Any information about a competitor is indeed competitive intelligence (CI), but in sales we're concerned with applying it tactically. We want the information that's going to help us win the battle at hand, the deal before us. Patricia Berry suggests ways in which to gather competitive intelligence and employ it to your advantage.
Company executives use CI for strategic decisions: Product development, market entrance, and evaluating merger and acquisition targets, to name a few. America's best companies tap their sales forces for information that will help them make these corporate decisions. They will ask sales personnel to participate in SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis exercises. In return, corporate shares CI with their sales troops through competitive reports and newsletters. But this information often contradicts what we discover in the field — and at the end of the day, we still want more.
HOW TO ACQUIRE AND USE TACTICAL COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE
Plan to do it as a team. There are two key words here: “Plan” and “Team.” Rather than just picking up clues as you go along, get your sales team together and decide what information you want on which competitors. Assign roles for gathering information from specific resources. Because intelligence changes frequently, create a process for storing and updating the CI you gather. And train, because it can be uncomfortable to ask different sources questions about the competition.
While at ADP, I took some time to visit current clients as a means of gathering CI. Okay, I was trying to get some additional business out of them, but I learned how to gather CI. On one appointment, a client told me that they were considering changing banks due to some incentives that another bank had been pushing for some time. I networked very closely with the manager of my client's existing bank, so I shared the conversation with him. The banker was amazed, as he'd spoken to that client just days before and knew nothing about the competing bank's promotion. He'd asked all the right questions, but the client wasn't comfortable sharing information directly with the banker. A silent sufferer, I suppose. In the end, my banker retained the client due to the tactical CI that I shared with him, and I learned to educate my closest networking contacts to not only keep one eye open for leads, but to keep the other eye on my competition.
Lesson: Build a team inside and outside of your company dedicated to gathering CI.
RELY ON HUMAN INTELLIGENCE
The Internet has opened up the public information databanks; but this is common knowledge. We need to gather information that will give us an advantage. If the competition is about to launch a special promotion in our territory, we want to beat them to the punch, not match their offer. The only way to get this information is by talking to people. Customers are the best source of CI. As much as we try not to do it, all salespeople sell futures at some point in time. We don't necessarily sell all-out vaporware, but we do drop to our lukewarm prospects that feature X is due to be released soon. Once we know a little about what's coming we can start to probe its strengths and weaknesses.
Besides our customers and prospects, trade shows and networking events are great places to pick up CI. This definitely includes talking to the competition directly. We're not spies, so be sure to identify yourself properly. Then, while you're exchanging pleasantries and speaking of their worthiness as a competitor, probe for tidbits of useful information. At the end of the day, your team can put the pieces together and, together with some guess work, you can design and practice the tactical moves that you'll use the next time you go head-to-head with them on a deal.
Lesson: The competition doesn't publish their next move on the Internet — they carry it around in their heads.
HAVE COMPETITOR CHAMPIONS
Those of us who sell under fire need competitive information at our fingertips in order to make quick decisions that win deals. Other salespeople just don't prepare for sales calls as well as they should. “Competitor champions” dedicate themselves to knowing one specific competitor inside and out. If anyone has a question about that company, they call the respective champion and get the quick answer. If you have enough sales reps in your company or office, assign each salesperson a different competitor.
Lesson: We really don't want to know anything about the competition; we just want to know what it's going to take to close the deal.