Competitive Intelligence Webinar – Key to Setting Up a Win Loss Program

Yesterday, Ralph Nielsen (Director of Research Operations) and I co-presented a webinar on how to set up a Win Loss program that works. We took the opportunity to talk about best practices, obstacles, unexpected value. If you are thinking about setting up an in-house effort or you work with a 3rd-party vendor for your Win Loss, we gave you a ton to consider.

Also, I have recently spent some time with our great clients talking about how they use Win Loss, to whom they distribute it and where it makes a difference in their companies. I turned the results of this work into a section in the webinar that I refer to as Seven Secrets of Making Your Win Loss Program More Effective. That’s kind of a long title, but it leaves little room for confusion.

If you would like to download the slides alone, you can find them HERE.

If you want to watch the entire webinar with audio and video, you can download that file right HERE.



Over the next few days, I’ll spend some time sharing the ideas from the webinar in the blog.

Also, we appreciate the many people that gave their time and attended. If you watch the presentation and have any questions or comment, let me know. Leave a comment on this blog, email me (cdalley@primary-intel.com) or give me a call (801.838.9600 x5050)

Free Competitive Intelligence? Try Some Win Loss, On the House

To get your sales intelligence started right in 2008, Primary Intelligence is offering a free review of one of your recent sales opportunities. Whether you want to replicate a recent success or find out how “the big one got away,” Win Loss is the perfect feedback mechanism to discover the truth behind prospects and their decision-making process.

You might also want to know what is keeping your mid-market from expanding or understand recent sales efforts in a new market. There are literally dozens of reasons why Win Loss feedback would make sense for your company.

Let me know if you’re interested. I’ll hook you up with an account representative that will help show you whether our services are right for your company and your sales environment. You can reach me (Chris) at cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

And, you never know. You might find that the competitive intelligence we provide through Win Loss might be a whole lot more actionable than some of the “tried and true” secondary sources most people are used to using.

If you are a current Primary Intelligence client, I’m afraid that this offer likely doesn’t apply. For that, you have my apologies. However, talk to your account representative. They’ll try to find a way to take care of you.

A Fortune 100 Company that Understands Competitive Intelligence

Last October, Mike Brose and I presented a webinar titled “The Sad Story of Competitive Intelligence that Didn’t Make a difference.” In short, we talked about how companies spend money on sales, market or competitive intelligence but fail to leverage that intelligence to make a difference. Then, we showed the recipe to gaining more value. The solution is simple: Involve people that can make a difference and show them how the intelligence drives better decisions. Cross-functional teams of executives and senior managers work best.

(Download the webinar here)
(Related blog postings can be found at: Webinar Wrap-Up: Effective Competitive Intelligence,
How Can You Tell if Competitive Intelligence is Effective?)

Recently, I talked with one of our Fortune 100 clients about their competitive intelligence systems, acceptance and use. Some of the conversation was focused directly on the sales intelligence we provide them. Talking about her organization, my contact stated:

The sales managers that understand how to use intelligence have teams that sell more

The marketing group uses our intelligence to measure their branding efforts and better understand the client.

Those are fairly common bits of feedback.

But, the thing that made me smile was when she said that the legal department uses the intelligence and performance scores to modify T&C and other legal requirements that are in the sales process.

When your legal team wants to know:

A) How they score
B) Where they stand in relation to specific competitors
C) Specific information that they can use to make improvements

… and then monitors their score over time…

You know that you have an intelligence-focused organization.

Just for fun, ask yourself the last time someone outside of marketing asked for intelligence that realistically has the ability to increase sales.

This is just a small bit of the conversation and one example of many of companies using intelligence to beat the competition in the marketplace. If you want to talk about some other ideas, give me a call (Chris, 801-838-9600 x5050, cdalley@primary-intel.com)

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.

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)

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)

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

The PI Competitive Intelligence Blog Saved You $8,000

Best Practices, LLC recently published a report called, “Building & Sustaining Impactful Competitive Intelligence Organizations.” This report is 132 pages and carries a price tag of $7995. I haven’t read the report. I probably won’t purchase it. But, if anyone has a copy they would loan me for some casual reading, I’d be very appreciative…

The key findings of the report are remarkably similar to information available from Primary Intelligence. For example:

· Best organizational fit: Organizational placement or “fit” of the CI function significantly impacts its ability to influence and engage decision makers. Strategic planning and business development are the locations most often cited by study participants as desirable departmental homes.

Primary Intelligence resources:

Blog: Creating Effective Intelligence, 4 part series starting here

Blog: The Wrong Way to do CI

Upcoming Webinar: Use Cross-functional Teams to Increase Intelligence Effectiveness (Click here to send an email for more info)

· Customer focus: High performing CI organizations operate within a framework that emphasizes customer focus to shape projects that have maximum impact. Top organizations target and serve critical customer segments that have the greatest impact on the business, personally engage with these customers to understand their business needs, and become instrumental in providing intelligence to inform their customers’ most important decisions. World class CI groups understand the specific needs of each customer and create custom deliverables to meet their individual requirements.

Primary Intelligence resources:

Blog: Why Haven’t I Been the Target of CI?

Blog: It’s Not About the Price

· External customers: External customers are a rich source of competitive intelligence because they talk with competitors and receive competitor product pricing and features information on a continuous basis. Customers also use competitor products and can identify weaknesses in them. However, tapping into this rich resource is a challenge for most CI groups.

Primary Intelligence resources:

Blog: VOC and CI

Blog: CI, Right Under Your Nose

Webinar: Using Your VOC Programs to Generate CI

I’m sure there was a lot of work put into the Best Practices report. Hopefully, those that purchase the report will act on the data and become more effective. But, visit some of our links above to find methods to put these concepts in practice, without having to spend $8,000.

In the meantime, I’m going to rethink this “free blog content” concept. Would my thoughts be taken any more seriously if we charged $5000/year for them? I’ll let you know as soon as we put the e-commerce system in place. ( ^;

Why Haven’t I Been the Target of a Competitive Intelligence Program?

Last month, my wife, kids and I piled into the family suburban. We started from our home in Salt Lake City, pointed the car east and didn’t stop driving until we hit New York City. We’re a road trip family, but I don’t think we’ll need to see I-80 again for a while.

As we traveled, we frequented dozens of hotels, restaurants, tourist traps… I mean, attractions, gas stations and everything else that goes with a long road trip. You really shouldn’t travel 5,000+ miles without stopping to see a lot of places.

Anyway… at the consumer level, my observation overall was that the companies with whom I interacted had no program whatsoever to understand me as a client, let alone gather little bits of competitive intelligence. Maybe they are all making money hand over fist and they don’t see the need, but even with my feeble understanding of the synergy between sales, marketing and competitive intelligence at the consumer level, I saw opportunities for each of these vendors and service providers to pry a little more cash out of my wallet and away from competing establishments.

I’ll provide one quick example: We stayed at many different hotels/motels, often just off of the freeway. After a long day’s drive, we would attack the pack of motels, looking for the right amenities and the best bargain. When I approached the clerk in each motel, the conversation started with availability and quickly turned into a negotiation. If you were watching, you would have thought we were in a middle-eastern bazaar, haggling over the price of a gourd.

Never once did the clerk at the desk ask me where else I was considering. Never once, was I asked what was important to my family. Maybe the guest rooms had a comment card for me to fill out, but it was likely hidden behind some brochure.

To its credit, one of the hotel chains (of whom I am a loyalty program member) sent me a couple of emails after my stay asking about my satisfaction. They ought to ask me about my stay at a couple of the competitors’ establishments also. As a traveler, I’m looking for comfort and a decent price. I’ll tell them what the competition is doing if it will help me get a better stay for my family next time.

Maybe, my next gig will be a consultant to consumer-oriented companies. The dollars and margins may be smaller, but the volume can be huge. It would make my day to be influential in the change of an entire industry with a few simple measures.

Competitive Intelligence - Working Data for Sales Teams

Some say that knowledge is power. We at Primary Intelligence believe that the right kind of knowledge is exponentially powerful.

An example of our intelligence and feedback we provide is listed below. In this example, our client is Tenscon, a software solutions provider. Now, we have changed the names to maintain confidentiality, but our customer list includes companies such as Microsoft, Avaya, Symantec and EDS are the kinds that tend to do very good work with us.

The table below shows "Tenscon's" competitive advantage against 4 competitors (Names have been changed to maintain confidentiality, but the results are real).

The results show some competitive advantages in the company and sales, but the product has some significant weaknesses against Sistemic and Howein Partners:

Overall, Tenscon had generally higher performance ratings than the competition, especially in the company and service drivers. However, several ratings for the sales team were lower than those of the competition as a whole, indicating that some improvement in these areas may be needed.

An analysis of the responses from clients yields the following key findings concerning Tenscon’s performance:

-Tenscon was seen as a strong and solid company, but was not generally seen as an innovator. As a senior vice president from Dillent explained, “I don’t think they showed as much innovation in their solution. I think they took a much more conservative approach, a much more introverted approach rather than an innovative approach.” The CIO from ABC Aerolineas echoed this sentiment by saying, “We have some applications that we expected to be technologically advanced, but what they offered us was delayed during the delivery process. By this I mean that some applications were not as innovative as we expected them to be.”

-Some clients were concerned that Tenscon was not offering a unified solution, but rather a set of pre-packaged offerings. For instance, a respondent from ABC Aerolineas said that the initial Tenscon team did “have a real understanding of our model, and they just trying to sell us stand-alone systems. This was the idea. The idea was a cost-effective strategy, and people from Tenscon did not understand our model, our strategy, the market, or our needs. They just about systems and stand-alone processes.” A representative from Flentic Crendall explained, “One of
complexities of [Tenscon] is it is five separate businesses that have been swept into one company. It’s trying get them to work as one company with one approach. don’t think that there was a perfect solution.”

-While a majority (66 percent) of clients believed that Tenscon put the right people in front of them, there were some concerns that decision makers were not involved in the negotiation process. A vice president at JNPD expressed this sentiment, saying, “As some of these things escalate, or we run across impasses, there might be opportunities in the future that if we were
able to talk directly to the true decision makers, then it might expedite the process.” A senior vice president from Fiserv also said, “It took a while to get the right representatives from the healthcare side and from the financial side [of Tenscon] to be on our team.”

-Understanding the clients’ needs and business requirements was a theme throughout the interviews, and an area where respondents believed Tenscon could improve. Tenscon’s ratings in this area were slightly lower than the average for other bidding companies, indicating an area of advantage for Tenscon’s competitors. As the CIO of Coles Meyer explained, “Sometimes I was worried [that they gave] affirmative answers without really understanding what the issues were. At
times I felt they didn’t understand how big and complicated the work was going to be. ‘Let’s make the sale and then afterwards worry about how we are going to deliver it.’ There was a lack of business and delivery knowledge with the up front sales team. With other vendors we don’t experience that.”

If you have any ideas of how to make these data come to life in your organization, drop me a line. (801.838.9600 x5050, cdalley@primary-intel.com)

SellingPower Gets It, Too

I was very pleased today to see that SellingPower (the leading source of sales management information) gave Primary Intelligence top billing in its Sales Management Newsletter (Keeping Tabs On the Competition). Heather Baldwin, Contributing Editor, attended our webinar in April and provided a very thorough summary of our philosophy to create impactful competitive intelligence from your most productive information channels; your clients.

Our new website homepage attempts to drive the same message home. In the diagram just below the header, Primary Intelligence attempts to demonstrate all of the areas where sales intelligence can be a) generated and b) put to use to create additional competitive advantage. Of course, we have an intelligence product for each step. If you want to find out more, please visit. Let me know how you like the visual representation.

Most importantly, I still think that most companies can increase their Competitive Intelligence quantity and quality by focusing on the reasons why people buy from their company and the competitors. This intelligence should be gathered after the first sale and also, after each additional renewal, upgrade, additional sale or lost sale in any of those events.

Specifically, take a look at your customer sat, account loyalty, win/loss and other client-studies. What would happen if you added a question or two? For example:

- Which other vendors provide services like ours?
- What are some of their key selling points?
- Where do you feel that we are superior to [vendors]
- What have innovations have [vendors] included that we should think about?

Of course, you have to assess your current study, client base and other factors. You don’t want to start your clients thinking too hard about your competitors. But, don’t think for a minute that even your most loyal clients don’t know anything about your competitors. And, if they’re loyal to you, they’ll most likely share information with you, too.

Let me know what you’re thinking about this stuff. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Dan McHugh – A Pretty Smart Guy who likes Competitive Intelligence

I was flattered this week to find a kind mention about Primary Intelligence in an associate’s blog. Mr. McHugh enjoyed some of my thoughts about attaching ROI and results to your competitive intelligence efforts. (click HERE to visit Dan's blog)

Dan McHugh started his blog a couple of weeks ago. In his first post, he provided a preview of what to expect from his writings:

What to expect:

• Advice and insights for “Lone Wolf” CI practitioners as well as those setting up thier own CI/Market Intelligence practices.
• Thoughts on the use and misuse of CI by Technology companies.
• CI in Asia Pacific and some of the unique pitfalls and benefits.
• A bit of irreverence and the continuing battle between sales and marketing.

What not to expect:

• Commentary on the competitors I focus on for my day-to-day job. Not that I don’t like being opinionated regarding them, but rather, I want this blog to be about the art of CI. I also greatly admire the work that many of my brethren do, regardless of the company they work for.

In my opinion, this type of information would be of benefit to any practitioner of Competitive Intelligence. Best wishes to Dan in building a readership. So far, his content is worthy of my time.

I don’t know how to personally contact Dan, but I believe that he is the Senior Manager, Competitive Intelligence – APAC at Oracle. Hopefully, I’ll have lunch with him someday.

If you enjoy reading blogs and articles on market, competitive and sales intelligence, do the author a favor and leave a comment. Agree with the article. Offer a contradictory opinion. Promote your own work and point of view. Half of the fun of blogging is receiving feedback and knowing that you have created a dialogue rather than a monologue.

And, just when you thought statistics were boring…
One last thing from Dan’s blog. Today, he posted the following:

Aaron Koblin looks at 15,000 flights that flew in and out of the USA over a period of 24 hours. You would think that would be pretty much the end of the story. Click to see just how exciting statistics can get!

I’m always happy to chat about competitive intelligence (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Competitive Intelligence before the Competition Arrives

Have you ever seen a grateful sales rep or account manager? Of course, they all smile if you buy something. They can't help it. It's just their nature.

But, what about sales teams from your own company? What can you give them that would put a smile on their face and a bounce in their step? Well, they'll appreciate anything you can do to help them sell more effectively. Give them a sale and you'll have a best friend for life. They might even take you to lunch, but don't count on it.

Unfortunately, you may not be on the front lines. You might not have a rolodex of potential clients. You may be busy with a ton of other stuff. And, if you really wanted to sell, you would have joined the sales or account management teams long ago.

(What to do, what to do, what to do…)

You might consider a Target Prospecting profile from Primary Intelligence. This new intelligence service, introduced this month, has the potential to increase your sales team’s effectiveness exponentially by providing a road map to a sale.

With Primary Intelligence’s Target Prospecting, our clients now have the information they need to understand the opportunity as they enter it, and can address prospects’ unique needs. Specifically, from the prospect interview profiles, our clients learn:

What features/functions are most important in the minds of their prospects

When their prospects will be looking to buy

The nuances of their prospects’ decision making processes

Which competitors their prospects have used, and which ones they are considering

The factors that might lead their prospects to change vendors

The products and services their prospects are looking to implement

Think of the benefits of being able to talk to the client about their needs in their language and understanding most of the necessary maneuvers before the first prospecting contact is made.

This isn’t lead generation. This is Prospect Needs Identification and the ROI has proven to be huge for our clients.

With this information, provided to your company only, your sales reps and account managers will know the lay of the land before the competition decides to engage. How surprised will the competition be when they arrive at the prospect’s doorstep, only to find that your company has set up camp in the living room? While they’re still trying to figure out who to talk to, you’ll be speaking the prospect’s language.

In the words of my 13 year old daughter, “It’s like, so totally rad.”

For more information, or a sample report, check out our website or give me a call. I’ll be happy to answer any questions. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Life on the Prarie - The Best Ranchers Protect the Herd

At the risk of alluding to your client base as cattle, let’s consider the experience of a successful rancher. A small part of his year is spent on increasing the herd (birthing calves). Most of his time is spent nurturing, caring, feeding and protecting the herd from dangers. He builds fences, renders aid, steers the herd to the greenest pastures and fights to keep wolves, poachers and other predators away from his livestock. This herd of cattle is his life. He doesn’t have the luxury of a safety net or fallback plan.



A business has a great deal in common with the rancher. You work hard to bring in a few new accounts every year. But, if you are like most businesses, 75%+ of the value of your business exists in your current accounts.

Your competitors (either other ranchers or wolves) know the value of your accounts and want them for their own. They are fighting hard to get inside your fences. They may even dress up in funny little cow suits so as not to spook the herd and possibly even fool the rancher.

This is the reason why you have to focus a substantial amount of your competitive intelligence on maintaining your accounts.

There are two very important sources of competitive intelligence that need to be mined in the client lifecycle:

1-During the normal course of business (e.g. during the execution of the project or fulfillment of the contract)
2-Post renewal-defection (after the company chooses to renew its engagement or defect to a competitor or otherwise)

Your current client list interacts very frequently with your competition. Even the most satisfied accounts listen to your competitors. Occasionally, they reach out to discover new developments in the marketplace.

A big benefit of your current client base is that they are generally friendly to you and willing to provide quality information about your competitors. Usually, all you have to do is ask. They will talk.

They can tell you new development and tactics. They can tell you how you stack up in many different areas vs. various competitors. They will tell you what you will need to do to maintain competitive advantages in the marketplace against specific companies.

And, you can quantify competitive performance scores in order to perform statistical analysis and predictive analytics. With these tools, you can build very strong fences to keep the herd intact.

Keep riding cowboys (and cowgirls…). If you want some ideas on how to implement Competitive Intelligence among your current accounts, talk to me. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Competitive Intelligence from Clients – What Should I Ask?

If you want to win more business, you have to take it from the competition. I know that’s obvious, but generating competitive intelligence that actually helps you compete more effectively is a surprising low priority of too many companies.

But, if your CI program is based on increasing market share, competing more effectively and leading your industry, you are going to have to find the most effective areas of CI. Last week, I posted my thoughts on generating CI from your Voice of the Customer programs.

Today, I’ll provide some ideas of different types of questions that might be asked in each stage of the prospect/client relationship. The following table provides a summary of question topics that might fit your situation.

If you don’t already perform all of these VOC programs, don’t worry. You can move many of the questions around to fit into your existing programs. Or, you might want to craft a new intelligence initiative to answer a group of questions.

And, be careful to make sure that you can ask these types of questions to all of your clients and prospects. Some industries are more sensitive than others.

Either way, you will harvest information that should provide you with competitive advantages in the near future.

This is the kind of work that we do at Primary Intelligence every day. It is our goal to make our Competitive Intelligence clients look like the hero.

And, if you need some help trying to figure out what works for you, let me know (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Voice of the Customer Should Be Used to Collect Competitive Intelligence

Yesterday, Primary Intelligence hosted a webinar for a great group of people. The purpose of this presentation was to show how current Voice of the Customer (VOC) initiatives can be modified to provide Competitive Intelligence to different departments.

The first step is to review your current touch points with customers at different stages of the relationship. The second is to figure out how to add competitive intelligence questions into those processes.

Of course, if you don’t have those processes in place already, you might consider the cost/benefit of implementing a broader range of VOC “listening programs” (surveys).

You can see below a chart that shows many possible interaction points with your clients. Every single one of these touch points is a potential source of competitive intelligence.

This is a chance to think strategically about your VOC program in relation to CI. You should be asking yourself “During each phase of the relationship, what does my client think or know about my competitors and marketplace?”

And, you would be very surprised by how much your clients actually do know about your competitors. They may have purchased from you, but they have evaluated many other vendors over time.

Over the next few days, we’ll review specific ways to integrate CI questions into different steps.

I would also like to thank everyone that attended the webinar. We had a very interactive group and the questions provided a very rich environment for knowledge exchange.

As a follow-up, we’re hosting a panel discussion on Tuesday, April 24 at 2PM ET (11AM PT). If you are interested in participating in an open discussion, let me know (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801.838.9600 x5050)

Leave me a comment on the topic. What would you like to know about this topic?

Webinar (Tomorrow) - Competitive Intelligence from your VOC Program

Tomorrow, I will co-host a webinar with Ron Sathoff. The presentation will be made on April 19 at 2 PM ET (11 AM PT). You can register by clicking here. Consider yourself invited.

The fact of the matter is that your customers know nearly as much about the competition as they do about you. They evaluated the competition before selecting you as their vendor. They are regularly courted by the competition and many of your best clients also have purchased from your competitors, either in the past or currently. Take a minute to see if your VOC program is generating competitive intelligence.

Come join us and expand your Voice of the Customer/Competitive Intelligence horizons.

If you miss it, we'll post it to our website later.

Competitive Intelligence, Right Under Your Nose

How often do you talk to your customers? If you add up the touches made by sales, account management, marketing and other client-facing services in your company, you might find that each of your customers is talking to you very regularly.

Hopefully, you have a central management group that has established some formal information gathering processes. Very common programs would include Customer Satisfaction, Account Loyalty, Win-back, Win Loss, Client Retention and Defection. Usually, these programs fall under the heading of "Voice of the Customer" (VOC).

So, you have two types of contact:
1-Informal, everyday conversations
2-Formal programs to gather Voice of the Customer Data

The fact of the matter is that your customers know nearly as much about the competition as they do about you. They evaluated the competition before selecting you as their vendor. They are regularly courted by the competition and many of your best clients also have purchased from your competitors, either in the past or currently.

Take a minute to see if your VOC program is generating competitive intelligence. In my experience, most customer sat and loyalty interviews focus on the client's experience with their present vendor. Go one step further and:

1-Ask your clients who they perceive as your biggest threats
2-Find out what they are hearing about the competitors' recent initiatives and offers
3-Understand how you stack up in various performance areas

The information will not only be enlightening, but will show your company what is happening in the market place in real time. Your company will benefit in the following ways:

1-Sales will know what is being said about your company by the competitors. They will have more intelligence to sell more effectively and counter negative messages
2-Marketing will know what the prospects and clients value in the marketplace (not just from you) and will be able to establish messaging that drive home the most important value propositions
3-Product Development will know the advances being made by the competition and will understand how well these innovations may be received by the marketplace.
4-Executives will have the right Competitive Intelligence to make strategic decisions.

And, to think... all of this information resides within your current customer base.

Next week, I will co-host a webinar with Ron Sathoff. The presentation will be made on Thursday, April 19 at 2 PM ET (11 AM PT). You can register by clicking here. Consider yourself invited.

And, Current Analysis (a company that I respect) has some information on creating CI from VOC. It is good to see shared thinking between two companies.

If you want to talk specifically about these ideas, call me (801-838-9600 x5050) or send me a note (cdalley@primary-intel.com). I would like to hear your ideas, too.