As a business, it’s important to keep track of your competition. What are they doing that is working well? What tactics are they using that you could learn from?
Competitive Intelligence tracking is the process of monitoring and assessing your competition to gain a strategic advantage.
To track your progress and measure the effectiveness of your Competitive Intelligence (CI) strategy, you need to set goals and Competitive Intelligence KPIs (key performance indicators)
But what KPIs should you be tracking as part of your competitive intelligence strategy?
The Ultimate Guide to a Integrating AI into Competitive Intelligence Programs
How to measure competitive intelligence
How each company measures its competitive intelligence is different, but there are some general guidelines you can follow.
Setting your goals
Measuring competitive intelligence starts with understanding your goals.
Your competitive intelligence KPIs should be aligned with your business goals to drive the most impact. Once you have a clear understanding of your goals, you can start to identify the KPIs that will help you measure progress.
Clear qualitative and quantitative goals will allow you to track the progress of your competitive intelligence strategy and ensure that it is delivering value to your business.
Measuring against competitors
To measure your progress, you need to have a clear understanding of where your competitors stand. This will allow you to benchmark your own performance and track your progress over time.
Your competitive intelligence tracking should include data on your competitor’s market share, product offerings, pricing, promotional activities, and more. This information helps you identify trends and understand how your competitors are positioning themselves in the market.
By tracking your competitor’s information, you will be able to adjust your own strategy as needed. This will help you stay ahead of the competition and maintain a competitive edge.
Understanding impact on a per-team basis
Competitive Intelligence KPIs should be designed to show you how each team is performing against its competitors. This will help you make decisions on where to allocate resources and adjust your overall strategy.
Key teams are often:
- Sales – How are our products/services selling in relation to our competitors’?
- Marketing – What is our market share? How does our brand compare to our competitors’?
- Research and Development – What new products or services do our competitors have in the pipeline?
- Operations – How efficient are our processes compared to our competitors?
- C-suite – How does our company’s overall performance compare to our competitors?
Competitive Intelligence tracking will help you see which teams are having the most impact and making the biggest difference. This information is essential for making decisions on where to focus your efforts.
What are KPIs?
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are a measure of how well a company is achieving its key objectives.
There are KPIs for every area of business, from marketing and sales to product development and customer service.
Competitive intelligence KPIs can be used to track progress and identify areas of improvement. For example, if you want to track the number of new products launched by your competitors, you could use a KPI such as the percentage of market share for new products.
Another example could be the average customer satisfaction rating for a particular company. This KPI would give you an idea of how well the company is doing in terms of customer service.
Why are they important?
KPIs are important because they provide a way to measure progress and identify areas of improvement. Competitive intelligence KPIs can help you see which teams are having the most impact and making the biggest difference.
Being able to track and measure your progress is crucial for any organization, but it can be especially important for competitive intelligence teams. This is because they are constantly trying to outmaneuver and outperform their rivals.
KPIs can help you see which areas you need to focus on in order to stay ahead of the competition. They can also help you identify which team members are having the most impact and making the biggest difference.
If you don’t have a competitive intelligence team, or if you’re not sure how to set up KPIs for
How do you track performance?
There are a few different ways to track KPIs. One way is to use software like SalesforceIQ or Tableau. Another way is to create a spreadsheet and track progress manually.
Automated platforms are more accurate and efficient, but they can be expensive. If you decide to go the manual route, make sure to create a system that is easy to use and update.
Elevate Your Impact with Competitive Intelligence
KPIs to track for CI
When it comes to CI, there are a few different KPIs you can track, split into both qualitative and quantitative measures.
Qualitative measures are more subjective, but can still be very important in assessing progress. Some of the most common include:
- Stakeholder confidence – this can be gauged through surveys or one-on-one meetings
- Employee satisfaction – again, this can be done through surveys or informally
- Customer satisfaction – knowing whether your customers are happy with the product or service is crucial
- Project morale – this one is more of an overall feeling that you as the project manager will get a sense for
Quantitative measures are generally more objective, and include things like:
- Win rates and competition – if you’re in a sales role, this one is key
- Customer retention – retention rates can indicate whether you’re delivering value
- Revenue growth – either year-over-year or quarter-over-quarter
- Resource adoption – for example, if you’re managing a software implementation, looking at whether users are actually using the features you’ve rolled out
These are just a few examples, but as you can see, both types of measures are important parts of competitive intelligence. In order to make the most informed decisions possible, you need to track both quantitative and qualitative measures.
Competitive Intelligence KPIs by team
Breaking down your CI KPIs by team can help you understand which ones are most important to each group. Here are a few examples:
Marketing:
- Website traffic
- Number of leads
- Cost per lead
- Conversion rate
Sales:
- Win/loss rate
- Sales cycle length
- Average deal size
CI:
- Number of new competitors
- Changes in the competitive landscape
- New product launches
As you can see, each team has different KPIs that they focus on. This is because each team has different goals and objectives. By tracking the right KPIs, you can make sure that everyone is on the same page and working towards the same goal.
Reaching CI goals with Insightsfirst
Insightsfirst makes it easy for you to make decisions based on data. We help you track the right KPIs so that you can see what’s working and what’s not. We also provide insights and recommendations so that you can make the best decisions for your business.
A hybrid approach
Insightsfirst’s hybrid approach, combining internal and external resources, is the key to success. This type of program combines the strengths of both bespoke, in-person market research and online research to create a more comprehensive and effective competitive intelligence strategy.
Forrester Research Named Evalueserve's Insightsfirst a Strong Performer
