set up win/loss interview processes over all other kinds of competitor research. It clarifies what decisions would really make a difference.
TL;DR: 1. CI’s ultimate goal: Enable our cross-functional teams (sales, product, demand gen, customer success) to deliver relevant value to customers. And the by-product of that is standing out in the market and winning more deals. 2. CI needs to be customized for every company stage, every strategic business goal, and every team.
Part 2 explores this idea and goes in depth on how to gear up for a competitive intelligence program that achieves internal adoption and success. Coming soon.
