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February 28, 2013
How to Find Out What Your Competitors Are Doing That You Are Not
By: SBI
We get asked to ‘benchmark’ the competition frequently. Although ‘benchmarking’ includes competitors, it is not competitive profiling. Benchmarking allows a comparison of you against your peers. This peer group is typically made up of 30-40 companies. Alternatively, competitive profiling enables you to deeply understand one competitor. This is extremely beneficial when targeting a single company. And there are specific ways to accomplish and use the data to be effective.
We recently advised a client how to perform a competitive profile. Why? There was a 67% increase in loss business to one competitor. The past 6 months have been brutal. The win/loss interviews were too general to really uncover the root issue. Lost customers indicated they ‘matched the solution to the problem’ better. Or they felt a ‘better level of trust’. Another mentioned ‘superior installation references’. Not one thing stood out. It was time for a competitive profile.
We brainstormed with them on limiting our investigation to 3 actions first. We chose these:
We then developed questions to ask the competitor. And started asking:
These questions were created around three secrets. These secrets are the foundation for World-Class competitive profiling:
The competitive profile found some interesting information. Using the three secrets revealed:
The implications for this company meant examining their sales process and territories. Important focus was placed on these specific areas. And the outcome was pretty large. Revenue increased double-digit in the following year.
Call to Action:
Finding out what your competitors are doing is valuable information. Use these methods to develop a Competitive Attack Plan. If you have one that you would like to share, please leave a comment. Or email me directly. We will share your findings on how you find out this information.
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© 2018 Sales Benchmark Index (SBI), B.V.
A Business Strategy Consulting Company
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