Analytics and Competitive Intelligence

Competitive Intelligence has always seemed much more of an art than a science. But, leading companies (Wal-Mart, Amazon, Dell, Harrah’s, Marriott, Honda, MCI, Yahoo and the New England Patriots) have learned that swinging the exercise back toward science yields great dividends.

In many of these cases, these companies are using analytics to measure their own performance, systems, processes and personnel. For example:

“One analytics competitor that’s at the top of its game is Marriott International. Over the past 20 years, the corporation has honed to a science its system for establishing the optimal price for guest rooms (the key analytics process in hotels, known as revenue management). Today, its ambitions are far grander. Through its Total Hotel Optimization program, Marriott has expanded its quantitative expertise to areas such as conference facilities and catering, and made related tools available overt the Internet to property revenue managers and hotel owners. It has developed systems to optimize offerings to frequent customers and assess the likelihood of those customers’ defecting to competitors…. The company has even created a revenue opportunity model, which computes actual revenue as a percentage of the optimum rates that could have been charged. That figure has grown from 83% to 91% as Marriott’s revenue-management analytics has taken root throughout the enterprise. The word is out among property owners and franchisees: If you want to squeeze the most revenue from your inventory, Marriott’s approach is the ticket.” (Davenport, Thomas H. (2006), “Competing on Analytics”, Harvard Business Review, page 3)

Many of these companies are starting by turning their measurements and analytics on themselves. But, watch closely as analytics begin to be turned toward outside influences, including competitors.

Primary Intelligence is already at this point; using Win Loss and Account Retention data to power analytics. The result of these calculations is a clear and efficient path to increasing win and renewal rates at very high levels of confidence.

You can start to put these practices into place right now. Many companies perform some levels of segmentation or other analytics of revenue sources. Over the next couple of entries, I’ll address specific areas where analytics should be applied.

And, if you’re interested in this kind of stuff, let’s chat. (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)