Issues to Consider When Conducting Competitive Intelligence for the Sales Department

Market research, customer analysis, and competitive intelligence take different forms depending on the overriding issue that needs to be addressed, answered, or decided upon.  And the identity of the client greatly influences the core issue.  In other words, the varying responsibilities of marketing, operations, finance, and sales means widely varying competitive intelligence assignments for each departmental entity.  This blog post will focus on the needs of the sales department.

 

Purpose.  The sales department often uses CI to determine specifically how to win against specific competitors in competitive bidding situations.  They want to understand competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, as well as customer opportunities.

 

Customer knowledge

·         What are the customers’ perceptions of competitors’ strengths and weaknesses?

·         Why did customers choose a particular supplier?

·         What are the criteria they use in selecting a vendor.  How much weight do they place on each factor?

·         What are their unmet needs?

·         What is each major customer’s level of interest in switching or adding suppliers?

 

Competitor knowledge  

·         Who are the top customers of each competitor organization?

·         What are competitors’ perceptions of their own and their competitors’ strengths and weaknesses?

·         Where do competitors believe their greatest opportunities lie (product, geography, customer segment, etc.)?

·         What is the competitor’s growth goal?

·         What is the strategy it will use to achieve this goal?

·         What is the product strategy, pricing strategy, distribution strategy, and promotions strategy of each competitor?

·         What is the value proposition to customers?

·         Estimate revenue and gross profit in each of the major business units or functional areas that are relevant.

·         Describe the sales organization, to include territory definitions, level of experience and reporting structure.

·         How do each of the competitors perceive the breakdown of market shares, and how are market shares changing?

·         What are the core competencies that drive each player’s actions?

·         What are the best areas to compete against each competitor, given your internal competencies.

Use the above list of questions as a starting point in developing your own customized list of issues that should be addressed.  Answering these questions will help your sales department improve its winning percentage against competitors.