Research scope for competitive intelligence

Many of our clients are hiring a competitive intelligence agency for the first time. They need to scope out the research for the competitive intelligence services they need, and it can be helpful to have a ready-made starting point. What questions should frame a research proposal? What is it possible to discover about competitors? What is a good structure?

Below are some the questions that typically go into a competitor profile. These lean towards analyzing a technology company, but can be easily adapted across industries

Corporate background

What is their funding history?
What is their revenue history?
- How are their revenues split by global regions?
- How are their revenues split by client size?
- How are their revenues split by industry?
How many employees?
- How many engineers?
- How many sales employees?
- How many marketing employees?

Customers

What do customers like and dislike?
Why do customers buy from the competitor?
For prospects who did not convert, why did they turn down the competitor?
Who are some of the competitor’s customers?

Product strategy and capabilities

What is their range of products?
What are the key product features?
What are their capabilities for mobile?
What are their analytics and reporting capabilities?
What is their product roadmap?
Is the product localized? What languages are available?
How easy is the product to customize?
Do they have a professional services team?
What is the implementation effort required? How long does implementation take? What resources do they offer? What resources must the client provide?

Pricing

How much does the product cost?
What are the pricing tiers? What modules are an additional cost?
What are typical discount levels for multi-year contracts, for volume and for competitive wins?
How much is a typical deal?

Sales pitch

What is their go-to-market messaging?
How do they position themselves against competitors? Whom do they consider their primary competitors? How do they pitch against us?
What are their proof points that they can successfully drive engagement and ROI?

Partners and developer ecosystem