Why Doesn’t Competitive Intelligence Flow to Sales?

by admin , June 8, 2007

It has been my observation that most companies perform some type of competitive intelligence. In fact, most have several, if not dozens, of programs. Each research initiative is built to produce information upon which decisions may be based.

It has also been my observation that the production of intelligence is almost always handled by the marketing department, which makes sense. Of course, I am painting in broad strokes, but if you can accept that most analysts, competitive intelligence specialists and market research groups fit under the marketing umbrella, we should all agree on this point.

In fact, in one of our Primary Intelligence internal studies, 89% of companies said that they have a formal competitive intelligence program in place. This is higher than the 78% that have a customer sat program and the 65% that conduct account retention analysis.

But, when we ask the sales reps about the availability and use of competitive intelligence in their jobs, only 56% of sales managers claim competitive intelligence as one of their tools. A higher percentage of sales reps (68%) say that they use competitive intelligence to sell. But, I dont know the percentage of intelligence that comes from marketing vs. self-generated intelligence. Sales reps and account managers can be very resourceful when it comes to preparing to do their job.

All this seems to beg the question why isnt sales organizing competitive intelligence initiatives more often? Why dont sales managers use competitive intelligence to position more effectively? Why doesnt the sales department work more closely with marketing?

It is my experience that there is more than one obstacle. But, the most important fact is that the intelligence is delivered in chunks that sales doesnt want to eat. This fact seems to outweigh the type of intelligence available or any other obstacles that might exist between sales and marketing.

Another important fact to consider is that the competitive intelligence is often commissioned by management and executives, which means that the intelligence is not designed from the outset to satisfy sales nor answer questions relevant to sales.

Both of these problems can be overcome through tighter communication between sales and marketing. Odds are that current intelligence initiatives can be reworked to include a few tidbits for the sales group. Furthermore, marketing can study the current information sources used by sales and mimic those sources to deliver bits and pieces (or full meals) straight to the sales reps.

If the intelligence can make a sales rep 10% more effective (and current evidence suggests that 10% is a conservative figure), how much revenue does your company stand to gain by improving the intelligence communication process? What opportunity is being lost today by not doing so?

Lets talk about the possibilities and what they mean to you. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Primary Intelligence Newsletter Launches!

by admin , June 6, 2007

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!

Yesterday, we launched the Primary Intelligence Weekly Newsletter, which was a very big deal for our company. A number of events came together lately to encourage us to share our ideas and the newsletter seems to be the best tool for our purposes.

Our newsletter will be dedicated to the promotion of sales and competitive intelligence. If you have spent any time reading this blog, you’ll know that we lean heavily toward intelligence that is most likely to provide ROI. We will discuss current topics, provide case studies and bring you techniques that are likely to help your company move ahead of the competitors. In brief we will:

• Promote competitive intelligence
• Create a forum of likeminded people
• Solicit viewpoints from practitioners and academics

If you would like to be added to our subscription list, send me an email and I’ll make sure you are added for the next edition (cdalley@primary-intel.com)

Take a look at the stories from our first edition:

Cover Story

Million Dollar Competitive Intelligence for Pennies a Day

By Ron Sathoff, Primary Intelligence Inc.

My Dad always used to say, “Leveraging all that you already have in an efficient way can bring about unexpected benefits.” Of course, he phrased it as “Make the most of what you have,” or “No, you can’t have any more money,” but the sentiment is similar. Enhancing your Competitive Intelligence does not mean you have to launch a whole new set of research initiatives. (For more, click here)

BlogCentral

It Really Isn’t About Price

Recently, we interviewed a lost sales opportunity for one of our vision care providers. They had battled it out with two other providers and in the end, they weren’t selected, but it wasn’t about price. (For more, click here)

The Big Deal

The A-List: 7-Eleven Selects HP Technology

7-Eleven needed to upgrade the information technology that it had in its stores to provide them with the data they needed to run their systems faster. After sending out RFPs to several companies, 7-Eleven narrowed its short list to two alternatives: a Hewlett-Packard solution, and a combined solution from NEC and NCR, with NEC providing the hardware and NCR providing the service for the solution. (For more, click here)

If you have feedback or comments, let me know. I am interested to know what you think about our publication. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

SellingPower Gets It, Too

by admin , June 4, 2007

I was very pleased today to see that SellingPower (the leading source of sales management information) gave Primary Intelligence top billing in its Sales Management Newsletter (Keeping Tabs On the Competition). Heather Baldwin, Contributing Editor, attended our webinar in April and provided a very thorough summary of our philosophy to create impactful competitive intelligence from your most productive information channels; your clients.

Our new website homepage attempts to drive the same message home. In the diagram just below the header, Primary Intelligence attempts to demonstrate all of the areas where sales intelligence can be a) generated and b) put to use to create additional competitive advantage. Of course, we have an intelligence product for each step. If you want to find out more, please visit. Let me know how you like the visual representation.

Most importantly, I still think that most companies can increase their Competitive Intelligence quantity and quality by focusing on the reasons why people buy from their company and the competitors. This intelligence should be gathered after the first sale and also, after each additional renewal, upgrade, additional sale or lost sale in any of those events.

Specifically, take a look at your customer sat, account loyalty, win/loss and other client-studies. What would happen if you added a question or two? For example:

- Which other vendors provide services like ours?
- What are some of their key selling points?
- Where do you feel that we are superior to [vendors]
- What have innovations have [vendors] included that we should think about?

Of course, you have to assess your current study, client base and other factors. You dont want to start your clients thinking too hard about your competitors. But, dont think for a minute that even your most loyal clients dont know anything about your competitors. And, if theyre loyal to you, theyll most likely share information with you, too.

Let me know what youre thinking about this stuff. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Dan McHugh A Pretty Smart Guy who likes Competitive Intelligence

by admin , June 1, 2007

I was flattered this week to find a kind mention about Primary Intelligence in an associates blog. Mr. McHugh enjoyed some of my thoughts about attaching ROI and results to your competitive intelligence efforts. (click HERE to visit Dan’s blog)

Dan McHugh started his blog a couple of weeks ago. In his first post, he provided a preview of what to expect from his writings:

What to expect:

• Advice and insights for Lone Wolf CI practitioners as well as those setting up thier own CI/Market Intelligence practices.
• Thoughts on the use and misuse of CI by Technology companies.
• CI in Asia Pacific and some of the unique pitfalls and benefits.
• A bit of irreverence and the continuing battle between sales and marketing.

What not to expect:

• Commentary on the competitors I focus on for my day-to-day job. Not that I dont like being opinionated regarding them, but rather, I want this blog to be about the art of CI. I also greatly admire the work that many of my brethren do, regardless of the company they work for.

In my opinion, this type of information would be of benefit to any practitioner of Competitive Intelligence. Best wishes to Dan in building a readership. So far, his content is worthy of my time.

I dont know how to personally contact Dan, but I believe that he is the Senior Manager, Competitive Intelligence APAC at Oracle. Hopefully, Ill have lunch with him someday.

If you enjoy reading blogs and articles on market, competitive and sales intelligence, do the author a favor and leave a comment. Agree with the article. Offer a contradictory opinion. Promote your own work and point of view. Half of the fun of blogging is receiving feedback and knowing that you have created a dialogue rather than a monologue.

And, just when you thought statistics were boring
One last thing from Dans blog. Today, he posted the following:

Aaron Koblin looks at 15,000 flights that flew in and out of the USA over a period of 24 hours. You would think that would be pretty much the end of the story. Click to see just how exciting statistics can get!

Im always happy to chat about competitive intelligence (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)