AMA: Product Marketing Expert & Mentor, Jennifer Kay on Competitive Positioning

I'm all about being resourceful and creative. If you can call and ask directly do it. If you are at a tradeshow, stop by the booth and ask. 1. Network within the Industry: Reach out to industry contacts, attend conferences, or participate in industry-specific forums and communities. Just asking around can net a ton of intell. 2. Leverage Online Sources: Explore alternative online sources beyond the competitor's official marketing channels. Look for industry publications, blogs, or forums where discussions related to the competitor's product may take place. Sometimes, users or industry experts may share their experiences, comparisons, or insights that provide a deeper understanding of the product. 3. Analyze Job Postings and LinkedIn Profiles: Job postings or LinkedIn profiles of employees working for the competitor may provide some clues about the product's features, technology stack, or strategic initiatives. 4. Leverage Competitive Intelligence Tools There are some great ones out there but they cost money. 5. Engage with Sales and Customer Success Teams: Collaborate closely with your sales and customer success teams. They often have interactions with prospects and customers who may have evaluated or used the competitor's product.

At the core of my approach as a product marketer is the belief in staying connected with customers through ongoing research and conversations. I consider it essential to have a deep understanding of their needs, pain points, and aspirations. This understanding lets me to make informed decisions and develop products or positioning that truly resonate with our target audience. I regularly engage with customers through various channels- from informal "get to know you" calls with new customers to more structured qualitative research initiatives. I believe in maintaining an "always on" approach to research, where I proactively reach out to customers on an ongoing basis. This allows me to stay in touch with their evolving needs and preferences, as well as to gather feedback on new features, updates, or improvements. When there are new initiatives or programs my cross functional team is working on, I'll generally create a more formal hypothesis based qual. study to help validate assumptions, gather evidence, and uncover valuable insights to support our strategic decisions. These are highly structured and usually completed in a specified period time or audience group. Whether it's a formal versus an informal conversation, I always aggregate research and share-out highlights with my stakeholders.

1. Develop a Competitive Playbook: Create a comprehensive competitive playbook that outlines key information about each competitor, their offerings, strengths, weaknesses, and positioning. This playbook should serve as a go-to resource for your sales team, providing them with the necessary insights to understand the competitive landscape. 2. Conduct Competitive Training Sessions: Organize regular training sessions to educate your sales team on competitive positioning. These sessions should cover information from the competitive playbook and emphasize the unique value propositions, differentiators, and messaging that set your product apart. 3. Provide Battle Cards: Prepare concise battle cards or cheat sheets that highlight the key points of differentiation for each competitor. These cards should include common objections raised by customers and suggested responses or counterpoints to address them. T 4. Provide Regular Competitive Updates: Keep your sales team informed about changes in the competitive landscape. Share regular updates on competitor product releases, new features, pricing changes, or market trends that may impact the positioning of your product. This can be done through email newsletters, internal communications, or dedicated meetings. 5. Organize Competitor Battle Workshops: Conduct workshops or collaborative sessions where the sales team collectively strategizes on how to tackle specific competitors. Encourage the team to share their experiences, best practices, and success stories in dealing with different competitors. These workshops foster a sense of camaraderie and provide a platform for knowledge exchange among the sales team. 6. Gather Feedback from the Sales Team: Actively seek feedback from your sales team regarding their experiences in competitive situations. Listen to their challenges, understand their needs, and address any gaps in the competitive positioning materials or training.

1. Establish a Centralized Repository: Create a centralized repository or knowledge management system to store and organize competitive intelligence. This can be a shared document, a dedicated folder structure, or a specialized competitive intelligence software tool. I use a pretty simple google spreadsheet where I date and track links by competitor and source. 2. Set up Information Gathering Channels: Implement channels to capture new competitive information efficiently. This can include setting up Google Alerts, subscribing to industry newsletters, following competitor social media accounts, and monitoring industry forums or discussion boards. 3. Define Information Categories: Develop a framework to categorize and organize competitive intelligence. This could include categories like product features, pricing, marketing strategies, customer feedback, partnerships, and market share. A clear taxonomy of your information categories keeps it organized and easy to upkeep. 4. Divide and conquer- on my team, we've divided our competitors up and each person is responsible for going deep on three.

1. Deep Understanding of Customer Needs: Ensure your sales team has a deep understanding of customer needs and pain points. This allows them to clearly differentiate your offering from competitors, even if the functionality seems similar on the surface. 2. Highlight Unique Value Proposition: Emphasize the unique value proposition of your product. Focus on aspects that go beyond basic functionality, such as ease of use, scalability, integration capabilities, performance, security, customer support, or industry-specific features. 3. Showcase Success Stories and Case Studies: Share compelling success stories and case studies that demonstrate the tangible benefits and results achieved by customers who have chosen your product over the competitors. Highlight specific use cases and outcomes that showcase the distinct advantages of your solution. 4. Leverage Competitive Analysis: Conduct a thorough competitive analysis and provide your sales team with detailed insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the competition. Equip them with talking points that highlight the areas where your product outperforms and delivers a superior experience. This helps build confidence in the sales team and provides them with data-backed arguments during customer conversations. 5. Tailor the Message: Customize the sales messaging to address the specific needs and pain points of each customer. Demonstrate how your product not only meets their functional requirements but also offers additional benefits and differentiators that competitors cannot match. Personalize the pitch to showcase how your solution aligns with the customer's unique business objectives and strategic goals. 6. Conduct Proof-of-Concept or Product Demos: Offer the opportunity for potential customers to experience your product firsthand through proof-of-concept trials or product demos. This allows them to see the unique functionality, ease of use, and value that sets your product apart.

Here are several key sources and frameworks that I find valuable for gaining clarity on the competitive position. 1. Market and Competitive Research: This includes studying competitor websites, product documentation, press releases, industry reports, and analyst insights. 2. User Feedback and Reviews: Actively listening to user feedback and reviews, both from our own customers and those of our competitors. For competitors I look at online forums, social media, reviews, G2, and other similar resources. I also tap into customers that have switched from competitors to hear their first hand experiences. 3. Customer Interviews and Surveys: I also tap into customers that have switched from competitors to hear their first hand experiences. 4. Product and Feature Comparisons: This analysis can focus on aspects like functionality, performance, user experience, pricing models, and integrations. It allows me to identify areas where we have a competitive advantage or areas where we need to enhance our offerings. 5. Sales and Customer Success Insights: Collaborating with the sales and customer success teams provides valuable insights into competitive positioning and customer feedback. They interact directly with prospects and customers, hear objections, and understand competitive wins and losses. I'll often synthesize my findings into a presentation that would include a good ol' SWOT analysis.

1. Lack of deep understanding of the target audience: Differentiation should be based on a thorough understanding of the target audience's needs, preferences, and pain points. Like everything in product marketing- it should start with your customer. Building parody features or postioning to copycat a competitor is a fast road to a dead end. 2. Neglecting to communicate the value proposition clearly: Even if a product has distinctive features or benefits, failing to communicate them clearly to the target audience can lead to missed opportunities. Invest in strong messaging and marketing efforts to effectively convey the unique value proposition to customers, ensuring they understand how the product differs from competitors. 3. Inadequate market research and competitive analysis: Insufficient research and analysis can lead to an incomplete understanding of the competitive landscape. Without a deep understanding of what competitors are offering, how they position themselves, and the changing market dynamics, it becomes challenging to identify and execute effective differentiation strategies. 4. Focusing solely on product features rather than holistic customer experience: While product features play a role in differentiation, focusing solely on them may overlook the importance of delivering a holistic customer experience. Companies should consider factors such as customer support, ease of use, brand reputation, and emotional connection to create a differentiated experience that sets them apart from competitors. 5. Ignoring evolving customer needs and market trends: Markets and customer preferences are dynamic, and failing to adapt and stay ahead of changing trends can hinder differentiation efforts. Companies should continually monitor customer needs, market trends, and emerging technologies to identify new opportunities for differentiation and ensure their product remains relevant. 6. Lack of consistency across the entire customer journey: Differentiation should extend beyond the product itself to encompass the entire customer journey. Inconsistencies in branding, messaging, customer support, or user experience at different touchpoints can dilute the intended differentiation. Ensuring a consistent and cohesive experience throughout the customer journey strengthens differentiation efforts.

As a Product Marketing Manager , effectively communicating and sharing competitor analysis with your team and stakeholders is crucial for aligning everyone on the competitive landscape and informing strategic decision-making. Here are some recommendations for how to approach this: 1. Clearly articulate the purpose and benefits: Start by clearly explaining why conducting competitor analysis is important for the success of the product or business. Highlight the potential benefits, such as identifying market opportunities, staying ahead of industry trends, and making informed strategic decisions. Emphasize that competitor analysis is not about copying competitors but rather understanding the competitive landscape to differentiate and improve your own offerings. 2. Provide actionable insights: Focus on delivering actionable insights from the competitor analysis. Instead of overwhelming stakeholders with a barrage of data, distill the information into key takeaways and recommendations that stakeholders can act upon. Frame the insights in a way that directly addresses their pain points, challenges, or opportunities. Show how the analysis can inform marketing campaigns, product positioning, pricing strategies, or feature development. 3. Demonstrate evidence-based findings: Use data and evidence to support your analysis and conclusions. Include market research, customer feedback, and competitive intelligence that back up your claims. This helps build credibility and instills confidence in the findings. Visualize the data in charts or graphs to make it easier for stakeholders to grasp and interpret the information. 4. Showcase competitive advantages and risks: Highlight how the competitor analysis helps uncover your unique competitive advantages and areas where you may be at a disadvantage. Clearly communicate how this knowledge can guide decision-making and enable your team to leverage strengths and mitigate risks. This approach demonstrates the value of the analysis in shaping strategies that lead to a competitive edge. 5. Encourage participation and collaboration: Engage stakeholders throughout the process by actively seeking their input and involving them in discussions. Encourage team members to share their own observations, experiences, or knowledge about competitors. This fosters a sense of ownership and collaboration, making stakeholders feel more invested in the analysis and more likely to support the resulting strategies. 6. Address concerns and objections: Be prepared to address any concerns or objections that stakeholders may have. Address their concerns by explaining the methodology, data sources, and analysis techniques used. 7. Follow up with actionable next steps: After presenting the competitor analysis, provide clear next steps and recommendations. Outline how the findings will be incorporated into actionable plans, such as product roadmaps, marketing campaigns, or sales strategies. This demonstrates that the analysis is not just a standalone exercise but a foundation for actionable outcomes.