Which questions to ask when analyzing a competitor? A constructive overview
Many businesses are hiring a competitive intelligence agency for the first time. They need to scope out the research and it can be helpful to have a ready-made starting point. What questions should frame a research proposal? What is it possible to discover about competitors? What is a good structure?
Below are some the questions that typically go into a competitor profile. These lean towards analyzing a technology company, but can be easily adapted across industries.
Corporate background
Customers
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What do customers like and dislike?
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Why do customers buy from the competitor?
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For prospects who did not convert, why did they turn down the competitor?
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Who are some of the competitor’s customers?
Product strategy and capabilities
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What is their range of products?
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What are the key product features?
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What are their capabilities for mobile?
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What are their analytics and reporting capabilities?
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What is their product roadmap?
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Is the product localized? What languages are available?
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How easy is the product to customize?
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Do they have a professional services team?
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What is the implementation effort required? How long does implementation take? What resources do they offer? What resources must the client provide?
Pricing
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How much does the product cost?
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What are the pricing tiers? What modules are an additional cost?
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What are typical discount levels for multi-year contracts, for volume and for competitive wins?
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How much is a typical deal?
Sales pitch
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What is their go-to-market messaging?
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How do they position themselves against competitors? Whom do they consider their primary competitors? How do they pitch against us?
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What are their proof points that they can successfully drive engagement and ROI?
Partners and developer ecosystem
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What percentage of revenue is from resellers and similar partners?
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Who are their significant partners? How much revenue do they generate?
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How successful is their developer ecosystem?
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How do they recruit and motivate developers?
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What tools and SDKs do they provide developers?
Of course, you might be more interested in some of these questions more than others. And provided insights might need more or less detail depending on context, but this list can be very helpful if you want to start a competitive intelligence project and you have little experience. If you are interested in a professional competitive intelligence or market intelligence partner, contact Hammer!
Source: Aqute Intelligence