Persuading through Competitive Intelligence Tools: the Cooperative Angle

People like stories and can be very persuasive, and I notice stories also make it easy to avoid ego conflicts. In this case study, we used customer’s decision-making criteria rather than our opinions, to persuasively communicate our analysis. However, don’t be so persuasive that you forget about the dignity of the people you are addressing. Tell a good story that leads them to your conclusions, as though your audience had thought them up themselves. This works with everyone I have ever addressed regardless of profession or culture.

Using Tactical Competitive Intelligence to Make a Strategic Decision: A Case Study

This post continues my story from the BCG Matrix Share discussion where we set the stage for an acquisition with a share of market visual. However, share of market by itself was not compelling enough for management. We created a company comparison based on 7 key customer buying criteria, and decided it would be more credible if we represented the comparisons from a customer’s point of view, casting aside our blind spots and biases.

BCG Matrix Share: A Visual Strategic Competitive Intelligence Tool: Explanation & Case Study

A strategic visual competitive intelligence tool I really like is the Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) Matrix Share Momentum model. You can see at a glance with little explanation how to read the results of this model. In competitive intelligence terms, the tool is a great primer to communicate to management a share of market snap shot.

Books on Competitive Intelligence Tools & Techniques

Since I’ve blogged about competitive intelligence tools and techniques this week, I thought I would share some books in the spirit of cooperative intelligence: Business and Competitive Analysis: Effective Application of New and Classic Methods; Strategic and Competitive Analysis: Methods and Techniques for Analyzing Business Competition; Analysis Without Paralysis: 10 Tools to Make Better Strategic Decisions; and The Analyst’s Cookbook.

Visualize Your Competitors on a Radar Screen Competitor Map, a Great Competitive Intelligence Tool

The Radar Screen is one of my favorite competitive intelligence tools. It is totally visual, and fits on one page for easy digestion. It can be used both strategically and tactically, and is a rich communication tool. Read about it in Adrian Slywotsky’s Value Migration. It’s a great way to visualize how competitors are positioned relative to you and each other. The uses for the Radar Screen competitor map are as rich as your imagination. The screen can be divided into 4 quadrants which might depict competitors by 4 separate business units, 4 different geographies, and on a tactical level 4 different reasons why customers buy.

Capture Competitive Intelligence from Sales: Switching Cost Analysis

One tool that been very popular with Sales forces over the years is “Switching Cost Analysis.” The goal is to help retain your customers! Identify all the hidden costs of the competitor’s solution which might make it more expensive for the customer to switch. Find enough omitted costs and the customer might wonder what else the competitor is not telling them!

Take a Cooperative Approach to Conflict Resolution

I like the cooperative approach shared in Hot Buttons to solve conflicts with colleagues as it’s objective, focuses on constructive communication, and not “who dunnit? While cooperative intelligence skills of leadership, connection and communication don’t guarantee job security, they will help you stand out since many people have lower emotional intelligence: that is they have weak people skills.

Conflict Resolution: Know Your Hot Buttons & Be Aware of Other’s!

A Hot Button is an emotional trigger and when someone pushes one of your hot buttons, you know it since it make you a little crazy. Self awareness of what makes you crazy and an awareness of others’ hot buttons—is very useful in business. It is important to know your conflict style. Before you can diffuse your hot buttons you must be clear about what inflames them. Awareness of hot buttons bleeds right into cooperative intelligence’s leadership, connection and communication

Presenting at SCIP’s 2009 Annual Conference, April 22 – 25, Chicago, IL

I just finished creating two presentations for SCIP’s (Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals) Annual Conference in Chicago from April 22 – 25. The first talk is “Build a Sustainable Early Warning Process through Cooperative Connection” and the second is “Capture Competitive Intelligence from Sales and Customers for Lucrative Product Development.” I hope to see you at SCIP’s annual conference! Feel free to post any questions on this blog post and I’ll find answers for you.

Read up on Social Networks: Integrating Competitive Intelligence into Marketing: Part 3

In the cooperative spirit, today’s post provides books and blogs to help you spruce up your social networking skills, the key on-line communication and connection media. A targeted social networking strategy is a strong and essential ingredient to any research project!
In addition to this book list I suggest you follow blogs to stay up on the latest. All these authors have blogs. In addition I recommend Chris Brogan’s, Hubspot and Duct Tape Marketing. You have one last chance to attend this AMA workshop in Chicago on March 12. http://www.marketingpower.com/Calendar/Pages/2009IntegratedCompetitiveIntelligence-Chicago,IL.aspx

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 1,551 other followers