How to talk to your competitors
As founder, CEO or product manager, it is your responsibility to be on top of industry trends, what is out there in the market and lead the charge on designing a product that will stand out. Figure out how to position your product right now to present a compelling option to prospective clients. All the while thinking ahead and planning long term differentiation, dominating the category or invent a wholly new one. Sounds like a daunting task, right?
I find that one of the best ways to stay on top of things is not just following what the competition is doing, but talking to them. Yepp, sit down with that person who is aiming to solve a similar problem and discuss stuff.
Who are your competitors
First of all, who are your competitors? No, really, do you know who they are? Let’s go back to the Jobs to be Done model, yepp, that one that you hopefully used when defining the core of your product or a new feature.
Let’s say you figured out a revolutionary new way to share food people bring to the office with each other. Sure, people like to cook for themselves, but they don’t like to eat the same food for days and cooking small portions is just finicky. So you found a cool way to solve this via an online marketplace where people in an office can sign up for each other’s food, cool. So who are your competitors, who should you talk to? How do people solve the job of eating something nice and fast at the office?
An obvious competitor to talk to would be food delivery apps and services like Uber Eats, Doordash or Foodora, or Swiggy in India. They use a technology based marketplace to connect supply and demand, it they aim to solve the job (among others) that you aim to solve.
But there are tons of other competitors that don’t seam that obvious. There are the monthly food subscription plans, you know, those sad looking food items in plastic boxes delivered to receptions every day. There is the small grocery shop on the corner near the office, the bakery and the döner place in the subway and the office cantina takeaway. Not to mention startup office cultures with free food scattered around. Indeed, there are even Slack groups or even Outlook email lists that people might use to organize food sharing within the office, or god forbid, white boards. And you might even compete with the moms of Generation Y employees who still live at home.
So make sure you are aware of each and every solution to the job you are looking to solve and seek out people who run these solutions. Both from the top and operationally, you can learn different things from both of them.
Why talk to your competitors
Just like you, you can bet that your competitors are also constantly researching the market you are operating in and through a slightly different lens. This means they could come up with insight that you completely missed, or a problematic market segment that is too much hassle for them is perfect for your solution.
On top of the obviously valuable exchange of information there is expanding your network. You never know where you will end up in the future, your SME market competitor could easily direct enterprise customers to you if they would be out of their scope.
What and how to discuss
When talking to your competitors, transparency is very important. Do not mystery shop them and ask for a demo pretending to be a client, unless you go all out and impersonate a completely different person, they’ll find out who you are anyway. Be open, say who you are, say that you’d like to chat, most will be open. I’d suggest you choose a neutral place, like a cafe.
It is important however to establish the boundaries of the conversation. It is perfectly okay to say that what they ask is proprietary technology or sensitive information and you cannot share it. They will do the same. With that said, do be careful when talking to direct competitors who aim to solve the same problem in a very similar way, a lot of things should be off topic in these discussions.
With this in mind, I’d say that discussing hardcore technology related topics is not advisable. However, general approaches and experiences can be interesting for both of you. Limitations in solutions for different kinds of use cases can shed light on how both of you can differentiate. Discussing existing solutions, common competitors and your experiences with them can also be beneficial. Approaches to talent, team and company culture are also rather neutral topics that nonetheless can yield valuable insight.
Talking about clients and users can also shed light on underlying market dynamics that can be the spark you both need for an insight in pushing you further in your distinct directions.
Another interesting topic is discussing the needs of different market segments. Let’s say your enterprise SaaS competitor is from Germany and they got that market figured out because of their unique understanding of the tough data privacy and legal requirements of the market, this can help you in deciding how to position your SME SaaS product in the same market, or even if it is worth the hassle for you.
Of course, there is always that little ambiguity when talking to competitors, after all, you are both sharks in a sea full of fish. But if done the right way, talking to your competitors can be an interesting and worthwhile endeavor.
So, are you already talking to your competitors? Are you sure they are the right ones and you discuss appropriate things with them? I’d love to hear your perspective on this.
