In our latest Accelerate Series Webinar, our founder and CEO, Ian Hameroff, discussed our proven 5-step process for conducting effective competitive analysis.
The ability to conduct effective competitive analysis is an important requirement for accelerating your company’s growth and making your go-to-market strategy a success. Get this discipline right, and you’ll empower your sales and marketing teams to navigate today’s competitive landscape more confidently and effectively.
Drawing from decades of industry expertise, Ian shared invaluable insights and actionable competitive analysis strategies.
Here are a few highlights from the presentation:
Go beyond surface-level analysis
To truly gain a competitive edge, scratching the surface of your competition won’t suffice.
Understanding your competition demands a deep, comprehensive approach encompassing external and internal sources.
Research your competitor’s website, social channels, and content, but don’t stop there. Dive into industry analyst reports, investigate community forums, and attend industry events to understand emerging industry trends and competitor perceptions.
Additionally, you have many powerful resources within your own company. Conduct thorough win/loss analysis, engage with your sales reps, and leverage your CRM for real-time data.
Remember, a comprehensive understanding is the key to staying ahead in the competitive arena. Don’t just scratch the surface – dive deep to unearth invaluable insights from every available resource.
Not every competitor demands the same strategy
Acknowledging that each competitor requires a different strategy is critical. What is necessary for one may not be necessary for another.
Sometimes your competitor’s strengths or threats aren’t meaningful to your business. If it sidetracks you from your strategic direction, you should ignore it.
Alternatively, you could change the importance or realities of the competitive threat to align more closely with your own strengths and differentiation by de-positioning your competitor.
Or, if you find this competitor does warrant a response, you can craft messaging and objection-handling guidance for your sellers and partners.
Just be sure to carefully analyze each competitor individually to ensure the appropriate strategy is selected.
Communicate your findings regularly
Analyzing and building a competitive strategy is only half the battle. You need to put this strategy into action.
This requires you to communicate to educate and educate to communicate.
You need to communicate what you learn to educate your teams and stakeholders to keep them current and ready. This also ensures they can help you in your efforts to communicate your findings.
You also need to train and enable your sellers, product teams, partners, and even your customers to communicate your differentiation.
All of your work will be for nothing if you leave off this critical final step.
Watch the full webinar
Be sure to watch the full webinar to learn even more about our 5-step process for conducting an effective competitive analysis.