An ever growing topic list associated with analysis tools and techniques that you can use in your Competitive Intelligence activities. So you too can also beat your competitors, increase sales, reduce risk and make decisions with greater certainty.
There are so many market opportunities and business ideas around, but most are not worth the effort. It’s essential to reduce your options and ensure that you focus on the ones with the best chances of success.
Everyone should have an early warning system. Because it is an excellent way to understand situations you may be facing in the future that can affect you. And then be in a strong position to do something about it – As we know from experience surprises are rarely pleasurable.
Firstly, you must understand where you are going to start. And there a number of tools for this including Issue Redefinition, Chronologies and Timelines, Sorting, Ranking, Scoring and Prioritising.
Start by researching your competitors, maybe into areas where you haven’t delved before. You may be surprised by what you find. However, research is only part of the Competitive Analysis process.
When it comes to standing out from the competitor is vital that you have clearly defined your audience. And also understand what their ambitions, fears and problems are.
If you don’t monitor your competitor’s prices, then you are missing a trick—a trick they certainly won’t be missing. Pricing is usually the most readily available competitor information.
Are you going to judge on price, the technology involved, the contract length, the small contract print, service levels and the like? To make the best possible decision is could be a good idea to give the exercise some thought and use a tool like the decision matrix to help you.
Premortem Analysis, Structured Self-Critique, What If? Analysis, High Impact/Low Probability Analysis, Devil’s Advocacy, Red Team Analysis, Delphi Method are all types of Challenge Analysis
There are so many market opportunities and business ideas around, but most are not worth the effort. It’s essential to reduce your options and ensure that you focus on the ones with the best chances of success.
The fog of war is very thick. An early warning system will help you reduce the surprises and the impact on your business. The effect of the shock stops you having the time to act thoughtfully and in a timely way.
Moving into a new vertical, geography or launching a new product, you need to understand how much opportunity there is and what it will mean for you. And what are the implications of expansion are to your business and long-term goals?
PEST stands for Political, Economic, Socio-cultural and Technological. Created by Harvard professor Francis Aguilar in his 1967 book, “Scanning the Business Environment.” PEST helps you see the “big picture threats and opportunities”.
Current and future competitive challenges will result in multiple outcomes. Competitive strategies must take them all into account. Also our Scenario Planning is a field-tested solution to help you prepare for numerous situations.
There are so many market opportunities and business ideas around, but most are not worth the effort. It’s essential to reduce your options and ensure that you focus on the ones with the best chances of success.
So what it is, why it’s so powerful, how to run the analysis and how to read and use the results. The win-loss analysis takes the guesswork out of why a sales opportunity become a customer, or they decided not to buy from you.
SWOT stands for Strengths. Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Before conducting a SWOT analysis, it is wise to undertake an external environment looking PEST analysis.
Market Analysis is not just confirming a hunch with a considerable dollop of cognitive bias scooped on top. Market Analysis will offer the answers to businesses hardest questions.
We would love to hear from you to tell us of any analysis tools and techniques you would like us to explain.