This presentation was given at the Vancouver ProductCamp 2014. The premise was: how do you know what information about your competitors you actually need, and secondly how to analyze this information and put it into formats that you and your colleagues can use. Google, advanced web search, Win/Loss interviews → But what is it you do with the data? How much data do you need? Who gets to use your intelligence? Can you do it “quick and dirty”? What does CI have to do with company strategy? How to create useful beat sheets? The session was really interactive -- so if while reading this you have questions or comments, do reach out!

1. Practical Competitive Intelligence:
Find data you need and use it
Johanne Lemaire
ProductCamp Vancouver, March 8 2014
@J_Lemaire
#pcv14

2. TOWNHALL
Interactive, short presentation:
Questions, comments, insight as we go!
1) Decide what data you need
2) Sources for Competitive Intelligence
3) “So What?”: Data Analysis
4) Distribution of insight: Use it so you can win
Share your challenges and successes!
Practical Competitive Intelligence

3. Why CI?
And what do you want to know?
Practical Competitive Intelligence

4. 1 Decide what data you need
 Depending on your business situation:
 and your product’s lifecycle
 Do you
 Need to grow revenue and fast?
 Need to squeeze that margin and good?
 It’s best to be aware of overall company strategy
(or at least your product’s strategy)
Practical Competitive Intelligence

5. If you want to grow revenue
 Find out
 who your biggest competitors are (in terms of revenue, in
terms of number of customers)
 which of your competitors is winning customers away
from you
 what the primary sales tactic of your biggest competitors
are
 which competitor is gaining market share
 why customers buy from your competitors
 what problems customers have with your competitors
 what problems do your competitors have
Practical Competitive Intelligence

6. If you want to optimize your margin
 Search
 how their product is being optimized, eg how often do
they update their product
 how big is their team
 how does their customer service compare to yours
 how expensive is their staff
 what channels do they use for distribution
 where do they manufacture and develop their products
and services?
 what their cost structure is
Practical Competitive Intelligence

7. 2 Sources for Competitive Intelligence
 Want to know what technology they use?
 Want to know how fast they are growing?
 Who are your biggest competitors?
 What’s new?
 What kind of customer service do they have?
Practical Competitive Intelligence

8. Sources
 job ads,
 LInkedIn profiles
 staff movements on LinkedIn
 press statements
 google news
 your own customers
 your staff
 your board
 your investors
 analysts

9. 3 So What? Data Analysis
Practical Competitive Intelligence
 The greatest database is of little use, with no-one
making sense of the data
 Some of that problem is alleviated by following the
process outlined here, by conducting a target-
oriented hunt for information
 Include your CI hunters in the analysis, encourage
them to draw conclusions, voice opinions

10. Data - Analysis
 When putting data together, make sure it goes to
who needs it in the company
 Centralized database?
 Printed material?
 Wiki-type page with anyone editing
or in the CRM
how do you make sure it stays up to date
 Present to management
or to staff?
 What does it mean for us?

11. 4 Distribution of Analysis:
Use it, so you can win
 Who should see it?
 Everyone in the company, so they can get to know the
hot topics, and be part of the CI hunting team
 Sales
 Management
 Product team
 Marketing
Practical Competitive Intelligence

12. Practical Formats of CI
 Market Share pie
 historical trends on market share (maybe forecast)
 Battle Cards, Q&A format is great
 can be used in sales conversations
 Feature comparison
 can be used to create marketing material pointing out
your product’s strengths
 Presentation slides
 maybe one slide per major competitor, that can be used
when you know you are up against them
 best practice is to point out your strengths, and imply the
others’ weaknesses

13. Thank you!
@J_Lemaire 604 418 2574
johanne@easytechmarketing.com

14. Share your challenges and successes
Challenges Things that worked -- Success
 Put your challenge to
the group,
 let’s come up with new
ideas of how to tackle
these
 Battle cards
 quick & dirty
“overview”
 Internal staffsurveys
 Win/Loss interviews

15. Who am I?
 15+ years in internet & communications tech
 Product Marketing: Market intelligence to launch
 Masters Degree in Tech and Business
 International corporate experience
 Founder Easy Tech Marketing
@J_Lemaire
http://linkedin.com/in/johannelemaire/