competitive-positioning

Competitive Positioning

When to Activate

• Entering a new market and need to understand the competitive landscape
• A new competitor has emerged and is taking market share
• Sales team is losing deals to specific competitors and needs better positioning
• Refreshing competitive intelligence for annual planning
• Building sales enablement materials (battlecards, objection handling)
• Pricing decisions that require competitive context
• Evaluating potential partnerships or acquisitions in the competitive space

First Questions

1. Who do your customers consider as alternatives? (Not who you think — who they actually compare you to.)
2. Why do you win deals, and why do you lose them?
3. What do customers say about competitors in reviews, forums, and sales calls?
4. Which competitors are growing fastest, and why?
5. Where do you overlap with competitors, and where are you genuinely different?
6. Are there non-obvious competitors (spreadsheets, manual processes, "do nothing")?
7. What competitive intelligence do you already have, and how current is it?

Competitive Landscape Mapping

Step 1: Identify Competitors

Map competitors in three tiers:

Direct competitors — Same product category, same target customer. They solve the same problem the same way.

Indirect competitors — Different product category, same customer need. They solve the same problem a different way.

Substitute competitors — What customers use instead of any purpose-built solution. Often the real competition (spreadsheets, email, manual processes, hiring an intern).

Step 2: Build Competitor Profiles

For each significant competitor, document:

Company: [Name]
Website: [URL]
Founded: [Year]
Funding/Revenue: [If available]
Headcount: [Approximate]
Target Market: [Who they sell to]
Core Product: [What they sell]
Positioning: [How they describe themselves — use their own words]
Key Strengths: [What they do well]
Key Weaknesses: [Where they fall short]
Pricing Model: [How they charge]
Recent Moves: [Product launches, funding, pivots, hires in last 12 months]
Win Rate Against: [% of deals won/lost vs this competitor, if known]
Common Objections: [What customers say when considering them over you]