Using competitive intelligence for effective sales enablement

In B2B sales, competitive intelligence is becoming increasingly important. Buyers of B2B products and services evaluate several vendors during the purchase process. As such, it is paramount that you know your competition if you want to become a preferred vendor. Competitive intelligence is a valuable tool in this situation.
By leveraging competitive data, sales teams gain competitive intelligence to engage in more informed conversations with prospects. If you are in a complex sales cycle, it is crucial to have an in-depth understanding of your competitors. The article discusses how CI can drive efficiencies across the B2B sales cycle.

Identify how competitors leverage digital tools:

Modern B2B buyers expect a digitally-oriented customer experience. Examine your competitors’ digital-sales models to determine how you can leverage digital. With sound competitive intelligence practices in place, you’re able to monitor what kind of digital strategies competitors use: your digital marketing baseline includes organic traffic, top ranking keywords, backlink profile and quality, the number of organic keywords, and their social media platforms.

Find information gaps:

In order to make informed decisions, B2B buyers need relevant information. Using classic marketing funnel measures, you can determine your success in guiding consumers through the purchase process. But how do those numbers stack up against that of your competitors, and are there any gaps between each stage in the sales funnel?

From a strategic perspective, the brand funnel illustrates where your brand is now and can provide hints as to where it can go next, uncovering sales and marketing blind spots and underperforming marketing strategies. By comparing your information offering to your competitors, competitive intelligence can be used to identify gaps.

A significant portion of the time sales teams spend collecting information about competitors is spent researching their competition. Often, salespeople lack access to reliable and accurate information. You can easily set up the right brand strategy using our competitive intelligence capabilities.

Benchmark your website:

Take a look at two scenarios: let’s say your traffic is rising by 12% yearly. You may think that’s excellent at first glance. The problem is that it won’t be enough if your competitors are growing twice as fast as you are. With competitive intelligence, we can compare websites against each other to show you how they compare. Some of the metrics to track while benchmarking your website against competitors include:

• search performance
• messaging
• visuals
• usability performance

Compare sales /go-to-market strategies:

A competitive intelligence assessment gives you the information to better equip your sales team by understanding your competitors’ position in the market, evaluating their products, and knowing their target market. Due to a lack of insight and visibility into customer needs, sales leaders often have difficulty determining effective routes to acquire customers and increase market share. The results are reduced efficiency, risks, and workloads for sales and operations teams. A company can identify opportunities to improve its sales strategy by combining qualitative and quantitative research.

Handle objections more effectively:

In order to handle objections effectively, you need to establish a rapport with the buyer and ask strategic questions beyond the surface-level objection they might have. Assessment of your competition reveals your differentiating strengths and the real value you deliver, allowing you to respond to objections with enough information. When you have the right data at hand, you can provide the answers your prospect needs to make an informed decision. Additionally, competitive intelligence insights benefit you when you build trust with them:

• Every claim you make can instantly be verified whether you are talking about your product or competitors. It is possible to build trust and a positive emotional environment if what you say is true.
• Even in the toughest situations, you can still uphold your brand over your competitors.

Related reading: How to create effective battle cards for winning technology customers

Want to find out how you can better anticipate and prepare for competitor strategies? Need to know exactly when to call an old lead who had a competitor’s renewal coming up? Our competitive intelligence solution is customized to meet your specific organizational needs. Contact us to know more.