Competitive Intelligence 0070 Market Intel Fina Lb

Competitive Intelligence - 0070 Market Intel

Phil Sallaway Marketing Consultant – Industrial Stuff

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

NOTICE -WARNING • I am not an Attorney…this is not legal advice, you may want

to seek professional legal advice: • Price fixing is illegal

– Even talking to a competitor may be construed as “Price Fixing”• Restraint of Trade

– Influencing or attempting to induce someone not to do business with a third party

• Industrial Espionage 18 U.S.C. § 1832– theft or misappropriation of a trade secret a federal crime

• Typically YOU can be held personally liable for damages…..You have been warned !

• Note: The names, products, companies and situations have been changed – obscured to protect their privacy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_18_of_the_United_States_Code

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/1832.html


“Everything is connected to everything else”

V. I. Lenin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lenin.jpg


“Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without a defeat”

Sun Tzu – The Art of War…


• “Trust, but verify”

Ronald Regan


• “95% of all necessary intelligence, corporate or military, can be found in the public arena”

US. Navy Admiral E. Zacharias

Deputy Chief of Naval Intelligence, WWII,

Predicted attack, eight months before Pearl Harbor was attacked.


• Have a goal in mind, begin with the end in mind.• Main Reasons to do Competitive Intel– 1. Learn best practices

• What do competitors do better

– 2. There is no such thing as a commodity• What are the real reasons customers buy a product. It’s not

just price !. Delivery, packaging, service, there may be 30 – 40 different factors

• Know your costs compared to your competition

– 3. What's working and what did not work….– 4. Develop actionable analysis


• Have an Intelligence Gathering mindset

• Start by gathering general industry info

• Start before you need to…..– Attend: Trade Shows, Events, Trade Assoc.

– Read: Industry Journals, e-newsletters, etc

– Build Dossiers: Industry info, people, companies

• People will talk if they already know you……


• Drilling down – Data that defines the market– Key factors

– Population

– Empirical data

• Use ratios:– Dollars per employee, per sales territory

– Subtract out or add know numbers

• Let the data tell it’s own story……..


• Triangulate.– Get three independent data points

– If they agree your research is good

– If they disagree something is missing

Data Bases

• They are a great start !

• Hoovers

• Reference USA

• Dun & Bradstreet

• Etc.

Your already know the answer you just have to ask yourself!

• Ratios– Employees to total revenue– Sales people to total sales

• Consumption of materials– Find the key materials– Your suppliers know their market

• Reverse Engineer it– Have your engineer estimate – Use your manufacturing eng estimate– Ask your purchasing dept to estimate

• Equipment suppliers– Who bought what new machine – technology– What is the competitors factory like ?

Price the easiest P to change

• Caution – Price Fixing !– Publicly available info is relatively safe– Public bid results– Catalog info– Competitive bidding– Trade associations gathering info independently and

sharing it with members– Visiting stores and checking prices– Check with your legal dept !!!

• Product, Promotion, Position, Price

Going Deep – Penetrate a wall of Voodoo

• Google Earth• Court filings• Building permits• MSDS• Hazmat • Deep: Google, Yahoo, MSN searches• Monster, Career Builder, etc• Local press, Business Journals • Former employees• Background current key people• You can run but you can hide from a good

researcher….

Consultants – 0070 for hire

• Act as a buffer – may help avoid problems

• They know the right people

• Access to people who won’t talk to you

“The World is’t enough” - Market Share

• Company website:– Investor relations

– Presentations

Quantum of SEC

• Form 10-K, a more detailed form of annual report than the Stock Holders get

• Form 10-Q, Quarterly reports• Form 8-K, Material events or changes• Form 4-K, Insider stock trading, or changes of

ownership• From 429, Prospectus• Form SC, Ownership change 5%, or majority

ownership changes

Quantum of SEC Info Co. Website

“Moon-rakers”

“Moon-rakers”

• Factory = 36 cars, x 1.1 = 40 employees x $200k = $8.0m

• HQ =19 cars x 21 people x $200k = $4.2m

• Totals: 61 employees, $12.2m so far……

But it’s Golden Eyes (GX) !

• A client was approached by a company who had a product backed by “GX” (a very big co.) to develop a new product, for automation.

• Some where developing prototypes before we even had a specification…..

• There was pressure to develop a product ASAP ! it is GX !

• This is huge opportunity….. Or was it ?


• Do your due diligence !– First just who are these guys? do we really know

who they are?

– Is GX really behind this and how behind it are they?

– Just how big is the market for our product in that market…can we independently verify it…?


• Know people who know people ! Check your network !

• Check: Hoovers, Dun & Bradstreet, Google, LinkedIn, etc

• Check with GE, if it is legit there will be a G person you can communicate with

• Do your own, market study….”Trust but verify” Ronald Reagan

But it’s Golden Eye (GX) !

• People I knew verified that these guys were legit

• They were much smaller ($2.5 mill) than the impression they gave us.

• The market in question had slow growth in the best of times

• For a key market sector it was going it would be a 10 yrs recovery

• My recommendation …..kill it.

“To live or let die” - X2000 Product

• High strength meter box lid, 18 wheeler proof


• Let a product live or let die?

• X2000 Meter Box Lid– Launched but not growing

– Is it the right product

– Are we competitive?

– Keep it an re-launch or kill it?

– President say get back to me in 30 days !


• How many X2000 used in USA– Used US Census Data, # houses muni water

– Contacted Water Depts. how many X2000 type lids do they use, vs. users

– Built key ratios and applied to US Census Data

• Identified competition – How big, % of biz X2000

• Our costs to produce


• X 2000 Sales represent 10% to 20% of Mkt– Concrete has 90% of this Market

• Market Very Price Sensitive

• Price per lid as low as $12.75 to Distributor and $13.50 to Municipal Customer

• Our cost per lid is: $15.44

• End project and cut our losses – Kill it !

Dr. Know• New Respirator Product - Project, several

configurations– Which do we build and launch first ?

• Our Market Data Sources :– Frosty & Snowman, Market Studies

– Gov. Report By NIOSH

Dr. Know

Dr. Know

• First I check my own data – A prior employer didn’t sell many half mask – Confirmed from a few contacts

• Checked on competitors SEC filings– They didn’t sell many either

• Contacted several distributors– Sold one every few yrs

• Found an employee, was with Mkt leader– Nope didn’t sell many, maybe one or two a yr

• Conclusion: Gov & Market Studies were WRONG ! the full face was the key product to build.


Phil SallawayMarketing & Sales Consultant – Industrial Stuff

[email protected]

949-636-5286

mailto:[email protected]

Competitive Intelligence 0070 Market Intel Fina Lb

Documents

Transcript of Competitive Intelligence 0070 Market Intel Fina Lb