Creating solid services and products through competitive reconnaissance.
Being aware of who your customers are resourcing to fulfill their needs is valuable to how you build solutions. Collecting valuable information from public sources, customers and third parties can help a business build comprehensive SWOT analysis. Discovering a companies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats allows you to create an edge that separates you from your competitors and appeal to your prospective consumer.
Collect information legally and ethically.
Legitimate ways to obtain information on your competitors include:
- Public sources. You may gather information about your competitors from public sources such as:
- Newspapers, magazines, other published articles and television programs
- Advertisements and brochures intended for public distribution
- Information freely available on the Internet and online research services
- Public filings made with governmental or regulatory authorities, such as SEC reports, patent filings and litigation records
- Analyst reports
- Industry surveys or reports
- Public presentations given by competitors at trade shows and conferences
- Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and similar requests from governmental or regulatory agencies
- Conversations with customers. Interviewing customers is essential. The more you know about your customer the better equipped you are to solve their problems and ease their pain. Contact customers about products, pricing, and service as long as the information you are requesting is not confidential.
- Hiring third parties to obtain information. You may also choose to use a third party to gather information about your competition. Third parties are subject to legal and ethical methods of gathering information about products and services. Third party research professionals conduct focus groups and interviews with suppliers and customers generally and may reveal the purpose of their research without disclosing your identity.
However you choose to gather information about your competition do so in an legal and ethical manner which represents your intentions for healthy business to business relationships.
Creating a journal of your competition with your evaluations is a valuable tool in creating products and services. Recognizing not only what your competitors are providing in services, products and prices along with how they are marketing to your customer will give you an inside look into what strategies work and don't work in your market.
According to businessballs.com a simple 2x2 matrix is a useful way of interpreting the SWOT
| Strengths andWeaknesses | the internal environment - the situationinside the company or organization | for example, factors relating to products, pricing, costs, profitability, performance, quality, people, skills, adaptability, brands, services, reputation, processes, infrastructure, etc. | factors tend to be in the present |
| Opportunities andThreats | the external environment - the situationoutside the company or organization | for example, factors relating to markets, sectors, audience, fashion, seasonality, trends, competition, economics, politics, society, culture, technology, environmental, media, law, etc. | factors tend to be in the future |
Alan Chapman of businessballs.com also suggests that a SWOT anaylysis can be applied outside of sales and marketing in ways such as:
- a company (its position in the market, commercial viability, etc)
- a method of sales distribution
- a product or brand
- a business idea
- a strategic option, such as entering a new market or launching a new product
- a opportunity to make an acquisition
- a potential partnership
- changing a supplier
- outsourcing a service, activity or resource
- project planning and project management
- an investment opportunity
- personal financial planning
- personal career development - direction, choice, change, etc.
- education and qualifications planning and decision-making
- life-change - downshifting, relocation,
- relationships, perhaps even family planning?..
As you begin to evaluate your opponent, consider that you will attract clients that are similar in thought and practice as you in the beginning so they will tend to agree with what you will like. A simple compare and contrast list is a good place to start as you peruse website and blog material. What do you or don't you like about what you see and how would you improve on the content, look and feel. Letting go of your original ideas as you receive new information will open you up to additional possibilities which will enhance your buisiness building experience and allow you to deliver content that is important to the customer.
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