Keeping an eye on the competition | Workspace®

QUESTIONS TO ASK

What questions should we ask when trying to find out more about competitors? The following list contains some basic ideas:

• Who are our competitors? Are we clear and have there been any recent market entrants that we need to be aware of?
• What threats do they pose?
• What is the shape of our business competition  (size, employees, locations, product/services portfolio etc.)?
• What are the objectives of our competitors? (Often stated on web sites of private companies or in annual reports of public companies)
• What strategies are our competitors pursuing and how successful are they?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of our competitors?
• How are our competitors likely to respond to any initiatives, innovations or other changes to the way we do business?

SOURCES OF COMPETITOR INFORMATION

Sources of information can be grouped into three categories:

Published: This is easily available in published form either internally or externally. Good examples include:

• Annual report & accounts
• Press releases
• Web sites / blogs
• Newspaper/magazine articles
• Analysts reports
• Presentations
• Speeches

Unpublished: This has to be deliberately sought and often pieced together from several sources. Information in this category includes:

• Price lists
• Tenders
• Advertising campaigns
• Promotions
• White Papers
• Patent applications

Hidden: To get hold of this kind of data either requires a lot of planning and organisation or being open to data falling in to your hands by luck. Much of it will be verbal rather than written, coming from discussions with suppliers, customers and, perhaps, previous managers or employees of competitors. This data is often protected by contractual obligations such as non-disclosure agreements for employees and, therefore, needs to be approached very carefully:

• Contact with partners / suppliers
• Trade shows
• Sales meetings
• Seminars / conferences
• Recruiting ex-employees or managers
• Discussion with shared distributors / agents
• Informal social contacts

Like a jigsaw puzzle, each individual piece of data does not have much value. The key is to collect as much as possible and assemble it into an overall picture of your business competition.

WHAT DO WE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT OUR COMPETITORS?

The sources listed above can provide a good understanding of what our competition are doing now and, maybe, plan to do in the future. You can probably think of more pieces of information about a competitor that would be useful. However, an important challenge is working out how to obtain competitor information that is reliable, up-to-date and legal. The types of information we can usually find through these sources include:

• Sales and profit figures
• Cost structures
• Market share data (revenue and volume)
• Key personnel
• Channels to market
• Promotional activity and budget
• Profile of customers including retention data

In addition to these items, there is more that we might really like to know about competition if we could find out:

• Sales and profits broken down by product / service
• Customer satisfaction levels
• Specific customer issues
• New product strategies
• Effectiveness of promotional activities
• Future investment plans
• Contractual terms with key suppliers and partners

The key is to work out how much to invest in obtaining the information given the resources we have available. Whatever the level of effort we put in to understanding the competition, developing a better understanding gives us information we can use to win more business and retain existing customers. As with many other areas of business, when it comes to keeping an eye on the competition, knowledge is power.