You've already scanned their website, created Google Alerts on their products, attended their webinar and even sneaked into one of their presentations. Furthermore, your sales team tells you rumors about their solutions that they squeezed from customers. But all that is not enough. You want to know more.
So the first step is simple: prepare a list of questions. But what do you ask?
Here are some sample of questions we gathered over 15 years in the field of competitive product intelligence for B2B technology companies, that are sure to work for you:
1. Product Functionality
E.g., Do they have an integrated platform that encompasses data management, analytical modelling, pricing execution, and monitoring? What traceability exists in the solution? To what degree can you govern and audit what happens in the software?
2. UX Features
E.g., How detailed (at what level) can you configure the software? Does the platform provide a sufficiently modular architecture? Is it open to allow access to the underlying capabilities of the platform via web services? Which partners do they work with within designing the user interface for the platform - internally, dedicated platform experts or an external UI/UX expert agency?
3. Product Roadmap
E.g., Are there any roadmap considerations for 5G by these two vendors? What is the service provider's view of his vendor's product roadmap? Which are the most important modules in the solution in their product roadmap for the next year? 3 years? 5 years?
4. Technology and Analytics
E.g., Which technology is used to develop the agent desktop? does the platform handle specific customer needs for analytics? Is this done through a third party? Do all vendors have structured data analytics capabilities? What analytics capability does the solution offer?
5. Customers Feedback
E.g., What is the total deal size for this project? Is the system provides in a managed services fashion? Can you describe the challenges that you had in this project? What were the customer drivers to commence this project? Where the goals for this project met?
We can help you to gain this 'under-the-hood' information about your competitors. Book now a free 30-min confidential webinar with our Chief Analyst where we can determine together if our unique HUMINT* approach can have an impact on your organization.
*What is HUMINT? Our experience has taught us that non-public and internal information can be gathered only by interviewing the relevant executives. Insights developed by HUMINT (Human Intelligence) about pricing models, sales channels, product roadmap etc., would bring knowledge that can be extremely valuable to you when struggling to preform in the competitive landscape.
Comentarios