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AMA: ClickUp Head of Competitive Intelligence, Andrew McCotter-Bicknell on Competitive Positioning
October 18 @ 9:00AM PST
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ClickUp Head of Competitive Intelligence, Andrew McCotter-Bicknell on Competitive Positioning
Top Questions
Andrew McCotter-Bicknell
Apollo.io Head of Competitive Intel • October 18
Limit the competitors you track to ~8 - 10 of the TOP competitors that are impacting revenue most. Yes, we should still be keeping a pulse and maintaining awareness of other vendors. But we can't REALLY track all of the activity on dozens of competitors unless we have a large team. Get buy......Read More
364 Views
2 requests
Andrew McCotter-Bicknell
Apollo.io Head of Competitive Intel • October 18
Get them involved. Interview them to learn about their encounters with competitors. Here are things that I regularly ask my sellers. * Which competitors are coming up most in conversations with buyers? * What are buyers specifically asking about? * What assets would help you win more compe......Read More
691 Views
3 requests
What metric, goal or KPI can you put on providing competitive intelligence to the company or product teams?
I work in a company that measures the impact of all projects, but admittedly this is a difficult area to track. Would love to any suggestions/thoughts.
Andrew McCotter-Bicknell
Apollo.io Head of Competitive Intel • October 18
Competitive win rate is a great north star goal. But it can be challenging to accurately impact that in a positive way in a short amount of time. A couple other KPIs I've used in the past and that I recommend: 1. Competitor confidence (from the sales team) 2. Project-based contribution If......Read More
528 Views
4 requests
How do you obtain competitive intelligence on a competitor's product that has very little public-facing marketing around it?
I'm about to just call and ask them if they still sell it.
Andrew McCotter-Bicknell
Apollo.io Head of Competitive Intel • October 18
I had one gut reaction when I read this question. "Why isn't there much public-facing marketing around it?" A few thoughts come to mind: 1. They discontinued the product (try checking publicly-facing knowledge centers, if they have any, to confirm) 2. They rebranded the product (this happ......Read More
893 Views
7 requests
What constitutes a competitor, and what is the goal you have in mind when you conduct competitor analysis?
What is your philosophy when it comes to competitors?
Andrew McCotter-Bicknell
Apollo.io Head of Competitive Intel • October 18
1. Revenue impact 2. Product innovation I used to only focus on the first point. That's an important one—and if you have limited bandwidth, I'd recommend you start there first. These are the vendors that are impacting your sellers' win rates. They're likely the more well-known vendors in your......Read More
357 Views
3 requests
How often do you talk to customers, or do qualitative + VOC research?
Is it continuous or at specific campaigns?
Andrew McCotter-Bicknell
Apollo.io Head of Competitive Intel • October 18
Multiple times per month. It varies though, depending on bandwidth as a one-person CI team. The most important thing is that, as a whole, ClickUp's Product Marketing team speaks to customers all the time for different reasons. I focus my conversations more around competitive intel, or win/los......Read More
398 Views
5 requests
Andrew McCotter-Bicknell
Apollo.io Head of Competitive Intel • October 18
There are two directions to answering this question: 1. Frequency of delivery 2. Content Frequency is important because Sales is constantly bombarded with info. You have to get in front of them consistently with different materials like presentations, documents, customer-facing assets, etc. t......Read More
769 Views
4 requests
Andrew McCotter-Bicknell
Apollo.io Head of Competitive Intel • October 18
First, there is no one magic tool that will do your Competitive Intel program for you. All of the tools below require a strategy before using. But they can be extremely powerful when you use them correctly. For competitive alerts, battlecard creation, and win/loss reporting, try looking at Klu......Read More
816 Views
2 requests
Andrew McCotter-Bicknell
Apollo.io Head of Competitive Intel • October 18
Yeah, there's a lot of new info flowing every day. But a lot of it is noise. First make sure you understand what's important to the company. What are the big goals you're trying to hit? What's the direction that your product is going in? With those things in mind, you should be able to filter ......Read More
533 Views
4 requests
Andrew McCotter-Bicknell
Apollo.io Head of Competitive Intel • October 18
Don't use corporate jargon and you're already 90% ahead of everyone else (if I had a nickel every time I read a company referring to their product as "industry-leading" or "robust"...). How do your happiest, most successful customers describe your product? Use those words. Don't use different ......Read More
437 Views
4 requests
Andrew McCotter-Bicknell
Apollo.io Head of Competitive Intel • October 18
There are a few documents that I maintain over time: 1. Competitor product releases for the Product team (updated monthly) 2. Competitive battlecards for the Sales team (updated as needed) 3. Win/Loss reporting (updated quarterly-to-semi annually) Each of these docs helps a specific audience......Read More
841 Views
4 requests
How do you get competitive pricing and packaging information from B2B complex sales companies i.e not saas, and with components on hardware, software, business services
Like Industrial automation solutions, including costs for integration
Andrew McCotter-Bicknell
Apollo.io Head of Competitive Intel • October 18
To be 100% honest, I only have experience in SaaS so I'm probably not the best guy to answer this question. But I would venture a guess that win/loss could still help here. You'd be amazed at the info you could access if you have a great relationship with prospects, buyers, customers, etc. ......Read More
853 Views
3 requests
Andrew McCotter-Bicknell
Apollo.io Head of Competitive Intel • October 18
Most Competitive Intel functions begin as siloed efforts within organizations. Product, Sales, Marketing, executives... they're all interested in competitors and conduct their own research for different purposes—with or without a formal CI program. But by implementing a formal CI program, the res......Read More
938 Views
3 requests
Andrew McCotter-Bicknell
Apollo.io Head of Competitive Intel • October 18
That's one way you can segment competitors. A few others you may want to consider: * Persona that's most likely to purchase the competitor * Company size that's most likely to purchase the competitor * Cost of competitor * Region where the competitor is most popular * Products that the comp......Read More
1077 Views
2 requests
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