Competitive Intelligence

Looking for information about Competitive Intelligence? You have come to the right place! Competitive Intelligence is the subset of Market Intelligence focused on the position, capabilities, and actions of specific competitors. It involves the ethical collection and analysis of primary and secondary competitor information. Responsibility for competitive intelligence varies from one company to another but most often may be found assigned to the Sales, Marketing, Product Management, or Finance functions. In conjunction with trusted partners, such as Peak Innovation, companies systematically deploying competitive intelligence activities are better able to avoid risk, anticipate the future, and build more successful strategies.

How Competitive Intelligence Is Used

Companies utilize competitive intelligence in a variety of ways to differentiate themselves while anticipating or responding to competitor moves in the marketplace. Examples of specific uses include:

• New product and service development or market entry planning
• Existing product or service enhancements
• Research & Development prioritization
• Sales and marketing messaging improvements
• Go-to-market strategy adjustments
• Acquisition or partnership due diligence insights
• War gaming and other competitor simulations or scenario planning
• Corporate or business unit strategic planning
• Strategic vendor selection support

How Peak Innovation approaches Competitive Intelligence

Peak Innovation's approach to Competitive Intelligence entails the use of secondary research first, followed by primary research, and finally the use of a variety of analytic frameworks to refine and distill gathered data into actionable intelligence for use by our clients. Among the many firms offering competitive intelligence services today, a large number promote a secondary research software-as-a-service model, or they will license their proprietary secondary research software to clients for the clients to operate themselves. While those models serve a purpose, we believe they fall short of the holistic approach required for successful execution of competitive intelligence. Instead, we believe the real differentiator is in the quality of the primary research and the resultant analyses. In other words, despite advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence, no software is capable of connecting the dots and developing the story that comes from primary research and the resultant analyses. At Peak Innovation, we're highly competent at secondary research, but it's our primary research and competitor analysis skills layered on top of secondary research that differentiates us. It's this difference that customers value in our competitive intelligence services.

Peak Innovation's Competitive Intelligence Services Include:

Strategic Vendor Selection
Peak Innovation will assist clients making complex purchasing decisions by providing independent and objective assessments of the solutions being considered.

Competitor Profiling
The Competitor Profile is a competitive intelligence tool providing an analysis of a company ranging from recent major developments to future expected behavior along with an assessment of key functional areas, resources, and capabilities.

Product or Service Deep Dive
A Deep Dive engagement involves the assessment of a specific product or service and could include hundreds of detailed questions in the project scope.

Competitor Monitoring & Tracking
Competitor Monitoring or Tracking is a traditional competitive intelligence service designed to not only keep clients abreast of emerging news and development but also an assessment of impact on the market as well as the client.

Competitive Landscape Assessment
A typical Competitive Landscape analysis will entail assessment of multiple competitors, although not as broadly as in the Competitor Profile. Rather, there is more focus on specific topics involving capabilities and actions among the competitors and how the companies are differentiating from one another.

Competitive Benchmarking
The output from Competitive Benchmarking provides the client with a metric-based comparison with competitors or other companies of interest.

Competitive Pricing Analysis
Competitive Pricing Analysis involves the evaluation of buyer reaction to varying price levels by studying historical data as well as newly collected primary research input. Engagements typically include development of new pricing models and levels.

Outsourced Competitive Intelligence Function
Peak Innovation can serve as the entire competitive intelligence function for a client on a permanent basis or temporarily due to high activity or extended employee absence.

Set Up or Process Improvement of In-House Competitive Intelligence Function
This is a short-term engagement designed to assist clients in either setting up their own competitive intelligence function for the first time or providing guidance to improve upon the current operation of the function.


Industry Analysis
Industry Analysis involves assessment of the current business environment in a particular industry. While the competitive environment is relevant, with Industry Analysis the practitioner looks more broadly at economic trends, policy affects, complexity of the industry, and more.

Market Sizing & Segmentation
The objective of Market Sizing and Segmentation is to define the size of a particular market and then to identify groups of customers with similar needs, interest, and priorities.

Patent and Intellectual Property Search & Analysis
Peak Innovation assists clients planning to develop or obtain (acquisition or partnership) intellectual property and want to be sure of its defensible, innovative properties.

Win Loss Analysis Programs
The Win Loss Analysis Program provides an independent assessment of the reasons that a company wins or loses in competitive buying scenarios.

Battle Cards
Battle Cards are a sales effectiveness tool provided to assist sales teams by providing at-a-glance insight into competitors resulting in optimal talk tracks from better differentiation while avoiding land mines.

Voice-of-Customer Interviews
Peak Innovation offers Voice-of-Customer programs that enable a company to better understand the experiences and expectations of its customers.

Qualitative Research
Peak Innovation develops and executes customized research plans of a qualitative nature and then provides an actionable summary assessment of the findings.


Every Peak Innovation competitive intelligence service engagement is led by one of our highly experienced principals. We operate with a flexible, scalable staffing model leveraging subject matter experts as needed. We enable clients to generate profitable growth through the practical use of research, innovation, and technology. Whether your firm is a start-up or a Fortune 500, Peak Innovation is here to answer your toughest marketplace questions. Call us at (844) 485-8070 or fill out the form on this website for questions about our services or to schedule a time to speak.