Competitive Intelligence and Benchmarking Your Competition - The What, Why, and How

You have done your market research, have great products/services to offer, are aware of your direct competitors, and also know how their offerings differ from yours. Now, is that enough for you to succeed? Unfortunately, it is not. Embracing competitive intelligence and benchmarking your competitors should be your crucial next step. Competitive intelligence has gained prominence over the last two decades and has become an integral part of sales and marketing strategies.

Simply put, it enables businesses like you to make informed decisions and helps you chart your growth. However, this requires you to collect, process, and analyze information from multiple channels. Some would look at Business Competitive Intelligence as a luxury but the fact is that it has a direct influence on successful strategizing and the survival of an organization.

While the concept of gathering information about your competitors and industry trends sounds like any other regular task, the line between legal and illegal gets blurred when the competition gets tighter. So, how much competitive monitoring is ethical, and what can get you into legal hot water?

Today, let's unleash answers to all these questions.

What is Business Competitive Intelligence and Benchmarking?

Business competitive Intelligence involves tracking and measuring the strategies and outcomes of your competitors. It is important to keep up and outmatch your competitors. Business competitive intelligence gathers your competitors' performance metrics, clears misconceptions, and provides you with a complete picture of the competitive digital landscape.

Benchmarking is the process of collecting information on the performance of similar apps and websites and comparing it with yours. This helps you uncover sales and marketing gaps, identify under-performing strategies, and find areas for improvement. Businesses use competitive intelligence and benchmarking to understand their position versus specific competitors, industry leaders, and industry averages.

What Makes Business Competitive Intelligence and Benchmarking Indispensable?

Benchmarking is a tool that helps businesses learn from others. Therefore, everyone needs it to improve their existing internal systems. If you are in business and have competitors, you need competitive intelligence. In the current global scenario, increasing competition has made businesses susceptible to failure and the best way to stay competitive and succeed is to be one up on the competition! Once you have reliable competitive intelligence, you can use it to benchmark your competition. This gives you a real-world perspective and brings your weak points to the fore - for your benefit.

Competitive Intelligence Plus Business Intelligent - Your Equation for Success

Business Intelligence (BI) is obtained by data mining and analyzing large volumes of your organizational data and your competitors' information. This could also include demographic data, which helps you identify current trends and statistical changes in the market. While BI focuses on your internal strategies, competitive intelligence allows you to understand what's happening outside your company. Although both these practices are different, when used together, they form the equation for success.

Evaluating the Legal (or Ethical) Guardrails

While gathering competitive intelligence is not illegal per se, it is wise to consult a legal expert and find out what you can and cannot do. Most of the strategies used for gathering competitive intelligence are considered to be a part of regular sales and marketing campaigns. However, some businesses cross the line and this leads to legal complications. Consulting an experienced business competitive intelligence company like ours is a great way to get customized benchmarking solutions that are tailored to your needs. We empower you with the golden rules of legal competitive intelligence, share trade secrets, and warn you about practices to avoid.

Cut Back on Risk with a Reliable Outsourcing Partner

Business competitive intelligence involves the collection of data directly from your competitors and at times, even their business partners. Gathering your competitors' information directly requires you to have trained resources who are equipped to identify and collect accurate data from various channels. On the contrary, outsourcing enables you to leverage the expertise of seasoned professionals who are adept at collecting accurate and reliable competitive intelligence at nominal charges without any operational overhead. The outsourced party also evaluates the collected data objectively and helps you draw conclusions that are true and fair.

Partner with Us to Level Up Your Online Research Strategy?

We are the preferred research and analysis company with 20 years of experience in offering a wide array of services to global clients. Our team of qualified experts uses robust benchmarking tools and helps you analyze your performance. We also help you avoid blind spots, identify opportunities, and improve your performance. Regularly evaluating your competitors helps you stay focused on your goals and track your progress. Our business analytics and business intelligence services services offer easy-to-understand, tangible data that help you make informed business decisions.

Are you ready to leverage business competitive intelligence to mitigate risks, streamline your operations, and boost productivity? You are at the right place. Grab your free quote today.