A Different Approach – Get Feedback
If you can learn how to sell value, showing ROI and highlighting benefits, you will feel less pressure to compete on price alone.
The Power of Competitive Intelligence
It is ultimately market movements, technological changes, evolving customer needs, and competitive environments that are critical in determining the fate of most companies. External information is the best way to ride, rather than be drowned by the waves of change in your environment.
Doing Your Homework
The truth is that brilliant flashes and split second decisions succeed because of all the time you have spent “staring” and working with the facts prior to that moment. We often speak of the value of fresh information—it’s the fuel for all good thinking, instant or not.
Hard vs. Soft Data
Mintzberg said it well, “Overall, while hard information may inform the intellect, it is largely soft information that generates wisdom.”
Talking with the World outside Your Company
Seek out strategic conversations through scheduled meetings with your best clients about your product offering, threats on the horizon in the industry, and concerns your client may have.
Reading List: Confronting Reality, Doing What Matters to Get Things Right By Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan
Their business model calls for an in-depth look at the external realities for a company, its financial targets, and internal activities. By regularly repeating this exercise, you come up with tested, actionable models for the business.
Industry Snapshot: The Value of Market Research
Do your homework before you enter a new market, you will save yourself money and be much more effective in delivering new sales.
Strategic Momentum
We recently developed a drawing to explain our approach to creating strategic momentum for our clients. It shows a continuous process with three major phases: Information, Insight and Action. We were actually surprised to find a rhythm as we went around the circle: art-science, art-science, art-science.
Fresh Information for International Success
The risks of international business make it important to get fresh information as you develop and execute your strategy.
Reading list: Early Warning by Ben Gilad
The author is an expert in competitive intelligence and outlines an interesting three-step process for developing competitive early warnings.
