Mark Shapiro discusses the importance of competitive intelligence and analysis for product definition, messaging, go-to-market strategy, and sales enablement. He notes that competitive intelligence activities are often disjointed and lack clarity on what constitutes a competitor. The document addresses questions about defining competitors, data collection, and making data useful for differentiation. It emphasizes shifting the focus from products to customers and using a framework to assess competitor capabilities from the perspective of management concerns.

1. Mark Shapiro
Agile Product Marketing Group
5.2.2015
Is
Your
Drill
Compe/ng
With
Their
Hammer-­‐
Curing
Marke/ng
Myopia
Discussion
Document

2. challenges,
lessons
learned
and
best-­‐prac2ces?
To
state
the
obvious
…how
well
you
perform
compe22ve
intelligence
and
analysis
can
have
a
major
impact
on
your
business
and
has
an
effect
on
everything
from
product
defini2on
to
messaging,
go-­‐to-­‐market
strategy,
and
sales
enablement.
Quite
o"en
this
ac/vity
is
disjointed,
overlooked
and
lacks
a
clear
understanding
of
what
is
considered
a
compe//ve
alterna/ve
to
your
offering.
Approaches
to
CI
and
turning
this
intelligence
into
ac2onable
informa2on
that
can
be
used
by
to
beAer
differen/ate
and
enhance
your
product’s
value.
LET’S
DISCUSS

3. Key
Ques2ons
• Who’s
a
compe2tor?
• Who
decides
what
to
look
at?
• Where
does
the
informa2on
come
from?
• How
does
it
get
packaged
and
used?

4. What
Perspec2ve
Are
We
Taking?
“People
don’t
go
into
a
DIY
store
because
they
need
one
of
our
drills.
They
go
because
they
need
a
hole
in
the
wall.”
–
Black
and
Decker
CEO*

5. The
Swiss
Army
Knife
Problem

6. Product
Focused
View
of
Compe22on
you
Direct
Indirect
Poten2al
Subs2tute

7. Customer
Focused
View
of
Compe22on
Customer
Direct
Indirect
Poten2al
Subs2tute
You

8. What
Data
Are
We
Capturing?

9. What
Data
Are
We
Capturing?
• Business
Profile
• Financials
• Use
Cases
and
Solu2ons
• Product
Pricing
Models
• Customers
and
Markets
• Global
Go-­‐to-­‐Market
Model
• Offering
Breakdown
• Market
Posi2oning
• General
Func2onality/
Components
• How
Product
Works
• Analyst
Assessments
• How
the
offerings
compare
func2onally
• Solu2on
Architecture
• Cost
comparisons
• ……………………………….

10. Where
Does
It
Come
From?

11. How Are We Making Data Useful?

12. How Are We Making Data Useful?

13. Management Lacks Competitive Information
To Address Concerns and Make Decisions
Typical Management
Concerns
How does My Company
compare?
How can My Company
compete successfully?
What can My Company
learn about the
competitor’s strategy to
impact theirs?
Underlying questions to address concerns:
• What are competitors’ capabilities, current
activities, plans, and intentions?
• Do they have the resources to support their
strategy?
• What is the health of their business?
• What is the strength and composition of
their partner ecosystem?
• What is their sales model and process?
• What is their market presence?
• How and where are they marketing their
products/services?

14. ShiY
The
Focus
Of
Compe22ve
Profile
From
Products
To
Customers
Data
Informa2on

15. 10
10
0
VALUE
U
N
I
Q
U
E
N
E
S
S
Cool,
Nice to have
Differentiators
Core/
Commodity
Junk
Turning Feature Data Into Information: Differentiation

16. Distribu2on
and
Maintenance
?

17. What
Happened
?
A
LOT
of
FOOD
for
Thought
Generated
Session
started
10:30
Session
ended
11:20
Session
lasted
50
Minutes
I
will
definitely
use
this
stuff
!
Definitely
not
a
linear
format
or
conversa2on
Thanks
for
doing
this
-­‐this
was
great
!
A
lot
of
great
dialog
and
idea
sharing
!

18. Con2nue
the
Conversa2on
Mark@marketwithagilty.com
+1.862.245.1697
@maahktweets
www.linkedin.com/in/markshapiro
www.marketwithagility.com