How do you obtain competitive intelligence on a competitor's product that has very little public-facing marketing around it?

We typically begin by looking at their financial information, social media channels, and forums like Reddit to get a sense of what their customers are saying. We sometime...

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 produc...

Be resourceful! Even when there's little public-facing marketing, there's always a ton of other public resources that you can look to. Here are a few: 1 - Audit their soc...

I'll start with the assumption that this isn't a product you can personally go out and procure on your own. Hands-on is always great. Review sites are good, and can oft...

This is a tricky one and there are definitely some more above and also below board answers. I've known people who have made up fake identities in order to get demos from ...

Call them! It is all fair game. Going deep on youtube and searching their exec team is also a great resource. Odds are even if they don't have public content, the CEO has...

The first source I would go for is your own customers. If you have a CAB (customer advisory board), that's a perfect forum for finding competitor intel. It is likely that...

I'm all about being resourceful and creative. If you can call and ask directly do it. If you are at a tradeshow, stop by the booth and ask.1. Network within the Industry:...

That's definitely a challenge! There are a few things you could try to gain more insights: Utilize your sales team to ask about a competitor in discussions with prospect...

I love this question as it puts competitiveness into context. If you can't find anything about a 'competitor' how is a prospect going to know anything about them? No info...

I would say it's time to get scrappy! Calling them (or even having a consultant do so) can be tricky because most companies that are secretive or demo-shy screen for this...

Although @Mary (Shirley) Sheehan and @Mark Officer already posted great answers, I would like to add two other great sources. 1 ) A source of data is reading what their...

Capterra is another good review site. Along with YouTube, check out SlideShare for the same reason, often times there are presentations from conferences etc. that have...

OOOOhhhh I love that question. There are always tracks you just need to start looking for them. I call this operation Ghost Recon. Play a Secret Shopper - all of us...

Two questions about the lack of public-facing marketing that I think can help guide the search: 1. Is the lack of public-facing marketing in fact part of their narrative...