Competitive intelligence 101

Transcript

1. Competitive Intelligence 101 Beat your competition.

2. Why do we care about competitors?

3. Don’t try keeping up with the Joneses.

4. It’s learning what customers expect and want from us.

5. Formstack’s Platform Evolution March 2018 December 2018 April 2019 July

   2019

6. Our Competitors

7. How do you prioritize competitors?

8. Types of Competitors Direct Competitors Indirect Competitors Replacement Competitors

9. Defining Your Competitors Who does the market say you compete

   against? Who do your competitors say you compete against? Who do your customers say you compete against?

10. What does the market say? Screenshot from G2

11. What do your competitors say?

12. What do your customers say? Talk to your sales team

    Look into your website’s SEO See your competitive paid ad efficiencies

13. Market Competitors Customers YES

14. Where do I start to research competitors?

15. Competitor 1 Competitor 2 Competitor 3 Competitor 4

16. Messaging Teardown What do they say they do well? Who

    are they trying to tell? Have either of those changed over time?

17. Where to research? Competitor website and blog Product review sites

    Free trials of competitor products Competitive feature sets

18. Turn into positioning statements For (target customer) who (statement of

    the need), the (product name) is a (product category) that (statement of key benefit). Unlike (primary competitive alternative), our product (statement of primary differentiation).

19. Quick ethics quiz. Never lie about a competitor. Never imply

    you’re going to make a purchase. Don’t buy competitor lists. (GDPR)

20. Preparing your sales teams.

21. 1 2 3 Creating Battlecards Use your positioning statements! Go

    and No Go Areas Trap Questions Objection Handling
22. None

23. Rolling out your battlecards Go where your sales team is

    working Create a pilot program Make training small and interactive Measure a sales readiness score

24. Tracking your success.

25. Develop a Win/Loss program around compete.

26. None

27. 1. Start small and gain confidence 2. Accept you’re not

    always the best product 3. Share your success with others Final Thoughts @ClintBuechler clint.buechler@formstack.com