In today’s fiercely competitive B2B landscape, mastering competitive intelligence for predictable B2B success is paramount. To navigate this challenging terrain, businesses need to embrace the power of competitive intelligence.
In this Predictable B2B Success episode, our host Vinay Koshy sits down with Dejan Gajsek, an expert in marketing and sales experimentation, to unravel the secrets of harnessing competitive intelligence for predictable growth and scale. With years of experience helping companies close more accounts and prevent losing deals to the competition, Dejan shares valuable insights and strategies that can supercharge your sales and marketing efforts. Let’s dive in and explore the world of competitive intelligence together.
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About Dejan Gajsek
Dejan Gajsek is the co-founder of Grow and Scale. This company helps out international mid-market and enterprise B2B tech startups with tailored competitive and sales enablement programs so the companies can start closing more accounts and stop losing deals to their competition.
Dejan is a young and ambitious entrepreneur who embarked on the journey of starting his own company. Despite already working with early-stage companies, Dejan found himself intrigued by the endless possibilities that lay ahead. Motivated by his desire to create a success story of his own and driven by his passion for exploring new ventures, Dejan took the leap and decided to test his capabilities. He formed a partnership with his best friend and ventured into their first project. Fortunately for them, luck was on their side, and this marked just the beginning of their exciting entrepreneurial journey.
Unleashing Competitive Intelligence and Sales Enablement for Business Success:
In today’s fiercely competitive business landscape, staying ahead requires a deep understanding of your competitors. Competitive intelligence and sales enablement play pivotal roles in arming businesses with the knowledge to outshine their rivals. So let’s explore key points to consider as we leverage our companies’ competitive intelligence and sales enablement.
1. The Importance of Competitive Intelligence:
Competitive intelligence is the process of gathering and analyzing information about competitors to gain a competitive edge. It supports multiple departments within an organization, including product development and sales.
For sales teams, competitive intelligence provides valuable insights into competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, and strategies, enabling them to make informed decisions and adjust their approach to win more deals.
Take a look at the statistics below:
- 56% of executives keep an eye on their potential competitors and plan to conquer new markets in the following three years using competitive intelligence. (Source: PwC)
- 90% of Fortune 500 Companies already use Competitive Intelligence to Gain a Competitive Advantage (Source: Emerald.com)
Competitive intelligence empowers businesses to gain insights into their competitors’ strategies, strengths, and weaknesses. By leveraging this knowledge, companies can make informed decisions, improve positioning, and achieve a competitive edge.
Actionable Takeaway: Start by identifying your top competitors and conducting comprehensive research on their products, pricing, case studies, and marketing strategies. Use tools like Creon and scrape websites for gathering and organizing intelligence.
2. Collaborative Approach for Competitive Intelligence:
Implementing a successful competitive intelligence program requires collaboration across various departments. Dejan emphasizes the need for buy-in from upper management or supervisors to initiate the process effectively.
As a mediator and cheerleader between different teams, she stresses the importance of generic communication, mindful of format, and accessible to all stakeholders. Building productive relationships with sales teams is essential, even though it may initially present challenges. However, starting with a few receptive sales reps and demonstrating tangible results can pave the way for greater acceptance and participation.
The success of competitive intelligence relies on effective cross-departmental collaboration. Sales, marketing, and product teams must work together to align strategies and harness the full potential of competitive intelligence.
- According to a study conducted by Gallup, businesses that prioritize collaboration experience a 21% increase in customer retention compared to those that do not. Source
- A research report by Aberdeen Group reveals that companies that foster employee collaboration achieve a 15% higher customer retention rate than their competitors. Source
Thereby underlining the importance of fostering teamwork.
Actionable Takeaway:
Act as a cheerleader or mediator between departments to encourage collaboration. Leverage tools like Highspot to share assets and ensure consistent and efficient team communication.
Scaling Competitive Intelligence Efforts:
To ensure the scalability of competitive intelligence programs, Diane suggests starting small and not overwhelming sales teams with excessive data. Focus on one competitor that is consistently a threat and build from there. Engage three sales representatives who can provide feedback and insights from their sales calls. Begin by creating a battle card that outlines competitor differentiators, value propositions, and objection-handling strategies. Regularly update this battle card based on performance and changing needs.
Empowering Sales Reps:
Diane stresses the importance of sales enablement in the competitive intelligence process. It is crucial to motivate sales representatives and ensure they are equipped with the right assets and materials. By providing scripts and a search feature to find and share relevant content with prospects quickly, organizations can empower their sales teams to counter competitors and gain trust effectively. Continuous feedback, iteration, and optimization are key to ensuring positive outcomes.
Integrating Competitive and Marketing Intelligence:
To achieve maximum impact, competitive intelligence should be combined with marketing intelligence. Businesses can improve sales calls and strategic positioning by proactively comparing themselves to competitors. Competitive intelligence provides valuable insights into competitors’ actions, enabling organizations to make smart decisions and enhance product positioning. While AI-driven tools like Brightlo AI can provide valuable information, organizations should supplement it with customer knowledge and conduct research, feedback, and interviews.
Overcoming Sales Objections:
Sales objections are common roadblocks that businesses face. Pricing and timing objections, in particular, can stall deals. Addressing these objections proactively in content and conversations can help build trust and generate leads. Diane suggests offering incentives, such as grants or subsidies, to make the sale easier. Providing sales reps with robust content and tools like scripts and a search feature helps them effectively address objections and close deals.
3. Sales Enablement for Revenue Growth:
Sales teams are often the most interested department in competitive intelligence.
- According to a study conducted by CSO Insights, organizations that invest in sales enablement see a 27.6% increase in win rates.
- A survey conducted by Highspot revealed that companies that effectively implement sales enablement strategies experience a 60% higher quota attainment compared to those with less mature sales enablement programs.
Providing sales reps with the necessary tools and information to effectively position your product against competitors can increase revenues.
Actionable Takeaway:
Start small and keep sales teams manageable with a manageable amount of data. Focus on one competitor that frequently steals deals and develop battle cards and case studies to equip your sales team with the knowledge they need to succeed. Iterate the process as you move on to the next competitor.
4. Enhancing Content with Competitive Intelligence:
Competitive intelligence not only impacts sales but also informs content marketing strategies. Businesses can effectively position themselves in the market by analyzing and incorporating competitor insights into marketing materials.
Additionally,
- According to a study by Evergage, 88% of marketers reported that personalization improved their overall marketing efforts, with 63% stating that it significantly increased their content marketing strategy’s success. Source
- A report by Demand Metric found that personalized content marketing resulted in an average increase of 20% in sales opportunities. Furthermore, 80% of respondents reported higher engagement rates with personalized content than with generic content. Source
Thereby making competitive intelligence a valuable asset for content personalization.
Actionable Takeaway: Use competitive intelligence to tailor your marketing materials and content to address customer pain points and differentiate yourself from competitors. Conduct research, gather feedback, and interview customers to inform your content strategy effectively.
5. Leveraging Sales Enablement Tools:
Various technology tools can streamline the competitive intelligence process. Mobile alerts and social listening tools can help organizations stay informed in-house, while “activate bots” can provide competitive intelligence by analyzing machine-generated data. Scraping tools and platforms like Terra, GT, and Insurance can provide valuable materials for analysis. Software tools like Creon can assist in gathering and organizing intelligence, and Highspot is recommended for sharing assets with sales teams.
Automation and AI:
With the increasing number of SaaS tools available, competition is becoming tougher. Organizations should be proactive in establishing competitive intelligence functions as soon as possible. Diane emphasizes the need to quickly identify the top competitors and conduct comprehensive research on their products, pricing models, videos, and case studies. Using this information, organizations can create battle guides, positioning statements, and case studies to equip sales teams with the knowledge to speak confidently about their products and overcome weaknesses.
Providing sales reps with user-friendly sales enablement tools can significantly improve their performance.
On average, firms that use technology effectively were 57% more effective at sales training and development than ineffective technology users.
Why is this important?
Because better sales training translates to better performance, productivity, and retention across the organization.
Sales enablement tools facilitate easy access to relevant content and ensure that sales reps are equipped with the most up-to-date information.
Actionable Takeaway: Implement tools like search features and sales scripts to help sales reps quickly find and share relevant content with prospects. Evaluate and adopt sales enablement platforms like Highspot to streamline content sharing and enhance sales efficiency.
6. Being Proactive in Competitive Intelligence:
To prevent losing deals to new startups and maintain a competitive edge, businesses must adopt a proactive stance toward competitive intelligence. Proactively monitoring competitors and keeping abreast of their strategies allows businesses to anticipate and respond effectively to changes in the market.
Actionable Takeaway: Implement systems and intelligence functions that regularly track and analyze competitor activity. Utilize mobile alerts and social listening tools, and activate bots to gather competitive intelligence, such as machine graphics and industry-specific information.
Conclusion:
Competitive intelligence and sales enablement are integral to achieving and sustaining business success in today’s cutthroat market. By leveraging verified statistics and independent sources, we have established the importance of competitive intelligence and sales enablement. With actionable takeaways for each point highlighted, businesses can implement effective competitive intelligence strategies, empower their sales teams, and position themselves as market leaders. Remember, continuous optimization and feedback are key to ensuring long-term success in the competitive landscape.
Some areas we explore in this episode include:
- The importance of engaging and commenting on social media platforms like LinkedIn
- Building relationships and engaging with others in the community for success
- Providing value through engaging and sharing content on LinkedIn
- The speaker’s experience in hitting sales numbers and playing the game for results
- Treating gatekeepers and others with respect and humanity in sales
- Analyzing results and taking personal responsibility for improvement in sales
- The importance of empathy in sales, drawing from the speaker’s experience in the mission field
- The dignified nature of sales and the value of individuals who make significant contributions
- The balance between being focused on being number one and prioritizing relationships and loyalty
- The importance of curiosity in asking follow-up questions and understanding different personalities in sales.
- And much, much more.
Listen to the episode
Related links and resources
- Check out Grow and Scale
- Learn from Christopher Cumby – How to Use Powerful Sales Gamification Techniques to Drive Growth
- Learn more from Simone Vincenzi – How to Build a Personal Selling Process That Boosts Sales: 7 Steps
- Discover more from Jamal Reimer – What is Enterprise Sales and How to Develop a Process to Boost Growth
- Learn from Michael Haynes – How to Drive Growth with a Buyer Driven B2B Sales Approach
- Check out the article – 7 Sales Copy Techniques You Can Steal from Seth Godin
- Check out the article – 16 Proven Web Design Secrets That Increases Sign Ups, Sales and Traffic
Connect with Dejan
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