Competitive Intelligence Glossary

Definitions of terms used in competitive intelligence research, analysis, strategy and sales enablement.

Battlecard. A short reference sheet salespeople use in deals against a specific competitor. It typically covers differentiators, objection responses, discovery questions and proof points.

Benchmarking. Measuring your products, processes or performance against competitors or other comparable organizations to find gaps worth closing.

Competitive analysis. Assessing competitors’ products, capabilities, strategies and results, and working out what they mean for your business.

Competitive displacement. Winning a customer from an incumbent competitor. Displacement research looks at why customers switch and what the move costs them.

Competitive enablement. Giving employees the competitive insight, content and training they need in their day-to-day work, e.g. helping salespeople answer a competitor’s claims.

Competitive intelligence (CI). The systematic, ethical collection and analysis of information about competitors and the wider business environment to support decisions.

Competitive landscape. A view of the companies competing in a market, often broken down by product, target customer, geography, size or positioning.

Competitive positioning. How a company frames the value of its offering against competing options for a specific customer group.

Competitive win rate. The share of competitive deals a company wins. Any reported figure should state which deals are included and how no-decision outcomes are counted.

Competitor monitoring. Ongoing tracking of competitor activity, e.g. product launches, price changes, hiring, partnerships and campaigns.

Competitor profile. A structured write-up of a single competitor, typically covering ownership, products, customers, financials, pricing and strategy.

Confirmation bias. The tendency to favor evidence that supports what you already believe and discount evidence against it.

Differentiation. The differences between your offering and competing options that customers care about, e.g. product capabilities, service quality or specialist expertise.

Direct competitor. A company selling a similar product or service to a similar customer group for the same need.

Early warning. Spotting signs of emerging threats or opportunities in time for the business to respond.

Feature comparison. A side-by-side comparison of product capabilities, usually in a table, recording availability, limitations and differences between editions.

Field intelligence. Competitor information gathered by employees who deal with customers, prospects or partners, e.g. a salesperson’s account of a competing proposal.

Indirect competitor. A company meeting the same customer need with a different type of solution, e.g. an outsourced service competing with a software product.

Intelligence cycle. The repeating process of setting intelligence needs, collecting information, analyzing it, sharing conclusions and reviewing results to shape the next round.

Key intelligence questions (KIQs). The specific questions a piece of intelligence work has to answer, e.g. which customer groups a competitor is targeting with a new product.

Key intelligence topics (KITs). The priority subjects a CI program focuses on, e.g. a competitor’s expansion plans. Each topic usually breaks down into several KIQs.

Market intelligence. Information and analysis on a market as a whole, including customer needs, buying behavior, industry developments and shifts in demand or competition.

Objection handling. Answering a buyer’s concerns during a sale. CI supplies the facts for objections about competitors’ products, pricing or capabilities.

Open-source intelligence (OSINT). Intelligence built from publicly or commercially available sources, e.g. websites, regulatory filings, published interviews and subscription databases.

PESTLE analysis. A framework for reviewing the political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental factors affecting a business or market.

Porter’s Five Forces. Michael Porter’s model of industry competition, built on five forces: competition among existing players, the threat of new entrants, the threat of substitutes, supplier bargaining power and buyer bargaining power.

Pricing intelligence. Research into competitors’ prices and pricing practices, including discounts, promotions and extra charges.

Primary research. Gathering original information for a specific project, e.g. through customer interviews, surveys, observation or product testing.

Scenario planning. Working through several plausible futures for a market or competitive situation to test how the company might respond.

Secondary research. Research based on existing material, e.g. published studies, reports, articles and earlier internal work. Also called desk research.

Share of voice. A brand’s share of visibility or discussion in a defined market, e.g. its percentage of media mentions across a set group of competitors.

Source reliability. A judgment of how far a source can be trusted, based on its access to the information, its track record and any likely bias.

Strategic intelligence. Intelligence that informs a company’s long-term direction, e.g. which markets to enter or where to invest.

Switching costs. What a customer takes on to change supplier or product, including fees, migration work, retraining, disruption and time.

SWOT analysis. A framework setting an organization’s internal strengths and weaknesses against external opportunities and threats. CI teams use it on their own company and on competitors.

Tactical intelligence. Intelligence for a specific short-term action, e.g. preparing for a competitive sales call or responding to a competitor’s promotion.

Triangulation. Checking a finding against several independent sources or methods to test whether it holds up.

Value proposition. A statement of what an offering does for a specific customer group and why they should buy it.

War gaming. A structured simulation where participants play their own company, competitors or other stakeholders to test likely moves and responses.

Win-loss analysis. Research into why buyers choose or reject an offering, usually combining buyer interviews with sales records and deal outcomes.