Ideas on setting up a competitive intelligence program

1. HOW TO PERFORM
MORE EFFECTIVE
COMPETITIVE
INTELLIGENCE
A Brief Overview by George Sloane

2. What is
Competitive
Intelligence
?
• Competitive intelligence is the gathering, tracking,
researching, analyzing, interpreting, and synthesizing
of information, data, and behavior about one or more
competitors of your product or service
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3. What
Information
to Collect?
• The information on your competitor(s) could include
information related to:
– Sales & Marketing
– Financial
– Locations
– Hours
– Products/Services
– Pricing
– Future plans
– Management and management changes
– Press releases
– And more . . .
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4. Why is
Competitive
Intelligence
Important?
• To see where you stand as compared to the
competition
• To help you decide what to do in relationship to your
competition
• To understand how existing or potential customers see
you and your competition
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5. Who is
Responsible
for
Performing
Competitive
Intelligence
?
• Everyone in the organization is responsible to some
extent or another
• The entire organization should be trained to recognize,
collect, and report intelligence
• There should be a formal competitive intelligence
function in the organization
– A person or team to act as the “clearinghouse” of
intelligence on the firm’s competitors.
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6. When
Should We
Perform
Competitive
Intelligence
?
• Constantly
• Competitive intelligence opportunity “triggers” might
include:
– A new product or service launch
– New promotional activity
– A change in management
– Practically any significant change by a competitive
organization should be monitored
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7. Getting
Started
With
Competitive
Intelligence
• Start by laying out information about your company–
in as much detail as possible
– Product line or service offering portfolio
– Pricing structure
– Distribution methods
– Promotional approaches
• Next start laying out the same info for each of your
competitors
• A spreadsheet is an ideal way to compare the
information side by side
• Shopping your competitor’s stores or catalogues will
cover much of the information needed. Additional
methods might include observation and counting
traffic. Look for similarities and differences between
you and the competition
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8. Some
Important
Concepts
• As we prepare to move to more detailed competitive
intelligence, two concepts need to be understood:
1. Quantitative versus qualitative data and
2. Snapshot versus time series data
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9. Some
Important
Concepts:
Quantitative
Data
• Quantitative data is objective, countable data. It is
unmistakable—such as “. . . sales last quarter were “X”
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10. Some
Important
Concepts:
Qualitative Data
• Qualitative data is subjective, non-numerical data. It is
how the customer feels about your product or that of
your competitor
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11. Some
Important
Concepts:
Snapshot Data
• Snapshot data tends to be static, in the moment, stand
alone data such as second quarter sales
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12. Some
Important
Concepts:
Time Series
Data
• Time series data is a collection of like historical
snapshot data such as sales for the last 12 quarters
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13. Competitive
Intelligence
Financial
Data
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• Publicly traded companies have public reporting
requirements. Going to the Securities Exchange
Commission’s (SEC) EDGAR website, financial filings
can be easily downloaded
• If your competitor is private, getting this information is
very tough.Tough, but not impossible—it can
sometimes be pieced together from numerous
sources, but may require assumptions and estimations
on your part
• Specialized industry measures are important for
benchmarking. Especially helpful here are industry
guides such asTroy’s Almanac, Robert Morris
Associates (RMA), D&B, and S&P, available at better
business-oriented or university libraries

14. Competitive
Intelligence
On-Line
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• On-line intelligence gathering involves fully reading
and reviewing the competitor’s:
– Website
– Social media
– Press releases
– News and media reports
– Hiring activities
• A good internet search engine can reveal oodles of
information. Some search engines allow you to set
“alerts” anytime a topic keyword comes up (e.g.-
GoogleAlerts)

15. Competitive
Intelligence
from Third
Parties
• Another valuable resource for competitive intelligence
is third party information surveys or reports.This
information might have been collected for other
purposes, third parties can include:
– Investment firm analysts
– External data providers
– Industry trade associations
– Suppliers
– Government
– Complementary market participants
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16. Primary
and
Secondary
Research
• Primary research is research that is conducted by you or
commissioned on your behalf
– Tends to be expensive
– Some primary research is inexpensive and as easy
• Talking to clients
• Suppliers
• Internal employees (e.g.- field sales force)
• Secondary research reports are usually produced by
consulting or research firms
– Usually look at industries as a whole
– Can provide a deeper look into the industry and individual
competitors
– These reports tend to be expensive
– Because they are marketed to multiple clients, they may not
answer the exact questions you have—you may still need
primary research
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17. Now
Consider a
SWOT
Analysis
• A SWOT Analysis is an examination and listing of the:
– Strengths
– Weaknesses
– Opportunities
– Threats
• Should involve examining your firm AND your
competitors.
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18. Putting It
All Together
• The best way to pull it all together is to involve the whole
organization. All employees need to be trained to:
– Seek
– Recognize
– Identify
– Communicate their intelligence
• Need some examples?
– The field sales force can be invaluable because they are in the
marketplace and close to customers. Customers are approached by the
competition all the time and may relate information to your sales force
– The finance department might see increased product or market
expenditures in competitor’s financial statements and can relate that
information to sales and marketing management for confirmation
• Next, draw insights and make recommendations to various functions
within the organization to plan and act upon
• Once a functional area sees the benefits of competitive intelligence,
they will further sign on to more participation in the process and
thereby add to the future success of competitive intelligence efforts
• Good luck with your efforts!
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19. Thank You!
This Slide
Concludes
This Review
• For More Information, PleaseContact George Sloane at:
– AnalyticDesignGuy.com website
– LinkedIn
– Twitter
– Facebook
– Google+
– Slideshare
– Goodreads
• Gmail: gsloane.business@gmail.com
• Phone: (203) 981-4488
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