Competitive Analysis

Competitive analysis is the process of identifying, evaluating, and understanding your competition to inform your own strategic decision-making. The positive outcome of this work is gaining a clear picture of the competitive landscape, spotting opportunities, and avoiding pitfalls.

Why bother?

Understanding the players on your field is crucial for positioning your solution effectively because it helps you:

• Hone Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP): What makes you different and better?
• Anticipate Objections: What are prospects likely to ask based on what your competitors offer?
• Price Strategically: How does your pricing compare to the competition? Crucial for high-ticket sales!
• Refine Your Messaging: Highlight your strengths and position against your competitors weaknesses.

What to Evaluate

This list isn’t exhaustive, nor do you need to cover everything below. Sometimes it’s not possible, sometimes it’s not relevant. Either way, do what you can, then keep moving and don’t get caught up in the details.

Identify Key Competitors

This goes beyond direct competitors (those offering the same product/service) to include indirect competitors (offering alternative solutions that meet the same need) and emerging competitors (startups with disruptive potential or new entrants to the market). This also includes potential competitors – companies in adjacent markets who could easily pivot.⁴

Evaluate Market Positioning

How do competitors present themselves to the market? What is their brand messaging, value proposition, and target audience?⁵ How does their positioning differ from yours, and is there "white space" (an unmet need or under-served segment) that you can exploit? This includes analysing their brand personality, voice, and visual identity.

Pricing & Perks

• Pricing Models: What pricing models do they use (e.g., subscription, freemium, tiered pricing, value-based pricing, cost-plus pricing)?
• Price Points: What are their actual prices for comparable products or services? Are they positioned as a premium, value, or budget option?
• Discounts and Promotions: What discounts, promotions, and bundles do they offer? How frequently do they run sales?
• Perks and Incentives: What additional benefits do they offer to customers (e.g., free shipping, loyalty programs, extended warranties)?

Content Strategy

• Content Types: What types of content do they create (e.g., blog posts, articles, videos, webinars, ebooks, white papers, case studies, infographics)?
• Content Frequency and Volume: How often do they publish new content?
• Content Quality: How good is their content (in terms of accuracy, clarity, engagement, and relevance)?
• Content Distribution: How do they promote and distribute their content?
• Content Performance: How is their content performing (in terms of traffic, engagement, shares, and leads generated)?
• SEO Strategy: What keywords are they targeting? How well are they ranking for those keywords?

SWOT Analysis

Understanding what competitors do well (their core competencies, resources, market share, customer loyalty) and where they are vulnerable (gaps in their offering, customer complaints, outdated technology, slow response to market changes) is critical for differentiation and identifying opportunities.⁵ This is a classic SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis, but applied to each competitor.

Sales Tactics & Results

• Sales Process: How do they acquire customers? What are their sales channels (online, direct sales, partnerships)? What is their sales cycle length?
• Sales Team Structure: How is their sales team organised? (e.g., by region, product, customer segment) What is the size and experience level of their sales force?
• Sales Performance: What are their key sales metrics (e.g., conversion rates, average deal size, Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV))? What are their sales targets and actual results?
• Sales Enablement: What tools and materials do they give their sales teams?

Marketing Strategies

• Marketing Channels: Which channels do they use (e.g., social media, search engine optimisation (SEO), paid advertising, email marketing, content marketing, public relations, events)?
• Marketing Budget Allocation: How much are they investing in each channel (if publicly available or can be estimated)?
• Campaign Analysis: What types of marketing campaigns are they running? What are the key messages and creative assets? What is the performance of these campaigns (reach, engagement, conversions)?
• Targeting and Segmentation: How are they segmenting their target audience, and how are they tailoring their marketing messages to each segment?
• Marketing Automation: Are they using marketing automation and what platforms?

Tech Stack

• Website Platform: What platform is their website built on (e.g., WordPress, Webflow, custom-built)?
• CRM (Customer Relationship Management): What CRM system do they use (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho CRM)?
• Marketing Automation Platform: What marketing automation platform do they use (e.g., Marketo, Pardot, ActiveCampaign)?
• Analytics Tools: What analytics tools do they use (e.g., Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics)?
• Other Key Technologies: What other key technologies do they use (e.g., e-commerce platforms, payment gateways, customer support software, project management tools)? This includes identifying if they're building proprietary technology.

How to Do It

Gather Intelligence

This is all desk research, nothing stopping you except time and focus!

1. Identify Key Competitors: Compile a comprehensive list of competitors. Who else is selling to your target market? Think beyond direct competitors (those offering the exact same product or service). Consider indirect competitors (those offering alternative solutions to the same problem).
2. Evaluate Digital Footprint: Use a variety of sources:
   • Competitor Websites: Analyse their messaging, pricing, features, case studies, and testimonials.
   • Review Sites: Sites like G2, Capterra, Clutch and TrustRadius provide customer reviews and comparisons for B2B software and service businesses. Google Business listings are also a good source of this type of intel. See the Tools and Software Section for more ideas.
   • Social Media: Evaluate and follow their LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social media accounts (both company and individual thought leaders). What are they posting and with what frequency? How are they engaging with their audience?
3. Industry Events: Attend conferences and trade shows to see competitor presentations and gather materials.
4. "Secret Shopping": Optional, but amazing if you can pull it off! If possible, request a demo or trial of your competitor’s products. This is easier for SaaS than service businesses. For the latter you may get to know your competitors at trade shows and events and find they reveal elements of their approach to you. Or, if you’re feeling brave, reach out and enter their sales funnel. You may also be able to enter their marketing funnel to get a closer look at their content, materials and messaging.

Be Stealthy 🥷

If you would prefer your competitors not to be notified that you are checking them out on LinkedIn activate private browsing mode (LinkedIn Premium subscription is required for this).

Review & Document

1. Analyse Competitor’s Approach: Examine how competitors market and sell their products/services, including their content strategy, advertising campaigns, and use of webinars or case studies.
2. Conduct a SWOT Analysis: Identify each competitor's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats to reveal potential areas for competitive advantage..
3. Develop Battlecards: Create concise summaries of key competitor information for sales teams to use in competitive situations.
4. Evaluate Messaging Look at your competitors with a lens on how they speak about what they do, and the claims they make. Consider the fact that you may be shortlisted against them and develop indirect responses for your own messaging.

One of our Sales Battlecards 🤺 💪 Download the B2B Growth Toolkit to access this (and other) templates.