What are some of the best practices and tools that you use to determine competitive positioning that you could recommend?

The goal of competitive positioning is to own a space in the market that's yours by focusing on differentiated value. In order to fully be able to answer the question of what your differentiated value is or should be, you'll need to do some analysis. The following are key buckets that you'll need to dive into:

1. Market Analysis/ Profile: Market Size, Market Trends, Market Competitors, Market lifecycle stage

2. Segmentation& Personas -Determine your segmentation strategy and create a detailed buyer persona profile that represents a target buyer in that particular segment

3. Competitive Analysis - Direct, Indirect, Future competitors 

4. SWOT Analysis - Synthesize the information above and create a SWOT analyze to highlight strenghs, weaknesses, opportunities, threats 

5. Bring it all together into a value proposition that serves as the basis for your competitive positioning (think about things like product leadership, operational execellence, customer intimacy as value drivers) 

To determine the competitive position in which you’re a clear winner and have unique strengths, try the following:

• SWOT analysis
• Competitive map plotted against two axis of the main attributes/values that matter to your CUSTOMERS, not your company
• Customer/Company/Competitor values venn diagram to identify your unique value points (where company and customer overlap), where its a draw (all 3 overlap and where copy-cat messaging stems from), where you lose (where customer and competitor overlap), and the value points that don’t matter (company and competitor overlap)

Before getting started be clear about your ICP and Personas and fill in these frameworks vs the competition based on how your target audience would rate you vs them. Perception is reality, so even if you have the best capabilities but your personas can’t tell the difference or it’s not important to them, don’t focus on it. This is where a lot of companies stumble.

Early on in my career I use to spend a lot of time analyzing my competitors. I closely followed everything on their website, product pages, old blog posts, social media handles etc. Youcan almost make a mental model of how the company, product and their marketing strategy has evolved over the years. It is good learning but it is very easy to fall into a rabbit hole and spend hours reading. Nowadays I have a google alert set on a bunch of keywords. I get a daily email report with information just enough to keep me aware of the important movements in my space. I think if you spend too much time on your competitors, your prodcut is only going to be marginally better than your competitors. This may sound cliched - but start with your customers, spend a lot of time analyzing your customers and then work backward to improve your product/strategy.

This is highly requested, so I'll take a shot at it. But first, an acknowlegement of bias: I don't really like competitive tools that much. I find they put more emphasis on collection than utilization and understanding. Kind of like how we all can't remember anyone's phone number any more because we carry smartphones around. 

Best practices and tools for determining positioning in a competitive market:

1. Understand your Tier 1 competitors' lead message and how it overlaps (or not) with yours. That's 75% of the battle

2. Talk to customers directly on a weekly basis. Hear what they hear. Understand what they fear, broadly or with your product. Build empathy with their core problem. 

3. Adopt a standard framework for discussing and documenting competitive positioning. I like "Lead with / Defend against" because it aligns with how sales operates in two modes: proactive and reactive. 

4. Iterate, iterate, iterate. Only the market can tell you if you're "right." And it will change in 6 months. 

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 Klue or Crayon.

For third-party agencies that conduct win/loss interviews and surveys on your behalf, take a look at Clozd, DoubleCheck Research, or Iceberg IQ.

For review mining, check out G2, TrustRadius, or wherever your customers leave reviews.

For benchmarking, check out PeerSignal.org (free!)

Some best practices and tools!

1. Market Research:

   • Competitor Analysis Tools: Leverage tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or SimilarWeb for comprehensive competitor analysis, including website traffic, keywords, and backlink strategies.

   • Industry Reports: Explore industry-specific reports and studies to understand market trends, challenges, and emerging opportunities.

2. Customer Feedback:

   • Surveys and Interviews: Conduct surveys and interviews with existing customers to understand their pain points, preferences, and perceptions of your product compared to competitors.

   • Review Platforms: Monitor customer reviews on platforms like G2, Capterra, and TrustRadius to gain insights into strengths and weaknesses.

3. SWOT Analysis:

   • Perform a thorough SWOT analysis to identify internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportunities and threats in relation to competitors. I often ask other teams like product, CS, and sales to fill one out as well to understand their POV on what our SWOT might look like. This can be made fun and interactive through a tool like Miro!

4. Product Features and Differentiators:

   • Feature Matrix: Create a feature matrix comparing your product with key competitors. Clearly outline unique features and functionalities.

   • Value Proposition: Clearly articulate your product's unique value proposition and how it addresses specific customer needs better than competitors.

5. Pricing Strategy:

   • Pricing Comparison: Compare your pricing structure with competitors. Highlight any cost advantages, additional features, or flexibility in your pricing model.
     

6. Website and Content Analysis:

   • Content Audit: Analyze the content on your website and compare it with competitors. Ensure your messaging is clear, compelling, and differentiated.

   • User Experience (UX): Evaluate the user experience of your website and digital assets compared to competitors.

7. Social Media Monitoring:

   • Social Listening Tools: Use tools like Brandwatch or Mention to monitor social media conversations. Understand sentiment and gather insights into how your brand is perceived relative to competitors.

8. Industry Events and Conferences:

   • Attendee Feedback: Gather insights from industry events and conferences. Engage with attendees to understand their impressions of different solutions in your space.

9. Benchmarking Against Best Practices:

   • Industry Standards: Benchmark your product against industry standards and best practices. Ensure your product aligns with or exceeds these benchmarks.

10. Continuous Monitoring:

    • Competitor Alerts: Set up alerts to monitor competitor activities, product launches, or changes in strategy. Stay informed about the evolving competitive landscape.

Remember that competitive positioning is an ongoing process, and staying attuned to market dynamics is crucial for maintaining a strategic edge.

Remember to use data from the sales team and customer conversations to determine which competitors to focus on. 

Your positioning should be based on how each vendor attempts to solve the customer’s problem. Start with identifying what is the problem your customer is trying to solve. Then, go through each key competitor and understand how they help the customer solve that problem. Think like the customer! Why would a customer choose your competitor? Then follow this same process for your product. 

Pro-Tip! Use my Google Doc Template to get started!