Competitive Intelligence: A Data-Backed Overview - YouTube

competitive intelligence or  ci is the process of capturing  

analyzing and activating information  related to your competitive landscape

done right ci empowers everyone at your  organization to make decisions more confidently  

and execute responsibilities more effectively

in recent years technology has  had a transformative impact on ci  

and in more ways than one

first of all the advent of cloud  deployment has made it easier than  

ever to launch a new product leading to  the rapid intensification of competition  

as you can see here and of course as competition  intensifies so too does the need for ci

so how have companies responded to this change  well by investing further in ci of course

since 2018 we've seen a 50 increase in the number  of ci teams with three or more practitioners  

and a 76 increase in the number of ci  teams with budgets greater than 25 000

now as we alluded to earlier there is a second  way in which tech has helped to transform ci  

but before we get to that we  need to cover more of our bases  

so by the end of this video you'll have an  answer to each of the following five questions

what is my competitive landscape what is the role  of ci what are the components of the ci process  

how can i start building a ci program  and how do ci teams measure their impact  

are you ready let's get started

at the beginning of this video when we  defined ci you may have noticed that  

we didn't mention your competitors but rather  your competitive landscape what does that mean

well your competitive landscape encompasses  every entity that has the potential to impact  

your business this includes not only direct  and indirect competitors but also customers  

prospects thought leaders partners  regulators suppliers and more

the breadth of this definition speaks to the  predictive power of ci by capturing analyzing  

and activating information across the entirety  of your competitive landscape you can help  

your company both understand what's happening  today and prepare for what will happen tomorrow

like we said earlier done right ci empowers  everyone at your organization to make decisions  

more confidently and execute responsibilities  more effectively let's get a bit more specific

ci empowers product managers to more  efficiently set and execute roadmap  

priorities product marketers to develop  differentiated positioning and messaging  

brand marketers to develop differentiated  narratives campaigns and experiences  

sellers to navigate the high pressure moments that  can make or break net new opportunities account  

managers to navigate the high pressure modes that  can make or break renewals corporate strategists  

to identify opportunities for partnerships and  acquisitions hr managers to attract and retain  

top talent executive leaders to more efficiently  allocate resources and the list goes on

we could keep going but you get the idea  when we say everyone we really mean everyone

one key takeaway here is that the role of ci  

is both tactical and strategic whereas some  folks need ci to do tasks like address a  

competitive objection others need to make  plans like breaking into a new vertical

ci is a three-part process  research analysis and activation

many folks including everyone here at crayon  consider measurement to be the fourth component  

but for the sake of consistency and clarity we  can think of measurement as a subset of activation

the research phase is where you collect intel more  specifically primary research is the collection of  

intel via interviews with employees prospects  and customers and secondary research is the  

collection of intel via sources like competitors  websites review platforms and discussion forums

one important note that we will  expand on in the next section  

competitive research whether  it's primary or secondary  

is really only productive when it's done  with a specific goal or set of goals in mind

next is the analysis phase where you synthesize  intel and extract meaning where you connect the  

dots so to speak as an example let's say your  goal is to help your sellers win more deals  

specifically by differentiating your  email marketing tool from that of  

let's call them competitor x in the research phase  

you collected reviews of their tool from  g2 as well as win loss notes from your crm  

you notice a pattern the most common cause of  frustration across this competitor's customer base  

is the inability to create multi-touch campaigns  and sure enough your win-loss data reveals that  

when your sellers do beat this competitor  it's often because of this functionality

and that brings us to the activation  phase the most crucial of all

this is where you make your findings actionable  for the stakeholders to whom they're relevant  

there are several ways you can  activate the findings from our example  

you can update your competitor x battle card  to include your newly discovered differentiator  

train your sellers to lean on this  differentiator in their discovery calls  

and demos and partner with your content team to  create new assets around multi-touch campaigns

another important note that again we  will expand on in the next section

a small group of trusted cross-functional  partners can provide gut checks and help to  

ensure the insights and deliverables that  you create are both accurate and relevant

oh and one more thing in recent years  we've seen that teams are gradually  

spending more time in this phase of the ci process

this is the second major change that we  alluded to in the introduction with the  

help of automation ci teams are shifting time  away from research and towards activation

the importance of this shift cannot be overstated  as activation is closely correlated with revenue

compared to teams that activate intel on an  ad hoc basis those that activate on a daily  

basis are twice as likely to say their work has  directly impacted their company's bottom lines

that being said revenue isn't the only  way you can measure the impact of ci  

and we'll return to the subject of  kpis in the final section of this video  

the point is that by allowing ci teams to automate  their secondary research and focus on the creation  

and delivery of true actionable insight technology  has pushed the value of ci to new heights

although the process of building a ci  program can vary dramatically depending  

on your company and industry there are a  few key steps that most folks need to take  

in order to set themselves  up for long-term success

get an executive sponsor  

identify initial stakeholders and  partners and capitalize on quick wins

let's briefly expand on each these

an executive sponsor ensures that  from the inception of your program  

you are visible across your company and  focused on a meaningful and measurable goal

if for example your sponsor is the cro maybe  the initial purpose of your program is to  

accelerate revenue as measured by competitive  win rate and competitive sales cycle duration

alternatively if your sponsor is  the cpo maybe the initial purpose  

of your program is to accelerate feature  delivery as measured by time to market

what matters is that you have a purpose and  your purpose is tied to actual business goals  

with this foundation you'll be able to  quickly show value and your sponsor's  

counterparts in the c-suite will be falling  over themselves to get in on the action

armed with an initial sense of purpose your next  step is to determine one who you're going to  

be supporting with ci and two who can help you  deliver that support as effectively as possible  

trying to accelerate revenue great your  sellers are your initial stakeholders  

and their managers are your initial partners

with the help of these partners you'll  be able to answer questions like are  

our sellers already consuming ci  and if so where and in what format

do we have any sellers who are already crushing  the competition if so what's their secret sauce

what are our sellers ci pain points is intel hard  to find or is it outdated or maybe unactionable

plus your partners will serve  as a sounding board of sorts  

providing a safe environment to test  ideas pilot deliverables and get feedback

now you may be thinking supporting sales  isn't the only way to accelerate revenue  

what about supporting products that  can make our customers happier or  

supporting marketing so they can  make our messaging more unique

these are great points but that's a lot to  put on the plate of a brand new ci program  

it's cliche but you really shouldn't try to boil  the ocean plus in order to get buy-in from those  

additional stakeholder groups you may need to show  proof of concept which brings us to our last step

there's a reason you need to identify the pain  points afflicting your initial stakeholders  

so you can capitalize on quick wins and  immediately build momentum for your program

perfection is not the goal here the goal is  simply to do something to make ci tangible

are your sellers tired of scrambling  for intel at the last second  

well find out where they like to spend  their time and put resources there

are they suspicious of the intel they've  been given in the past pick a handful of  

crucial insights like competitor a can't do  xyz thing and see if you can validate those

are they unsure what to say when a certain  competitor is mentioned on a phone call  

work with your partners to spin up a talk track

all it takes is one quick win  to start generating excitement  

and trust and then you're off to the races

in all kinds of ways it depends entirely on  the stakeholder groups they're supporting

we'll share some real world examples of kpis in  a moment but first let's get some perspective

despite the impressive  strides made in recent years  

less than one-third of ci teams are measuring  their impact with defined sets of kpis

this is largely a matter of  maturity as you can see here  

why is an advanced ci program 10 times  more likely than an ad hoc one to have kpis

it all comes down to that  magical buzzword stakeholders

an advanced ci program by definition  is in lock step with its stakeholders  

vetting each and every request through the lens  of their overarching goals this means that the  

requests that are actually fulfilled can be very  easily tied back to an agreed upon set of metrics

meanwhile an ad hoc ci program by  definition is without stakeholders

it's divorced from any kind of long-term objective  

which makes it very difficult to  evaluate in a reliable and meaningful way

to wrap up here are six examples of competitive  intelligence kpis each accompanied by the  

percentage of teams that use it some of these  are self-explanatory so i'll just add a few notes

engagement with deliverables is  popular because it's relevant no  

matter which stakeholder group  or groups you're supporting

you can track the open rate on your ci newsletter  

the activity in your ci slack channel  the usage of your battle card and so on

qualitative stakeholder feedback  should quite frankly be more popular

the sense of confidence and focus  that you bring to your organization  

though not easily quantified  is a testament to your skill

finally competitive sales cycle duration refers  to the average amount of time that it takes  

your sales team to close a competitive  opportunity either as a win or a loss

the idea here is that ci enables your  sellers to more efficiently identify  

and de-position competitors  thus shortening the sales cycle

and that brings us to the end of our video  but if you're hungry for more content on ci  

and the impact it can have across your  organization i suggest enrolling in  

competitive advantage academy the world's only  collection of free on-demand ci certifications

the activator course is perfect for  anyone who wants to see what activation  

actually looks like in practice  as well as a deeper dive into  

the kinds of intel that are  available all around the web

to get started you can click the  link in the description or simply  

head to www.crayon.com academy see you there