Where are the Innovators in Competitive Intelligence?

So, I receive a daily alert on various competitive intelligence topics through Google’s Blog alert service. You probably track any number of topics (including the competition) by the same means (either in news, blog or regular search alerts). I like to track the “chatter” of the competitive intelligence community. I’ll also admit that I’m a little vain. I like to make sure that my blog entries make it into the top 5 each day. It took a while and a lot of consistent work to gain Google credibility, but we’re pretty visible now.

Everyday for the past year, I have received an email with at least 5 competitive intelligence topics which were generated that day. Occasionally, a rare treat will present itself in the form of a bit of information that makes me think. Mostly, I see article after article (day after day) about how the internet makes competitive intelligence possible for companies. Specifically, you should look at your competitor’s website and grab all of the information you can.

There is nothing wrong with this advice. Many competitive intelligence initiatives begin at that very spot. But, I’m a little bit surprised at how consistently some of the simplest techniques appear at the top of the searches each day.

If it isn’t “Watch your competitor’s web page,” it’s “Do a patent search.” Again, good advice, but I’m still surprised at how many people seem to come up with that idea each day and profess the practice as the next big development in competitive intelligence.

And, the whole web analytics field believes that they have reinvented the competitive intelligence field, simply by tracking Alexa traffic ratings. I’ll bet I see a couple of blog posts about that every week.

I sure do wish that the innovators in Competitive Intelligence were publishing more thoughts and creating more dialogue in the blog community. Of course, SCIP does their part to produce articles and thought leadership, but too few practitioners are participating in the blog world.

I will recommend a few of the blogs that I enjoy. Some of them are published more often than others, but they all come from very intelligent people who have a track record of sharing valuable insight.

Jon Lowder (SCIP)

Arthur Weiss (UK)

Adrian Alvarez (Latin America)

Dan McHugh (Seems to have disappeared in the fall, but his stuff was good)

CI Podcast – August J. Jackson

Fuld

EastSight Consulting

I know I’m missing a ton. Hopefully, you’ll help fill in the blanks with your comments. And, I have included some of our competitors. In fact, I am happy to include them. There are some smart people out there and their thoughts should be promoted above the din.

These people are developing new ideas and sharing them with the CI community. These are the people that will move the industry forward. And, I sure do wish that their intelligence, creativity and insight would drown out some of the drivel that currently exists.

Hopefully, my thoughts, expressed on behalf of Primary Intelligence, have provides some level of quality or inspiration. There are so many topics that need to be covered in competitive intelligence. Hopefully, we’ll hear more about key issues and less about the “new technique” of surfing your competitors’ websites.

A Really Cool Competitive Intelligence Presentation We Made Yesterday…

Yesterday, RoxAnne Loosle (Pronounced Loose-LEE, in case you want to give her a call at 801-838-9600 x5052) presented competitive intelligence findings to one of our clients. In this case, we targeted our intelligence efforts at two specific competitors, gathering data and creating analysis based on recent sales interactions and opportunities (won and lost) by our client.

Due to the confidential nature of our interactions with our clients, I can’t share specific information from the presentation. However, I will share some overall concepts that were brought to light in the presentation that would be considered “hidden gems.”

Our client found that they were leading their competitor consistently in the following areas:

Industry experience (Company Driver)

Technology reputation (Company Driver)

Stability (Company Driver)

References (Sales Team Driver)

Product knowledge (Sales Team Driver)

Areas of weakness were identified as:

Ability to customize (Product Driver)

Purchase cost (Product Driver)

Service cost (Product Driver)

Understanding these performance comparisons is so very important to our clients and their ability to grow market share. Not only were we able to show where the strengths and weaknesses exist today, we also provided specific feedback on those specific points to show why the scores were lower (in comparison with the competitors) and how they could be most effectively brought online.

In addition, we spent time showing our client:

The sales stage where they are eliminated as a vendor in the purchase process when they lose.

A comparison of their overall solution cost compared with the competition

Key marketing activities that influenced the sale

The intelligence we provided has direct relevance to the marketing, sales and product leaders. They left the call, graciously thanking us for the report and 20+ slides of data and recommendation.

It’s fun to share our findings with clients. In some cases, our findings are eye-opening. In others, we affirm information or sentiments based on unrelated efforts. Either way, there is satisfaction in being part of strategic and tactical initiatives that build company momentum.

If you want to chat about these kind of results, reach out. I enjoy a chance to hear from different people. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050) And, if you want to talk to someone that knows what she’s doing, RoxAnne is always happy to talk about the work she can do.

What the Mitchell Report and Competitive Intelligence Have in Common

Major League Baseball received the fruits of a $30M, 409 page report on the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. Most would agree that the past 10-20 years have been a sad time for the integrity of the game. Hopefully, the game will be cleaner, and better, for having been through this level of scrutiny. Personally, I’m sure that all of this activity means more to some than others. I don’t know how yet to feel about the information about a game that I like (but probably don’t love) and I’m not sure I’ll spend enough time thinking about it to form an opinion.

But, I will say that the recommendations offered to major league baseball in the Mitchell Report have some applicability to Competitive Intelligence programs. The following recommendations come straight from the report and are detailed under “Recommendations on the Drug Program.”

The program should be independent

The program should be transparent

There should be adequate year-round drug testing

The program should be flexible enough to employ best practices as they develop

The program should continue to respect the legitimate rights of the players

The program should have adequate funding

Let’s look at those recommendations in a competitive intelligence light:

The program should be independent – This could be tough within a company. However, if the intelligence group is able to act with some degree of autonomy, there are increased chances that the information will be overtly biased. Consider using a 3rd-party to help balance the mix and insert objectivity

The program should be transparent – The best results are likely to come from a group that regularly informs others of their findings, actions and plans for the future. Do not run your competitive intelligence group like a mad scientist’s laboratory. Publish results. Present findings. Get the word out about your capabilities and future direction.

There should be year-round [efforts] – One-and-done research efforts often provide a shot of information but don’t provide context to track results or changes in the marketplace over time. Create some consistency in your efforts and don’t sacrifice stable programs for “flavor of the day” projects.

The program should be flexible enough to employ best practices as they develop – Learning, education, and willingness to improve will help competitive intelligence programs inch forward in progress.

The program should continue to respect the legitimate rights of the players – Be above board with everyone inside your company and out. Do not sneak around. Do not look for the covert. Do not sacrifice integrity and ethics. You can find out almost everything you need to know without violating the law. If you have to dabble in the illegal to compete, you have bigger problems in your business than your competitive intelligence efforts can fix. Just say “no” to espionage.

The program should have adequate funding – Amen. Someone inside of your department is going to have to sell the results of your efforts. Even if your findings are consistently recognized as good, you still have to battle for budget to make sure that funding doesn’t slowly diminish.

Consider the soundness of these recommendations and act. If you follow these basic precepts, you’re likely to keep your organization moving smoothly with little need for earthshaking actions from ownership.

Most importantly, and for the record Mr. Mitchell, this blog is 100% steroid free.

Competitive Intelligence Newsletter – Dave Stein Talks About Sales Intelligence

This week, we took the opportunity to speak with Dave Stein about the role of competitive intelligence in the world of sales training and sales performance enhancement. His insights into his experience with business leaders that “get” the intelligence side may help jump start your next conversation about strategic planning and tactical improvement.

As always, if you would like to a no-cost semi-weekly subscription to the Primary Intelligence Competitive Intelligence Newsletter, send an email to info@primaryintelligence.com with your name and email address. You will receive the next issue.

Cover Story
Competitive Intelligence Makes Sales More Effective – 5 Questions with Dave Stein
By Chris Dalley, Primary Intelligence
In today’s competitive marketplace, skills and bravado are not enough. Sales effectiveness leaders are continuing to espouse the need to understand how the competition sells, how they position themselves against you, what they offer in specific situations and where they are vulnerable...(For more, click here)

BlogCentral
Competitive Intelligence – Helping Sales Aim its Artillery
Only 56% of sales managers claim competitive intelligence as one of their tools. A higher percentage of sales reps (68%) say that they use competitive intelligence to sell. All this seems to beg the question… why isn’t the sales department organizing competitive intelligence initiatives more often...(For more, click here)

The A-List Archive
Pinnacle Systems Chooses RightNow to Satisfy Customers
Originally Published in May 2005.
When Pinnacle Systems discovered that its Asia sales region was using a sophisticated sales automation system, the company decided to evaluate technologies to implement throughout its entire operation...(For more, click here)

Competitive Intelligence Tip #3 for 2008 – Leverage Your Intel to Beat the Competition to the Battlefield

In a marketing case study published by SCIP way back in 2001, the following description of the competitive environment illustrated the need to involve more sales and marketing people within the competitive intelligence efforts.

“A truism: In the face of economic uncertainty, companies must be more aggressive in order to gain competitive advantage. A fact: Under pressure to deliver against difficult odds, sales and marketing groups increasingly are being embedded into company-wide CI operations. The result: A real difference in revenue generation, from winning a small sale, to taking advantage of a major market opportunity.”

In a case study of Merck’s intelligence efforts, a description of the objectives included the following:

“The project involved re-positioning a current Merck drug so that it claimed the competitive space a rival's product was aiming to occupy -- thus delaying the competitor's launch to the point where, because of patent expiration timetables, a major rollout no longer made financial sense.

Summed up, this project involved using publicly available data to predetermine the competitor's plans for marketing and positioning a brand still in development. Once anticipated, a pre-emptive counterstrategy was conceived and employed by Merck, by repositioning a product already on the market. This forced the competitor to conduct new trials to reposition its brand, resulting in a significant delay in market entry, and allowing Merck's existing brand to enjoy sustained growth and increased market share.

While the specifics may relate to pharmaceuticals, basic CI technique was at the heart of this success. Early warning of the competitor's intentions was gleaned by attending professional medical meetings and gathering public domain information such as efficacy and safety data, and clinical trial results -- providing clues on how a forthcoming development may be marketed.

‘We found that the message around the competitor's product, which hadn't been introduced yet, was very strong. Not only strong, but in a market segment that no one else occupied," related Mr. Kalb. "Our own original data about a Merck product showed if our product was positioned in the same area where their product was most likely going to be positioned, we could block them. We could get into their space before they got there, and occupy it in a way that prevented them from claiming a unique selling proposition.’”

Merck ended up running simulations of marketing messages, strategies, product marketing and attempted to anticipate where the competitor’s product would be of most value. As a result of these exercises, Merck was able to beat the competitor to its intended market, causing the competitor to delay its product launch 18-24 months due to repositioning efforts. Additionally, Merck was able to take advantage of being first to market and weakening all subsequent efforts of the competitor.

Merck estimated a gain of $150-200 million over the competitor due to its competitive intelligence project, which was still bringing in gains. These gains may have eventually total out somewhere in the $300-400 million range.

Not a bad bit of ROI for a hard working competitive intelligence team.

Not every competitive intelligence initiative is such a big hit. In fact, some CI efforts do little more than monitor trends. But, if you are in a position to understand company strategy, future direction and aspirations, you need to step away from the day-to-day and examine how your current CI might lead to bigger insights. If you can improve your company’s overall performance by just 1-5% with intelligence, the ROI story can be very impressive.

And remember. Every extra dollar you earn for your company is a dollar your competition will never see.

Competitive Intelligence Tip #2 for 2008 – Choose the Best Sources

How different is the job of the competitive intelligence professional with the immediacy and availability of the internet. Of course, these are not new developments. You probably started leveraging the internet more than a decade ago to either develop your program or augment your data.

We could use a lot of blogsphere space talking about some very obvious methods of monitoring the competition: Google and Yahoo Alerts, Yahoo Finance, libraries, press releases, blogs, customer forums and user groups, etc… All of these sources put the world of information in the palm of your hand.
Really, you have to give people credit for the creativity they use in mining these sources of information. The level of inference and deduction available based on these bits of information can be unexpected.

But, I would encourage CI professionals to continue to monitor the competition through human interaction, too. No. I do not mean that you should attempt to infiltrate the enemy. That is still called espionage and it still carries a large fine and jail sentence. Stay away from that. Or hire an ex-spook, I suppose. But, really. Don’t do that.

I recommend that you continue to mine competitive intelligence from sources that are currently at your disposal.

By this, I mean that you should:

Look at your current voice of the customer programs and see where you might be able to insert a few questions about the competition

Consider a win/loss program to understand how you are performing TODAY against the competition.

Examine the types of information regarding your competitors that your most trusted clients might know. (Believe me. Your best clients know your competitors very well)

Search for new ways to ask the same questions to your marketplace to gather comparisons between you and your most troublesome competitors.

This approach is likely to save time (you already know who your client and prospect base are), money (these types of interviews might even piggy-back on other voice of the customer programs at no actual cost to you), generate some of the best insight into the marketplace and provide intelligence that can be of use to sales, marketing, product and executive levels.

Gathering competitive intelligence from your clients and prospects is not perfect. You can gain different levels of insight from web sources, analysts and other programs. However, in our experience, reaching out to people that live in the marketplace often provides most of the insight your sales, product and marketing team need to increase their competitive abilities.

And, if you are able to sell, market or produce solutions that better meet the needs of your marketplace, you have a fantastic ROI story you can attribute to your competitive intelligence program.

If you need a little help, don’t be afraid to contact me (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050) at Primary Intelligence. This is what we do every day.

From the world of Competitive Intelligence

From the world of competitive intelligence articles, you may want to look at some of the following CI blog posts. Turns out, there are some pretty smart people out there in the competitive intelligence world.

Handy CI Tools for Nonprofits and Small Companies
At the Special Libraries Association conference in Denver, CO, last June, I heard the term “competitive intelligence” uttered more than “Who’s giving away the free cookies?” CI, as it’s called, is not exactly in James Bond’s arena, ...

Compete Search Analytics: Competitive Intelligence Smackdown!
Let that be a reminder to you to take all competitive intelligence data with a grain of salt, especially for small sample sizes. Full Segment List This is a complete list of the site categories and behavior segments available in the ...

Deep Web Searching - A Forgotten Skill
I urge you to take a look at the following resources:. Deep Web Research 2008 By Marcus Zillman; Invisible Web & Database Search Engines - Search Engine Watch; Discover and exploit the Invisible Web for competitive intelligence.

Competitive Intelligence
"Competitive intelligence (CI) is the process of monitoring the competitive environment. CI enables senior managers in companies of all sizes to make informed decisions about everything from marketing, R&D, and investing tactics to ...

Competitive Intelligence Tip #1 - Make Your CI Produce Revenue

In a post by Jan P. Herring titled “How Much is Your Competitive Intelligence Worth,” the distinction between information and intelligence is made in a way that speaks to me:

“In the final analysis you can evaluate your company’s CI effort if you properly define what and how you intend to measure. In my experience, senior level users of BI/CI are not as interested in financial or quantitative measures of your CI products & services as they are in having intelligence that visibly affects their decision-making or business actions in a positive fashion. They do, however, expect to see some form of related action. Those actions that result in grater sales, profits, or other measures of business success are the most valued.

An old friend and associate, Robert Steele, probably put it best, “Information costs money. Intelligence makes money!” Essentially, any competitive information that a business manager acts on becomes intelligence. And, intelligence used by a company that makes money is good intelligence!”

He also discusses various ways that Competitive Intelligence can produce ROI, but more importantly, can be measured to validate the ROI:

Time saving: Savings for both professional and support personnel

Cost savings: Elimination or reduction in expenses

Cost avoidance: Elimination of planned expenses

Revenue increases: Increases in the number of sales or size of sales

Value added: Benefits not easily related to specific dollar values, e.g., more effective strategies or better new products and services.

In so many places, we have tried to espouse the same message. Competitive intelligence professionals need to be looking for the ROI in their initiatives. Or, too often, you will be known as the producer of information, not intelligence. And, really? What value is there in that?

Links to other Primary Intelligence thoughts on CI/ROI
Webinar: CI with ROI
Another Endorsement for Win Loss Analysis
Competitive Intelligence – The Difference Between “Interesting” and “Effective”
What are the top challenges with regards to Competitive Intelligence?
Making Competitive Intelligence Effective with Cross-functional Teams (Part 2 of 4)
Increasing ROI from Competitive Intelligence Efforts
Analytics in Competitive Intelligence: Stated Importance vs. Derived Importance

The Compartmentalization of Competitive Intelligence in a Company

Over the past couple of weeks, I have spent some time on the phone talking with a number of our current and past clients. What a great experience this has been. I am reminded of the great people that have chosen to work with Primary Intelligence.

The goal of these conversations has been to understand a little bit more about how companies use our intelligence. At Primary Intelligence, we have a strong value proposition and we’re pretty good at communication the message. To us, the true value of what we do is obvious. The list of people in a company that should benefit from our services is well defined. In other words, we’re a simple plug-in solution that solves a set of problems and provides an expected value.

All of which is true to some extent. But, the real fun has been to find out all those little nuances of use, value and such that come into existence within each of our clients’ corporate environments and cultures. We have some very creative clients that are finding bigger and better ways to leverage their intelligence to create more value. We also have a few that are looking forward to a summary of my findings as a “thank you” for their willingness to spend time with me.

Something that is coming out in many of my conversations, however, is the fact that intelligence often has a tendency to be compartmentalized. By this, I mean that there is a tendency for the intelligence to be consumed by a single person or group of people for strategic planning and tactical to-dos, but other departments are often left in the dark regarding the presence of win loss feedback.

Some of the most interesting examples of this compartmentalization occur between sales and marketing. (Can’t we all just get along?) When sales intelligence is purchased by sales, sales operations or sales training, there is often a reluctance to share the data throughout the organization. The intelligence is used by the sales group to accomplish their designs, but marketing, product or corporate executives often do not receive information.

Even more interesting is the reaction from the marketing side. In numerous cases, marketing has told me that they use the win loss data to answer questions about marketing and product. They even put pieces of our intelligence into presentations that are delivered to the executive boardroom. But, when asked about how the sales team uses the intelligence, a long silence happens and then they ask, “What would sales want with this information?”

Personally, I would have thought sales would be eminently interested. But, from some points of view within a company, they can’t see what a sales leader or rep needs to be more successful.

Caveats: We do have plenty of clients that share between sales, marketing, product and others. These phone calls are not a scientific measure. These conversations are as relevant as one-offs on any topic. Some companies use intelligence more effectively than others. Most sales and marketing groups work together to coordinate their intelligence needs. A win loss project doesn’t mean the same thing to every company in every industry.

That said, it is my observation that our clients that create a processes to accept, digest, understand, distribute and act on sales intelligence tend to be leaders in their respective industries. I’m sure that many of these companies have an overall culture that is accustomed to using research, data and intelligence of many types. The fact that they can process our information is the result of a leadership group that expects all leaders to be more fact-based.

What is the takeaway? You might want to look at your company culture and plans for 2008. What types of competitive intelligence are you generating? Does your CI program have ROI potential? How far does it travel and are there any real expectations that the information will be used to make a revenue-enhancing decision (increased sales success, better market positioning, increased competitive strength, faster time to market, etc…)?

What can you do to gain one more champion of your competitive intelligence efforts? Can you reach out to another department and make a friend? Can you find others within your company that are willing to receive your data? How willing are you to listen to other research performed by other departments in your company?

Personally, I believe that the good intelligence should rise above the clutter to the top and it should be used as often as possible, as long as it is relevant, to strengthen the company. Otherwise, the overall value is marginalized.

Progress starts with one person trying to make something a little better. Are you the person to break down some of the compartmentalization of your company?

Competitive Intelligence Newsletter – Before Battle, Know Your Competition

This week, the cover story by Thayne Johnson provides an insightful look into competitive intelligence methods that show competitor movements in real time.. You’ll also find information on how Sales Intelligence matters to your success. Finally, a report from ES Research Group will help your sales leadership make sense of sales effectiveness enhancement companies.

Cover Story
Sun Tzu Says Know Your Competition
By Thayne Johnson, Primary IntelligenceThe war of business may not be carried out with weapons of war, but battles over prospects, budgets and market share are fought every day. The casualties of war are growth, personal opportunity and in some cases, companies that fall by the wayside. Just like in an army, every member of a business has to take a part in the competitive nature of the business battleground...(For more, click here)

Announcing the 2008 Sales Training Vendor Guide
Corporations continue to spend a significant portion of their revenues on sales training. Unchanged from last year, enterprises spend between $4 billion and $7 billion per year training sales professionals. Of all the excellent sales training vendors out there, only a few are a fit for your organization. This ESR/InDepth™ Report is designed to help your organization increase the return on your sales training investment.
ES Research Group has compiled their findings into a 200 page report. This 3rd party evaluation is a “must read” for companies seeking sales performance enhancement.
For a free summary, CLICK HERE.

BlogCentral
What is Sales Intelligence and Why Does it Matter?
If a business exists to make money (and really, what other purpose does the business entity have?) as efficiently as possible, and the role of sales is to create the revenue streams as effectively as possible, then isn’t sales intelligence...(For more, click here)

The A-List Archive
Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Selects Siemens. What Were the Key Value Factors?
Originally Published in December 2004.
Executives at Brookhaven Memorial Hospital wanted to enhance their medical information systems by upgrading and expanding their current technology. An evaluation of MEDITECH, Eclipsys, and Siemens resulted in the selection of a number of Siemens applications, including several from its Soarian product line. Although Siemens was the incumbent provider, this had very little to do with the decision...(For more, click here)

Competitive Intelligence Webinar Archive

This year, we at Primary Intelligence have covered a number of topics in our webinar series. It has been our pleasure to show our clients and others understand a better way to stronger results from their competitive intelligence efforts.

All of our webinars can be downloaded from our archive page. Help yourself.

If you have any questions regarding any of these topics, let me know (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050). If you would like to receive invitations to future webinars, send me an email. And if you want to contribute a topic or work with us to co-host a webinar, let me know.

The following webinars are available at the archive page:

Three Benefits of Win Loss

In the last five years, win loss analysis has gone from a little known niche project to a recognized best practice. In the most progressive companies, executives demand that sales, marketing, and product development listen to Win Loss feedback and work together to become more competitive.

The opportunity to increase your sales and marketing success sits right at your doorstep. But, do you have everything you need to achieve the greatest potential? Can you make simple changes that will result in gargantuan increases?

Cross-Functional Intelligence Teams

While information provides the fuel for strategic direction, how often does yesterday's "can't miss" intelligence initiative get lost in the shuffle of today's realities?

Overall, too many sales, competitive, and market intelligence initiatives are judged ineffective due to the fact that the intelligence is never used to increase sales, gain a competitive advantage, or capitalize on a new market opportunity.

Sales Confidence – Does Your Sales Team Have Heart?

“The first sale has to occur in the sales rep’s heart.”

This statement has always been true, but often it is difficult to get an accurate measurement of your sales team’s attitudes and their level of confidence in your company, your products, your competition, and their own abilities.

Primary Intelligence would like to invite you to a Webinar explaining the Sales Confidence Index (SCI), a Web-based metric that can be used to analyze your sales team’s level of engagement and provide insight into the areas that will help you create and maintain a dedicated, confident, and effective sales force.

Sales Intelligence in the Sales Force

Companies who use Sales Intelligence typically report an increase in market share and competitive performance by 10% or more. Yet, less than half of sales managers and reps claim to use sales intelligence of any kind.

Is your company taking the lead or are you falling behind your competitors in the use of this critical best practice?

How can your company go beyond general sales information to Sales Intelligence? Primary Intelligence would like to invite you to a Webinar on how to produce intelligence that actually makes a difference to both your marketing and sales personnel.

It was a dark and stormy customer satisfaction survey...

Customer Satisfaction, Account Loyalty, Win-back, Win Loss, Client Retention and Defection. They all have one thing in common – Your customers are talking to you, giving you valuable clues about your business and your performance. And they know almost as much about your competition as they do about you.

The question is: are your competitive intelligence initiatives more like Sherlock Holmes...or Inspector Clouseau?

If your information about your competitive success or failure seems more like lucky bumblings than the result of clever investigation, it may be because you’re overlooking this key source of competitive intelligence.

Turning Competitive Intelligence into Revenue

Q: Are your competitive intelligence initiatives bringing a measurable and sustainable ROI to your company?
o Yes
o No
o Unsure
o Huh? ROI from CI? Our CI is more like a black hole from which no revenue can escape!

Unfortunately, many organizations find themselves having to answer “No” or “Unsure” to this question. If your company is one of these, you should download Primary Intelligence’s Webinar, “Competitive Intelligence with ROI.”

This Webinar will explore ways that you can transform your competitive intelligence efforts from simple data-gathering exercises into revenue-enhancing tools. We’ll be discussing simple evaluative criteria that allow you to select and prioritize your strategies for the greatest effectiveness, as well as tools and techniques for maximizing the ROI of your intelligence programs.

Keep tabs on us in 2008. We'll make sure to keep the good stuff coming.

Using Win Loss to Win Back Business (After they have experienced the competition)

During our most recent webinar (hosted on 10/25/2007 and available for download here), Ron Sathoff and I talked about three of the biggest benefits of Win Loss. One of those points was the ability to win back business that was previously lost to a competitor.

At Primary Intelligence, we emphasize competitive intelligence that will help your sales, marketing and business development organizations create more revenue, strengthen competitive positioning and refine value propositions to be more effective than your competitors. Our goal is to provide your company with increased revenue through your sales and marketing efforts.

How do we do this? Primarily, we use Win Loss studies to measure competitive performance during some of the most valuable times; namely, when your company, product and sales performance are being compared with your direct competitors. We also take the opportunity to ask about the key loyalty drivers based on their current experience with their new vendor.

Using these data, combined with additional client satisfaction questions based on their current experience, Primary Intelligence provides a win-back index that helps prioritize sales and account management efforts with your lost deals long before their current vendor starts to worry about retention.

Imagine begin able to target your competitors’ defectors before the competitors can develop retention strategies.

One of our current health insurance clients said that using this system, they were able to win back 7 of 30 losses within 12 months of the initial loss. What would a 23% win back rate do for your company’s top line revenue?

If you have any questions, experiences or thoughts, let me know. I’d enjoy talking with you to understand how you achieve these same types of results. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Using Win Loss to Produce Tactical Competitive Intelligence

During our most recent webinar (hosted on 10/25/2007 and available for download here ), Ron Sathoff and I talked about three of the biggest benefits of Win Loss. One of those points was the level of actionable competitive intelligence that is available through debriefs of your recent sales prospects.

At Primary Intelligence, we emphasize competitive intelligence that will help your sales, marketing and business development organizations create more revenue, strengthen competitive positioning and refine value propositions to be more effective than your competitors.

How do we do this? Primarily, we use Win Loss studies to measure competitive performance during some of the most valuable times; namely, when your company, product and sales performance are being compared with your direct competitors.

Some examples of this type of reporting and analysis include:

Competitive landscape analysis:


The chart above shows the frequency of encounters with specific competitors. In many cases, we’ll identify changing trends in the major players in different industries. We help show when the boutiques and upstarts are gaining traction. We’ll show the competitors that fight the hardest and those that fall by the wayside when you are in the opportunity. Of course, all of these findings can be filtered by vertical, company size, etc…

Competitive Performance Analysis


To increase your effectiveness and win more business, you have to know where you compare on key decision-making criteria versus you strongest competitors. Your prospects watched you perform and compared your capabilities with other companies in the deals. Over time, your strengths rise to the top while your weaknesses become very apparent.

With this type of intelligence, you can pinpoint today’s strengths and tomorrow’s improvements. Make sure that you are able to address perceived areas of deficiencies before the competition can exploit them.

Not only will this information help you sell more effectively, but you can keep tabs on the competition. Over time, you can watch where their strengths and weakness scores move. You can infer the areas that the competition has targeted for improvement and move to counter their gains.

SWOT Tables, Illustrated with Examples


Finally, let’s make the Strengths and Weaknesses section of the SWOT mean something. Direct quotes from your prospects explaining specific strengths and weaknesses put teeth into your recommendations. Sales people usually like this stuff the best because they can read a few sentences and use that information right away.

Boy. Today’s post has really come across as a commercial… more so than usual. But, that’s the way things go some days.. even in Australia. (Gold stars for anyone that posts or replies to me with the source of the “even in Australia” comment.)

Competitive Intelligence Newsletter – Tips for Beginners

This week, the cover story provides some of the basics that even seasoned competitive intelligence veterans need. You’ll also find information on why sales doesn’t receive as much intelligence as you might like. Finally, a report from ES Research Group will help your sales leadership make sense of sales effectiveness enhancement companies.

Cover Story
The Top Three Box Office Flops for Beginning CI Researchers
By Ron Sathoff, Primary Intelligence
For a lot of people (myself included), a good piece of Competitive Intelligence research can have all the beauty of a piece of art, such as a poem, a painting—or even a film. Like these art forms, CI can inspire or instruct those who take the time to understand it, and can even effect significant change. However, unlike a beginning filmmaker, whose poor initial efforts may only result in a bit of ridicule at a local film festival, a “flop” from a beginning CI specialist may have some significant consequences—for both the researcher and his or her organization (For more, click here)

Announcing the 2008 Sales Training Vendor Guide from ES Research Group
Corporations continue to spend a significant portion of their revenues on sales training. Unchanged from last year, enterprises spend between $4 billion and $7 billion per year training sales professionals. Of all the excellent sales training vendors out there, only a few are a fit for your organization. This ESR/InDepth™ Report is designed to help your organization increase the return on your sales training investment.
ES Research Group has compiled their findings into a 200 page report. This 3rd party evaluation is a “must read” for companies seeking sales performance enhancement.
For a free summary, CLICK HERE.

BlogCentral
Why Doesn't Competitive Intelligence Flow to Sales?
Only 56% of sales managers claim competitive intelligence as one of their tools. A higher percentage of sales reps (68%) say that they use competitive intelligence to sell. All this seems to beg the question… why isn’t the sales department organizing competitive intelligence initiatives more often (For more, click here)

The A-List Archive
A-List – R-G Crown Selects S1 over Fundtech for Online Banking Services
Originally Published in June 2005.
R-G Crown Bank acquired 18 banks from SouthTrust Bank in October 2004 and wanted to implement new online banking solutions in order to provide better service to its customers and satisfy federal banking regulators (For more, click here)

Three Benefits of Win Loss You Can’t Ignore – Analytics & Strategy (1 of 3)

There are few revenue-generating competitive intelligence tools more valuable than Win Loss. If done correctly, a Win Loss exercise provides insight into competitive strengths/weaknesses, marketplace innovations, loyalty factors and steps to improving win rates. From a tactical standpoint, Win Loss derived intelligence can show steps to increase a company’s competitive positioning right now.

I know that today’s post will be a pretty strong commercial, but Primary Intelligence has developed sophisticated predictive analytics that crate an unparalleled strategic view. Let me show you what I’m talking about.

Below, you will see an example of a Strength/Weakness evaluation based on data from recent sales opportunities, taken from a win loss study of 50-60 opportunities. Half of the data come from new business that was won and the other 50% come from opportunities that were lost to competitors:


The data are sorted from biggest negative competitive gap (weakness) at the top to the biggest positive competitive gap (strength) at the bottom. The scores are based on a 1-10 scale where 1 is Poor and 10 is excellent.

If you were to make strategic changes in your company based on the data in this table, you would probably look at the weaknesses and evaluate the most effective ways to close the competitive gap.

But, would this make a difference? What would happen if you were to increase your performance in Overall Solution Cost or Understanding Needs by ten percent? (A 10% improvement would mean that you increase your score of 8.1 to 9.1) How much would your win rate increase? Would making improvements in your weaknesses correlate with a stronger competitive preference, or would you be pulling the wrong levers and pouring time and money down the drain?

Traditional intelligence looks at Strengths and Weaknesses
• Should you “fix” weaknesses or accentuate strengths?
• Strength/Weaknesses don’t always correlate with decision making.
• Where is your opportunity to increase win rates and market share?

Can you rely on today’s strength and weakness assessments to point your company to the strongest positioning tomorrow? Does a measurement of strengths and weaknesses provide the foresight to recommend company-changing shifts? Where is the crystal ball that will show the actual gains that might be made on performance changes in your company, product and sales efforts?

Primary Intelligence does this all the time. To show your company where the real opportunities exist, we:

1. Interview recent wins and losses where your company competed head-to-head with specific competitors.
2. Measure your competitive performance in 20-30 specific decision influencers
3. Determine strengths and weaknesses (Not the gap score in the table below. Positive gaps indicate weaknesses. Negative gaps indicate strengths)
4. Use predictive analytics to determine the influencers that, it improved, would result in the greatest increases in market share. (Impact column, explained below)

Impact identifies your expected improvement in market share. For instance, in the chart above (a real-world example taken from one of our clients), if you were to improve your company’s performance in Product Knowledge by one point (In other words, if you improved the 7.7 rating to an 8.7), you would expect your win rate and market share to increase by the impact score of 5.7% (at the 90% confidence level).

And, Product Knowledge is already a competitive strength. Overall, you outperform the competition by 5% in this area. The key may be to make this competitive advantage more consistent throughout the company.

In other words, there are influencers that would provide 2x, 3x and 4x the results of others if improvement were made in those specific areas. This could result in gains of millions or billions of unexpected dollars, based on some potentially simple improvements in the right areas.

This approach takes a lot of the guesswork out of the equation. No espionage required. And, yet, the company makes the biggest gains in increasing its client base.

Competitive Intelligence and the Marketing Department Merging (Old News, Interesting Article)

Yesterday, Jon Lowder of SCIP, posted various CI related links, one of which describes the continuing trend to combine sales and marketing efforts.

The article is two years old and written from the pharmaceutical industry. However, I found the overall content interesting and recommend that you give it a read, too.

(Teaser) One of the statements that took me a bit by surprise was, “some experts argue that market research is just a subset of competitive intelligence.[CBD1] ” My personal observation is that CI usually lives side-by-side or as a subset of market research. Please, let me know if you are in a company where market research is a subset of competitive intelligence.

The article can be found HERE. I’ll give you a few paragraphs to whet your appetite:

More companies are folding Competitive Intelligence departments into Market Research. Here's why that strategy makes sense—and some hints on making the new relationship work.

That sort of insight has led to the latest trend in the world of competitive intelligence. Recognizing that competitive intelligence and market research overlap, companies across multiple industries are combining the two functions. The jury is still out on how effective this strategy will be in the long run, and on what the best way is to structure the two functions to work well together. But in the meantime, market-research groups have been turning their attention more and more toward collecting and analyzing competitive intelligence to support specific product goals. The pharmaceutical industry in particular has been integrating competitive-intelligence and market-research efforts to engender greater strategic impact from their market-research functions.

Fifty years ago, market-research groups enjoyed vast resources—large budgets and staffs to support almost any research need—as the industry began to adapt to more consumer-driven markets. Slowly, though, companies pulled back their market-research dollars and eventually shrank internal market-research groups to one or two team members.


The pharma industry witnessed some of the most drastic cuts in market-research resources. In the mid-1980s, pharmaceutical market-research teams were almost non-existent, even in the most-respected firms. Outsourcing became a quiet solution to data collection and cost savings. Most pharma companies outsourced all their market-research work during the 1980s.

The 1990s, however, saw a shift back to building internal market-research teams, which has lasted to the present. Those teams were built to support the blockbuster generation: Find a market gap, use the data to develop a first-to-market product, and brace yourself for the sales upswing. As scores of blockbuster products approach patent expiration and companies begin looking to lifecycle management teams to expand their franchises, market-research resources are settling to a more comfortable size... (for more, click here)

Another Endorsement for Win Loss Analysis

One of our clients in the Blue Cross Blue Shield network was kind enough to provide an assessment of the success of their win loss program, which they have outsourced to Primary Intelligence:

“The real value of the Primary Intelligence System to us, is their uncanny ability to drill through Producers directly to Group Leaders and Group Decision makers and engage them at a level denied to us over and over again.

At that level, Primary Intelligence uncovered the truth, the real drivers of decisions on healthcare, and gave us the opportunity to address those directly the following year.

We won back 7 of the 30 losses the previous year and those wins were driven by knowing the truth.” - Senior Healthcare Intelligence Analyst

If you are considering a win loss program, you might consider the following:

How much more successful would your company be at selling new deals if you really knew why you win and lose?

How much revenue would you gain if your company could win back 23% of lost sales within 12-24 months?

What would the ROI be if you were able to create a more solid “win” and increase the likelihood that your current client base would stay with you longer?

These are the results that Primary Intelligence delivers daily. If you are missing out, let’s chat.

Download our recent webinar on the topic (click here) or we can talk. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

The Purpose of Business – Competitive Intelligence May Be the Key

Lately, I have been reading about business, business development, and the relationship of marketing in the entire mix. So many different thoughts… So many different ideas.

I found one idea while researching the topic, “The Purpose of Business.” Below, I’ll share a little bit with you:

Dr. Peter Drucker: A business enterprise has two basic functions: marketing and innovation

If we want to know what a business is, we have to start with its purpose. And the purpose must lie outside the business itself. In fact, it must lie in society, since a business enterprise is an organ of society. There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer. The customer is a foundation of a business and keeps it in existence. The customer alone gives employment. And it is to supply the customer that society entrusts wealth-producing resources to the business enterprise.

Because it is the purpose to create a customer, any business enterprise has two – and only two – basic functions: marketing and innovation. These are the entrepreneurial functions. Marketing is the distinguishing, the unique function of the business.

ACTION POINT: Find out what needs your customers want fulfilled today. Determine how well your products are meeting the needs of your customers.

If the idea is to create a customer, I don’t want to just stop there. In marketing, I want to create a customer better than anyone else in my space. If there are a certain number of potential customers out there, I want to grab as many as possible. It’s not that I’m greedy. It’s just the nature of business.

And, if (as the article says), there are two basic functions (marketing and innovation). The most important tasks will be focused on marketing and innovating better than anyone else in your industry.

Where does CI fit into understanding the marketing and innovation of your competitors? I’ll give you an example that has provided Primary Intelligence and dozens of our clients with powerful insight into these two areas: Win Loss, Post-implementation and Account Loyalty & Retention.

Win loss
The ultimate study of creating a customer. Win loss is a competitive intelligence effort that focuses specifically on the process of building the customer relationship, conveying value, presenting a solution to a need and comparing your performance in those areas to that of the competition. “Why isn’t the business growing?” “What aren’t we creating customers like we thought we would?” If those answers are important to you, win loss is generally the most effective answer.

Primary Intelligence has a very sophisticated win loss system the rivals the results of just about any in-house program we’ve seen. Yes, I’m bragging. Talk to me and find out why.

Post-implementation
Just after the customer has been created, you should be very close to them to determine: a) how life has changed for them now that they have your product/service/solution in place and b) What are the additional bits of service they wish you provided now that the initial needs have been met.

Don’t think that these conversations should happen only with your own clients. If you know the customers that signed with the competitor, make sure you’re talking to them 60-90 days into their experience. You still own a relationship built during the sales process and that relationship can be leveraged to understand whether the grass really is as green as originally thought. What would your sales guys give to be able to say, “You can choose [competitor x] and they have a good product, but the people we talk to say that [competitor x] consistently falls short in these three areas…

Account Loyalty and Retention
There is no argument that keeping a customer is often more important that creating one. Account loyalty and retention show you how to be more effective at keeping a much higher percentage of clients when it is time to renew. I’ll explain the difference between the two:

Account loyalty studies are conducted during the client life-cycle. This research helps you see where the customer experience has helped your chances of renewing a client and where the gaps may be. These efforts should be taken throughout the client lifecycle, but are traditionally administered a few months before accounts begin their renewal considerations.

Account retention programs are conducted just like win loss studies. However, in this case, the study attempts to answer “Why do our clients renew/defect” rather than “Why do our prospects choose us or the competition?” Primary Intelligence has a powerful set of predictive analytics that can be applied to this type of study; just like our win loss.

Be the Best
In the final tally, you’ll have to ask yourself: “Are you in it to do just well enough or to generate customers better than the other guys?” Be in it to win. It’s much more fun that way.

Then, look for the tools that will give you the biggest chance of creating a new customer at the expense of the competition.

Thoughts? Let me know. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Competitive Intelligence Newsletter: Double Your Money: Win Back Lost Sales…

In this week’s cover story, Mike Brose talks about the double benefit of winning back accounts that were never yours. And, don’t forget to download our recent webinar: Three Benefits of Win Loss You Can’t Ignore

Cover Story
Double Your Money: Win Back Lost Sales with Intelligence
By Mike Brose, Primary Intelligence
Too often, companies are willing to wave "goodbye" to lost prospects, hoping that, "Someday, they'll give us another shot." In essence, the effort that was put into selling is dismissed. Rare is the company that has a formal win back program. But these companies have learned very clearly just how profitable those programs can be... (For more, click here)

BlogCentral
Why is Competitive Intelligence Not Effective?
In short, does your company make changes to increase revenues and profitability based on your intelligence efforts? Based on our experience, if you are like most companies, the effect of your intelligence efforts are minimized and, often, substantially... (For more, click here)

The A-List
iLinc Wins Pfizer Contract with Mixture of Technology, Content and Customer Focus
Originally Published in December 2004.
Executives at Pfizer's Global Learning and Development Group wanted to upgrade its training and assessment tools for its pharmaceutical sales personnel. The three short-list vendors were required to submit proposals, which were evaluated by DeLosa and a team of Pfizer personnel from strategic services and healthcare systems training. Although the proposals were intended to be the main element of the evaluation process... (For more, click here)

Competitive Intelligence Webinar Wrap-up – Three Benefits of Win Loss

Last Thursday, Ron Sathoff and I co-hosted a webinar on the topic of Win Loss. Over the years, Primary Intelligence has conducted dozens of thousands of sales debriefs for our clients and some major benefits have bubbled to the surface. Yesterday, we took time to discuss each of the following topics:

1. Actionable Competitive Intelligence


2. Analytics to predict ROI


3. Win back programs

Of course, one of the prime benefits of Win Loss analysis is the fact that your sales teams can sell more effectively with intelligence. But, the benefits extend much deeper than that. When Win Loss is done properly, the competitive intelligence that it generates can improve marketing, product development and corporate strategy just while providing the competitive boost for sales.

You may also want to consider a test run of two free win loss reports, based on your own sales opportunities. If you are new to PI, you might qualify for a test drive. If you have some interested in this, send me an email and let me know (cdalley@primary-intel.com)

If you would like to download a copy of the presentation, please click HERE

Does Business Have the Right Structure to Use Competitive Intelligence?

In the last post, I talked about the military and the reason that their intelligence organization generally is able to provide effective intelligence. In brief, professional, trained intelligence personnel support officers and field personnel with a sophisticated intelligence system.

The attention to intelligence is driven by the fact that lives are on the line. Understanding strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, centers of gravity, etc… are not just “nice to know.”

As mentioned in the last blog, the military places so much emphasis on intelligence that it has its own department, outside of field operations. There are field agents and intelligence officers. The different intelligence ranks have access to every rank of fighting personnel.

It’s not all rosy and perfect, but one would be hard pressed to find another organization that matches the emphasis and effectiveness of intelligence in the military.

How does your business compare?

If you are like most, your company has invested in intelligence, but has not made a commitment to intelligence-based decisions. Communication is not as organized as it might be and the flow of information is not consistent.

A significant problem in business competitive intelligence is the fact that the intelligence staff usually resides somewhere in company other than near the decision makers. Now, for the sake of honesty, I’ll say that I have been very impressed with some of the corporate strategy groups with whom I have been associated and I am encouraged by the access which they are granted to the executive level. But these cases are far too rare.

If your business structure buries analysts and competitive intelligence professionals deep in the world of marketing, the likelihood of necessary intelligence making a difference in the company is very low.


What do you do about this?

Do you have it in your power to start an organizational change? Does your direct report have the ability to start the process?

Can you boil your intelligence down to a summary with recommendations that might be appreciated by a higher-level manager? What are your potential means of moving information to different people?

Who is your internal client? Who request intelligence? Who funds the intelligence? What do they want to know? How often do they want to know? What tangible benefits has your company realized through the use of your intelligence?

Start to formulate answers to these questions. Do so with the goal of convincing the next people up the org chart to give more visibility to your company’s competitive intelligence efforts. Show them what CI has to offer and how much is being lost with the current amount of emphasis.

These are the same techniques that 3rd-party vendors have to use to stay in business and they will work to some degree for you.

Thoughts? Let me know. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Military Intelligence – A Template for Effective Competitive Intelligence

More than 95% of U.S. based businesses indicate that they have dedicated some amount of resources to the gathering of intelligence. This may include market, sales or competitive intelligence, but the goal is usually the same: be better at business than the next guy.

But, few companies would rate themselves as being very effective with the intelligence. And, the funny thing is the discrepancy of the perception between those that gather the intelligence and those that would use it. Executives usually rate themselves as “somewhat effective” or “very effective” as using intelligence while the intelligence professionals generally rate the executives as “not very effective.” Hmmmm. Why so many axes to grind?

Every organization should examine and reexamine its practices to create a continual improvement process. During this process, I would recommend that each organization take a little time to review other organizations that make intelligence a priority.

Now, it would be difficult to peek into other businesses and discover their secrets. You wouldn’t open your doors to this kind of review. Why would anyone else?

But, you can look at an institution that, overall, leads the world in the gathering, analysis and use of intelligence – The military. In fact, you can make the case that the military has the longest running and most successful intelligence system in history. (We won’t talk about policy makers and their use or misuse of intelligence. That’s another story for another day…

Where else are the stakes higher than on the battlefield? In a situation where lives and equipment are constantly at risk, we can learn some very critical things about how the military values its “competitive intelligence”, from gathering through strategic use.

“Most militaries maintain a military intelligence corps with specialized intelligence units for collecting information in specific ways. Militaries also typically have intelligence staff personnel at each echelon down to battalion level. Intelligence officers and enlisted soldiers assigned to military intelligence may be selected for their analytical abilities or scores on intelligence tests. They usually receive formal training in these disciplines.”

“Critical vulnerabilities are…indexed in a way that makes them easily available to advisors and line intelligence personnel who package this information for policy-makers and war-fighters. Vulnerabilities are usually indexed by the nation and military unit, with a list of possible attack methods.”

“Critical threats are usually maintained in a prioritized file, with important enemy capabilities analyzed on a schedule set by an estimate of the enemy's preparation time. For example, nuclear threats between the USSR and the US were analyzed in real time by continuously on-duty staffs. In contrast, analysis of tank or army deployments are usually triggered by accumulations of fuel and munitions, which are monitored on slower, every-few-days cycles. In some cases, automated analysis is performed in real time on automated data traffic.”

“Packaging threats and vulnerabilities for decision makers is a crucial part of military intelligence. A good intelligence officer will stay very close to the policy-maker or war fighter, to anticipate their information requirements, and tailor the information needed. A good intelligence officer will ask a fairly large number of questions in order to help anticipate needs, perhaps even to the point of annoying the principal. For an important policy-maker, the intelligence officer will have a staff to which research projects can be assigned.”

“Developing a plan of attack is not the responsibility of intelligence, though it helps an analyst to know the capabilities of common types of military units. Generally, policy-makers are presented with a list of threats, and opportunities. They approve some basic action, and then professional military personnel plan the detailed act and carry it out. Once hostilities begin, target selection often moves into the upper end of the military chain of command. Once ready stocks of weapons and fuel are depleted, logistic concerns are often exported to civilian policy-makers.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_intelligence)

The points that catch my attention are:

1. Intelligence professionals are present at each level of the military
2. They receive formal training in intelligence practices
3. Good intelligence officers stay very close to the policy-maker or war-fighter
4. Good intelligence officers ask lots of questions to make sure that the intelligence program is on the right track and can anticipate the leaders’ needs
5. Good intelligence officers package the intelligence in ways that the users can easily consume while still getting the intended “nutritional value”
6. While competitive intelligence personnel are not responsible for policy, direction or decisions, they should try to understand how these decisions are made. This will provide a deeper context to make future intelligence efforts more valuable.

In the next post, we’ll look at the usual structure of intelligence in today’s business.

And, if you have any thoughts, leave me a comment. I dare you.

Competitive Intelligence Newsletter – CI for Sales, No exceptions

In this issue, you’ll find out how hunters and farmers can both use competitive intelligence to increase market share. Additionally, you can sign up for next week’s webinar (Three Benefits of Win Loss You Can’t Ignore) and take our “3 Second Survey by clicking the picture below.



Click on any of the titles below to read the story.

Cover Story
ORDER MAKERS V.S. ORDER TAKERS-Competitive Intelligence for All!
By Tony Randall, Primary Intelligence

Let me cut to the chase right up front. Yes, there is value created by both order makers and order takers. There, I've said it. Every organization which has something of value to offer to the consumer or business world via the sales process has either a sales team of order makers (outside sales usually), order takers...(For more, click here)

BlogCentral
How Can You Tell if Competitive Intelligence is Effective?
Your competitive intelligence is very similar to the electricity in your wires. You can produce as much sales, market or competitive intelligence as you like, but until someone uses it to power change in your organization, it really isn't effective at all...(For more, click here)

The A-List New!
AboveNet Sees the Future in Ciena's Long-Haul Communications Equipment
AboveNet, Inc, a competitor to AT&T, Level3 and Verizon evaluated a number of vendors before choosing Ciena Corporation to upgrade its legacy Lucent equipment. The decision was strongly based on Ciena's willingness to play the part of partner to AboveNet, helping AboveNet anticipate future needs, coordinate technology tools and maximize the value offered by Ciena's products. Additionally, Ciena was able to show AboveNet a compelling vision of future technology needs...(For more, click here)

Effective Competitive Intelligence - Problem 5 - Acceptance

In my last post, I started talking again about effective competitive intelligence. Again, my definition of effectiveness is:

– Strengthen your company’s position
• How is our value proposition perceived?
• What is the competition doing?
• Which industry-wide best practices will truly apply?
– Discover new markets
• What is possible with new technologies?
• Where should we steer the company?
– Develop new products/services/solutions
• What problems do our clients experience that we can address?

So, you (the intelligence professional) have figured out how to develop an intelligence program that provides the right information at the right time. You have listened to intelligence needs, adapted your techniques to generate information that has been requested and you have time on everyone’s calendar to present findings.

So, you have done everything right. Personal and professional success are yours, right? Hopefully so, but, no guarantees.

In a recent poll, Primary Intelligence found that 51% of sales, market or competitive intelligence people said that their executives were either mediocre or poor at using intelligence. At best, they listened to intelligence briefs but rarely incorporated the intelligence into their decision-making processes.

This same topic was addressed in our recent webinar which can be downloaded HERE.

The truth of the matter is that executives may or may not rely on intelligence to make strategic decisions. Very few executives receive formal training on the use of information and too few know how to accurately assess the value of different information sources.

To be clear, I’m not questioning the intelligence of corporate leaders. And, I am also happy to acknowledge the fact that a large percentage of executives are intelligence driven. But, the reality of the situation is that a great number of intelligence professionals work in companies where the value of their efforts will not be fully realized.

So, assess your situation. Figure out where you are. And remember, if nobody will listen, it doesn’t matter how loudly you shout.


If your goal is to make a difference in your company with your efforts, you need to be honest with yourself about your (or your department’s) ability to engage the executive level. If you can’t see that happening in the near future, either find a situation that will allow you to accomplish your goals or readjust your expectations. Anything else is fooling yourself, or drawing a paycheck. (No disgrace in feeding the family). Make sure you learn as much as you can in order to improve the résumé while you’re there.

I am personally associated with a gentleman that moved through three different companies in a 12 month period until he found a situation where he had potential to provide guidance at the executive level. When he was hired at the last company, he was brought on to provide competitive intelligence. Now, he is part of regular strategy meetings. He found a company that was receptive to his efforts and proved the worth of his skills and experience. He went for his goal.

As a last thought, answer this question about your company’s commitment to intelligence: ““If we find intelligence to answer our most pressing questions, are we willing to change?”

Let me know what you think. If you are in a great situation (or otherwise), I would enjoy hearing from you. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Webinar Invitation - Three Benefits of Win Loss You Can't Ignore

In the last five years, Win Loss analysis has gone from a little known niche project to a recognized best practice. In the most progressive companies, executives demand that sales, marketing, and product development listen to Win Loss feedback and work together to become more competitive.

The opportunity to increase your sales and marketing success sits right at your doorstep. But, do you have everything you need to achieve the greatest potential? Can you make simple changes that will result in gargantuan increases?

Primary Intelligence would like to invite you to a presentation that will show:
• How to increase market share with predictive analytics
• Competitive Intelligence with insight rarely seen
• Win back programs that really work

Date:
Thursday, October 25, 2007

Time:
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT
1:00 PM - 2:00 CDT
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM MDT
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM PDT

REGISTER HERE

Those that will benefit include:
• Marketing leaders
• Market research managers
• Market and Industry analysts
• Product development managers
• Sales leaders
• Corporate leadership positions (CEO, CMO, CSO)

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now

https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/913347113

Effective Competitive Intelligence - Problem 4: Communication

In my last post, I started talking again about effective competitive intelligence. Again, my definition of effectiveness is:

– Strengthen your company’s position
• How is our value proposition perceived?
• What is the competition doing?
• Which industry-wide best practices will truly apply?
– Discover new markets
• What is possible with new technologies?
• Where should we steer the company?
– Develop new products/services/solutions
• What problems do our clients experience that we can address?

One of the biggest complaints of Competitive Intelligence generators and users alike is the fact that intelligence, information and knowledge in general is lost in the shuffle. In fact, according to an Accenture study:

53% of obtained information is worthless

31% say that it Competitive Intelligence is hard to get at

57% have to go to numerous sources to compile necessary intelligence

45% can’t find information on other departments’ activities

42% accidentally use the wrong information once per week

40% say other parts of the company won’t share information

59% say there is poor distribution of information

Many of these problems are the result of poor corporate communication.


In summary, we find that intelligence suffers from the fact that organized distribution channels don’t exist (If a tree falls in the woods…).

If you have created a quality library of information, its value is compromised by the fact that people:

Don’t know it exists

Can’t read it

Don’t like the way it is distributed

This same topic was addressed in our recent webinar which can be downloaded HERE.

How do you solve this problem?

1. Start with intelligence that means something to others.
2. Speak with a loud voice and be available to others in decision-making posts
3. Find internal champions
4. Determine that the intelligence will be received and reviewed

You’ll note that I haven’t mentioned anything about content management systems or other technologies. Before you can install software to distribute intelligence, you have to create a hunger for it and establish communication channels that work. Otherwise, you’re likely to spend quite a bit of money on software that will lie dormant most of the time.

If you have a success story with overcoming the communication barrier, drop me a note. I’m always interested in examples of success, no matter how small they may seem (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Effective Competitive Intelligence – Misunderstanding of Your Efforts

In my last post, I started talking again about effective competitive intelligence. Again, my definition of effectiveness is:

– Strengthen your company’s position
• How is our value proposition perceived?
• What is the competition doing?
• Which industry-wide best practices will truly apply?
– Discover new markets
• What is possible with new technologies?
• Where should we steer the company?
– Develop new products/services/solutions
• What problems do our clients experience that we can address?

Do you know what is frustrating?

Lots of things.

That wasn’t very enlightening. In fact, it was fairly useless. But, to salvage the moment, I’ll let you know something that I see much too often.

Over time, a very common frustration in business has always been, “Why doesn’t so-and-so appreciate my efforts?” This thought is not limited to any one department, but has certainly be uttered its share in the intelligence world.

Mostly, the thought is, “I did really great work on this intelligence brief. Why won’t the executives look at it? Why won’t my manager show this off? Why is everyone ignoring my stuff?”

If you have had a similar moment, you’re not alone. In fact, in the intelligence world, this is a very common feeling. I’ll offer a suggestion and you may not like it, but I’m going to place some of the responsibility on your own shoulders.

The primary cause of your problem is that you are not taking the time to understand the world of your target recipients. Your hope is that people will appreciate your work on its own merits. If you build it, they will come. But Shoeless Joe hasn’t wandered through the cornfield to find your ballpark of a brief.

Let’s not take anything away from your work quality. I’m sure that your results were prepared from thorough research and the presentation is first-rate. Unfortunately, that only matters so much. In brief, if nobody can understand your work, the benefit and value are going to be marginalized, at best.

This very topic was the subject of a recent Primary Intelligence webinar. If you want the full scoop, download the recorded webinar presentation HERE.


The most effective thing you can do is start to look outside the needs of the people with whom you are most closely associated. Otherwise, you probably have a view of your company needs that is way too myopic.

If you want product management to understand and appreciate your work, take time to appreciate their specific problems and intelligence needs.

Then, discuss your ability to fill their needs and sell them on the idea of creating an intelligence flow process that appeals to them.

Of course, the final step of the process is to deliver at least according to their expectations. Over-deliver if possible. But that term is so passé. Valuable, but passé.

After you have won a champion or two in your target departments, you can start the process of sharing your pet projects and specialties. Once you have their attention, you’ll start to earn their respect. That’s the time to show what you have done.

Need a little help with the process? Let’s chat. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)