Chess, Argentina and Competitive Intelligence

by admin , May 21, 2007

My friend, Adrian Alvarez (Midas Consulting, Buenos Aires, Argentina) shared some interesting thoughts on the importance of making decisions and taking action, rather than just collecting data and adding it to piles of data. Adrian quotes from an article he found on www.intramanagers.com.

I have made an amateur translation of his article below. Hopefully, he’ll forgive me for any errors or liberties I may have taken:

I read a note about Garry Kasparov (for those too young to remember or not fond of chess, he was the youngest person to win the world-wide championship). There are several parts that make me think that I should learn to play chess and that it is a game especially apt for Competitive Intelligence professionals.

Here, I will transcribe a few paragraphs, although I recommend that you read the complete note, [if you can read Spanish Chris]. (Adrians comments are in italics):

The great champion, Lasker, introduced to chess the value of the relative movement: Instead of making the best play, he made the best play against that adversary. I believe that I do not need to say that this is what we must do in Competitive Intelligence.

According to Kasparov, one of the problems of chess is how to differentiate the valuable from that which does not contribute anything, the false thing from the authentic, what is lifted up and what should be ignored?

I suppose all analyst of intelligence has had this dilemma sometimes, and might have that problem daily. The dilemma is solved, according to Kasparov, if you consider that the computer only provides information. The second premise is that one must create his/her own formula to accept or to reject information. In this process it is very important to consider our strengths and weaknesses.

The great danger is that many leaders do not trust that they will find an answer and they do not want to assume the risk of deciding. For this problem we invoke the term “paralysis by analysis” and I must say that it is quite common.

It is necessary to accept the possibility of committing errors and one must control the fear of being mistaken. I believe that that is a fundamental subject and is the main cause of the paralysis by analysis.

My prescription in this case is to try to make a small bet and to be increasing it step by step. For example if the launching of a product is risky, send it into a small region and expand the effort if it is successful. This strategy is superior to continuous calculation and analysis. Calculation and investigation can endorse the strategy, but not replace it. I believe that this subject it we could translate for us in which the fundamental part of I circulate of competitive intelligence is the analysis and not it harvesting.

And, I suppose we should learn to play chess. Whos wants to play?” – Adrian Alvarez

I agree that the value of competitive intelligence comes from having knowledgeable interpretation of quality data. Dont spend all of your time harvesting data. Make sure that you spend time thinking about what the data may mean and interpreting.

And, be willing to lean into the wind a bit. Sometimes, you really do have enough data. Sometimes, you really do know enough about the situation. Apply your experience and give someone some direction to move forward. Theres a good chance that you will be mostly right and only a small chance that you will be extremely wrong.

Let me know if you have some different thoughts. Im interested in your take on the most effective way to practice competitive intelligence. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Competitive Intelligence Save Yourself from the Cloak and Dagger

by admin , May 18, 2007

Today, Im going to stray from the usual Primary Intelligence Competitive Intelligence thoughts to make a point about counterintelligence. Your company has to be prepared for major and minor efforts to infiltrate your confidential and proprietary information.

Ill start with a story and follow-up comment:

“In the spring of 2005, Guy Enright, an accountant at KPMG Financial Advisory Services Ltd. in Bermuda, got a call from a man identifying himself in a crisp British accent as Nick Hamilton. Hamilton said he needed to see Enright about matters of utmost importance.

“Over the course of two meetings, Hamilton led Enright to believe he was a British intelligence officer, according to a person familiar with the encounters. He told Enright he wanted information about a KPMG project that Hamilton said had national security implications for Britain. Soon, Enright, who was born in Britain, was depositing confidential audit documents in plastic containers at drop-off points designated by Hamilton.

“But Nick Hamilton was not an agent of Her Majesty’s secret service, and the documents never found their way to the British government…” (Continue Reading the Article)

Den Taylor, Strategic Insights, added his comments to the article:

“As a strategic intelligence professional, I am often asked to provide counter-intelligence counsel to deal with similar circumstances. What is invariably found in such cases is in today’s global economy, intelligence gathering by any means is a simple fact of life.

“Unfortunately, many organizations do not convey this to their employees, making them easy prey to the entreaties of individuals utilizing simple forms of pretext. Interestingly, we have found that dealing with this problem is relatively simple.

“We recommend that clients conduct periodic education programs that cover the means by which outsiders gather intelligence. Such programs are often coupled with designating a knowledgeable intelligence person who can provide advice on how best to deal with unsolicited contacts. Although taking this step does not guarantee that valuable internal intelligence is never compromised, it does make the pursuit of such information much more difficult.”

As a competitive intelligence professional, have you thought about educating your company on the tactics employed by your competitors? You can start by discussion your standard techniques for data collection and branch out into other possible areas of espionage. Your companys employees dont have to be experts on espionage. They just have to be able to sense suspicious activity and notify the right people.

In short:

-Your company has to have a plan to combat espionage and potentially harmful intelligence efforts
-As a market, sales or competitive intelligence professional, you should have input into that plan, if you dont manage it outright.
-A list of suspicious activities needs to be prepared and distributed
-Your employees need to know how to handle a suspicious call or activity. Do they escalate it to a manager or contact your department?
-Be ready to prosecute. Illegal activity needs to be punished. (Your legal department should get a kick out of this)

If you have ideas or questions, lets chat. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

The ROI of Win Loss Analysis (Primary Intelligence Style)

by admin , May 16, 2007

If you found a surefire way to make your company grow, you would have to consider the ROI potential of the program, initiative, solution, right?

Well, I did a little digging today with a couple of clients to find recent ROI success stories. The results were surprising. Ill share a couple of experiences here:

We did a round of win loss analysis with Primary Intelligence. The process included interviews with our newly won accounts and lost prospects from the past 6 months. Primary Intelligence provided us with individual opportunity profiles for each sales engagement.

After we (sales leadership) received the profiles, we identified the 10 biggest losses (based on opportunity size). We reviewed the feedback, needs and perceptions that caused the prospect to choose our competitor. Then, we created a plan to reengage each of those 10 lost prospects. Since this was our first attempt at a formal post-sales reengagement, we didnt have any expectations of success. We just wanted to see what was possible.

So far, based on the intelligence we received, we have won 3 of those 10 losses. These were multi-million dollar accounts that potentially stretch out over long-term
contracts.

This is just one way we are using our Sales Intelligence provided by Primary Intelligence. The ROI potential of this sales intelligence is mind-boggling.

A second client of Primary Intelligence described their ROI experience in this manner:

When we perform win loss analysis with Primary Intelligence, we provide PI with a list of our recent wins and losses. These sales opportunities are pulled from our SFA and are based on the best information that our sales reps have.

Primary Intelligence calls through the list of opportunities, setting up appointments for interviews and weeding out opportunities that dont qualify for analysis. While engaged in this activity, PI regularly finds a few opportunities that were categorized by our company as losses, but are still in consideration. These opportunities may be lukewarm to very warm, but they are not dead.

PI immediately calls us to let us know when they have discovered a nugget, or a potential opportunity that needs immediate attention. We send that information directly back to the sales rep and our conversion rates in these instances is surprisingly high.

We more than pay for our entire sales intelligence effort based on these nuggets alone. The strategic and tactical data we use to create new business is actually just frosting on the cake after you consider the revenue that PI creates for us.

Primary Intelligence provides data and consulting to help companies in over 45 industries create strategic and tactical improvement. Our work extends from the executive boardroom to sales, marketing and product leadership and down to each individual sales rep. We have a methodology to improve the performance of the most key departments in your company.

If you would like to know a little more about these experiences or specific information about the companies that have achieved these results, call me. (801-838-9600 x5050, cdalley@primary-intel.com)

Forward-thinking Competitive Intelligence

by admin , May 14, 2007

I read a blog entry about reactionary competitive intelligence that you ought to read. It is simple, but makes a strong point.:

Follow The Leader
Have you worked at a company where a significant share of the business strategy is determined by what competitors are doing?

Have you worked on a product plan that includes features based not necessarily on what your customers have asked for, but based on what your competitors already have?

Have you bought ad space in a magazine because that’s where your competitors are advertising as well?

Assuming that our competitors know what they’re doing is a dangerous game. Assuming your company has the right ingredients and circumstances to match or exceed their success is an equally slippery slope.

Competitive intelligence is critical, and identifying elements of a competitor’s business and marketing strategy for further review and testing is a great idea.

But do your own homework. Know your customers, your industry, and your business better than anyone else. Don’t just follow the leader. (Matt Heinz, Matt on Marketing)

Does your company culture and leadership support a forward-thinking intelligence strategy? Are you encouraged to scout out a trail to new ground or is your time dominated by reactionary what just happened questions?

You can discern your companys cultural bias easily by answering the following questions for yourself:

-Do competitive surprises throw us into a frenzy or do we hold the course on our own strategy?
-Does our CI strategy remain constant or does it change with the blowing winds of businsess?
-Do we study way to increase business and retain contracts or are we more concerned with knowing trivial facts about the competition?
-Does our company use cutting-edge analytics or do we still make decisions based on gut feeling alone?

If your organization is stable and includes the support of leadership, you are poised to do good work and your efforts will have to match expectations. If not (and if you want to be forward thinking), you are going to have to work very hard to change the current scenario. Otherwise, you risk becoming an order taker with no end in sight. And, those people who bring interesting, but non-impactful, information to the table usually dont go very far.

And, if that assessment is too harsh, my apologies. But, I have a great deal of respect for those CI professionals that dont settle for trivialities, but work to find the strategic areas of opportunity for their company. The highest rung on the ladder is reserved for those that have the experience, clout and voice to insist that the intelligence be used in the executive boardroom for decisions.

Let me know what you think. I would like to hear from you (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801.838.9600 x5050)

What’s in a Win?

by admin , May 11, 2007

Yesterday, I was working with Chad Sly, reviewing a proof of concept trial with a client that had purchased win loss analysis from Primary Intelligence.

To be more accurate, they purchased loss analysis. In other words, they werent interested in measuring won opportunities; only lost deals.

I can understand that. I can respect that. Your instinct tells you that you are going to learn more from your losses than your wins. You might think that you are in a better position to talk to your wins later and find out the story of what happened. These are true statements.

But, Id like to toss out a couple of reasons that you ought to apply your same, rigorous study of sales opportunities to your wins, too:

1-Knowing why you lose is interesting. Knowing why you win is just as valuable. If you dont thoroughly understand your winning value proposition, how can you make the necessary changes in the less certain opportunities?

2-Benchmarking of successful data. If you want to make improvement, you have to understand where you are starting. Get a benchmark of your performance across the board (and not just in losses) or you will have a skewed benchmark that doesnt really reflect current performance. (BTW, Primary Intelligence believes that measurements in 20-30 individual performance areas make the best sales
reviews)

3-Interpretation of comparative data. If you see that your sales team is weak in certain skills during losses, how will you know if they were strong in those same areas during wins? Or, did they win despite the an across-the-board weakness? Youll never know unless you discover their performance in both wins and losses.

4-Goodwill with your new customers. Your new clients worked very hard to make the best decision for their company. They appreciate the opportunity to tell you
what went right or wrong and how you can be more effective in like situations.

5-Competitive intelligence from a friendly source. Your new clients are the most likely to provide you with the best actionable competitive intelligence, based on the tactics and messages presented during the recent transaction. You shared time with your competitors. Find out what your prospect/new customer found out during
that time.

I understand that losses look more important. I understand that having the inside scoop on a recent loss is nearly a status symbol. But, dont forget the wins. Theyre what keep you in business.

Let me know what you think. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801.838.9600 x5050)

Cant We A Just Get Along? (Sales and Marketing)

by admin , May 9, 2007

I was working with a company yesterday that just doesnt get it. They have a fairly traditional relationship between sales and marketing. Sales says that the leads that Marketing produces are worthless (and thats an attempt to keep this blog family-friendly) and Marketing says that Sales doesnt work the leads and expects too much.

So, in the end, these departments tend to go their own way, complying with corporate strategic initiatives, but leveraging each others strengths to produce a result that is greater than the sum of its parts.

How does this relate to competitive intelligence? Sales and Marketing need each other here more than anywhere else. We see examples of success and failure among our client base often at Primary Intelligence.

Where else is the competitive battle fought more passionately than the sales trenches deal by deal. The right information delivered at the right time, coupled with the skills of an experienced sales representative can mean the difference between a loss and a long-term client with substantial lifetime value and profitability. But, yesterday, the marketing team was number-crunching weenies that love their reports and miss the boat.

And, who can provide marketing with more information about value proposition, messaging, competitive pressures and information specific to different industries or segments? The sales team works in this arena every day. They have their ear to the ground. Sales reps will see trends develop long before marketing hears word one. But, in yesterdays meeting, sales was gun-slinging outlaws with more bravado than brains.

In my experience, the sales and marketing department have to be married (happily) and work together continuously. In some companies, the position of VP Sales and Marketing exists. There are potential problems in combining two roles into one person, but there is less territoriality and conflict.

I recommend that someone from Sales and Marketing stage a love-in, professionally speaking. Create dialogue between the two organizations. Develop committees with leaders and worker bees from each group. Develop communication channels to move information up the chain and around to everyone in both departments.

The benefits will include:

-Stronger market alignment
-Messaging that is much more precise
-Sales reps that are better equipped with competitive intelligence
-A company with pronounced tactical advantages
-Increased sales and higher lifetime client values

I cant think of any real cons to this arrangement.

If you have ideas on moving Sales and Marketing closer together to leverage strengths and produce synergies, let me know. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)