Using competitive intelligence to boost sales
Sales is a challenging role. One way to make it easier is to arm your sales team with information and insights about your competitors.
But how, exactly, can competitive intelligence help salespeople to strike more deals?
Before we address that question, let’s cover the basics.
What is competitive intelligence?
Competitive intelligence simply means information about your competitors, your industry and emerging threats and opportunities. Some intelligence is easy to gather, but some information takes a little more effort to access.
Competitive intelligence does not involve spying, snooping or accessing private information. It simply means using a mixture of public information and careful conversations to build a clear picture of the competitive landscape
Competitive intelligence can be drawn from:
Company websites
Resellers
Former and current employees
Competitors’ agencies and partners
LinkedIn
Press releases
Media coverage
Industry reports
Conversations with customers
Trade shows
And thousands of other niche databases and sources.
How does competitive intelligence help sales teams?
Salespeople need to know your products and services inside-out. They need to know every benefit, feature, limitation and planned upgrade, so they can communicate these to potential customers.
But this knowledge is only half the picture, because your prospects aren’t just thinking about you: they’re also thinking about your competitors.
Without a complete understanding of the market, your sales team are flying blind. They might know how to fly the plane, but they don’t know the landscape.
Without competitive intelligence, your sales team could be selling benefits that are universal among your competitors, or downplaying a feature that your prospects are clamouring for. Competitive intelligence means you can tailor your sales efforts to address opportunities and threats.
Useful intelligence might cover competitors’:
Financial performance
Customer service and support rating
Capabilities
Strengths and weaknesses
Long term plans
Product features and limitations
Gain credibility
During sales meetings, your team may be faced by challenges from prospects, along the lines of:
“Your product is great, but Competitor A has more features.”
Or:
“We like your product, but we’ve heard Competitor B will be easier to integrate.”
Your salespeople might conjure up a response to these challenges, but it may be difficult for them to convincingly respond if they were not already aware of these details. And without knowledge of the market, it can be tempting to concoct a response and make vague claims – which risks damaging relationships with prospects.
Competitive intelligence reduces the likelihood of sales teams facing these moments. Instead of fumbling for a response – or making unfounded claims – your salespeople will have prepared a response to likely challenges.
Getting started with competitive intelligence
Are you already using competitive intelligence? Most sales teams do this routinely and often informally. For example, your colleagues may keep notes about competitors’ products, or ask pertinent questions at trade shows, or pay close attention to discussions on social media.
Deeper and more substantial intelligence gathering may require additional resources – either internal or external. In future posts we’ll look at DIY approaches to competitive intelligence. In the meantime, we are available to support your intelligence needs. With offices in London and San Francisco, and a global network of trusted researchers, we have more than a decade of experience in uncovering insights that give our clients the confidence to make commercial and strategic decisions.
