2024 in Review: From AI Breakthroughs to the Launch of the AI Toolkit
We will look back on 2024 as the year that artificial intelligence revolutionized competitive enablement.
We have finally hit the critical paradigm shift. The changes weren’t just about advancing technology—they were about empowering teams to work smarter, and achieve measurable results. From streamlining workflows to delivering critical competitive insights in real-time, AI has elevated the role of competitive intelligence, enabling teams to make better decisions and achieve meaningful results.
This year, groundbreaking tools like GPT-4 Omni and Claude 3.5 Sonnet became integral to how teams synthesize and leverage data. Organizations using AI in CI are now 67% more confident in their strategic decisions—a clear ...
NEW DATA: Field Intel Is Vital to Your Competitive Program. Here Are 5 Tips to Help You Capture It.
Here at Crayon, we recently published the 2023 State of Competitive Intelligence, a benchmark report based on a survey of CI leaders and stakeholders. We gave CI leaders a list of 11 sources of ...
I Used Google Alerts to Collect Intel for a Month. Here Are 5 Things I Missed.
When I was in 4th grade, my elementary school did an invention convention. Each student had to identify a problem in their everyday life and come up with a solution. My 9-year-old brain—which was ...
Out of the Dark, Into the Noise: The Case for a Tiered Approach to Competitor Tracking
I don’t think I’ve ever walked up a basement staircase. If I’m feeling courageous, my ascension might look something like a casual jog. Most of the time, though, I’m climbing that thing as fast as I ...
5 Next-Level Tactics for Gathering Competitive Intelligence
As a practitioner of competitive intelligence, you have to make trade-offs. You can’t gather intel and activate intel at the same time; every minute spent on the former is a minute not spent on the ...
How to Find Competitor Pricing Information
Picture this: You’re a sales rep at an email marketing software company. One day, you hop on a discovery call with a prospect. As you’re chatting with them about their goals, they say this: “Easy ...
8 Sources of Competitive Intelligence to Keep Tabs On Industry Rivals
While your company may have a strong grasp of what’s happening internally, understanding what’s happening externally in your marketplace is critical for sound decision-making. This is where ...
A Marketer’s Guide to Conducting Social Media Competitive Analysis (Free Template Included)
There are tons of moving parts when it comes to keeping up with your competitors’ digital footprints. Tracking your rivals’ social media movements, in particular, is critical due to its widespread ...
How to Create Win/Loss Analysis Templates In Microsoft Excel (Free Downloads)
More than two-thirds of competitive intelligence professionals say their in-house team is responsible for win/loss analysis. Translation: A lot of folks—perhaps yourself included—are tasked with ...
Here Are 4 Must-Ask Questions For Your Win/Loss Interviews
Win/loss analysis—the process of determining why deals are won or lost—yields insights that practically everyone across your organization can use to their advantage. Sales reps get insights that they ...
How to Gain Valuable Insight From Your Competitor’s Website
According to our 2021 State of Competitive Intelligence Report, 99% of survey respondents found value in monitoring their competitors' website changes. Between messaging and team changes, pricing and ...
The Definitive Guide to Win/Loss Analysis: How to Gather, Analyze, and Act On Win/Loss Data
Win/loss analysis is an essential practice for anyone who wants to better understand their competitive landscape and continuously optimize processes across sales, marketing, product management, and ...
The 8 Free Market Research Tools and Resources You Need to Know
With over 400,000 new businesses opening in the United States each month, the need for individual companies to conduct their own market research has never been more urgent. However, conducting market ...
Why Your Coworkers are a Great Source of Competitive Intelligence
There are many sources of competitive intelligence (CI) that we can tap into. These days, most businesses have a robust digital footprint, so our first thought of a valuable CI source is likely a ...
How to Do Competitor Monitoring in 10 Minutes a Day
Competitive intelligence (CI) done right is a big commitment. But one of the biggest misconceptions is that competitive intelligence only consists of big research projects done monthly, quarterly, or ...
4 Ways To Sleuth Your Competitor’s Customer Segments
Standing out in a crowded market isn’t easy. Unless your company is the industry leader, you’re tirelessly fighting for market share. And, even if you are the leader, there will always be new ...
How to Architect Your CRM for Stronger Win/Loss Analysis
Once you’ve decided to tackle win/loss analysis as an organization, the next natural step is to invest some time and thought into how you will go about collecting the data. Win/loss interviews – ...
3 Qualitative Data Sources You Should Use in Your Win/Loss Analysis
Performing a win/loss analysis is one of the single most valuable things a product marketer can do for their company. It helps sales understand why they are winning (or losing) deals, pushes ...
5 Ways You’re Wasting Time on Manual Competitive Intelligence Research
Do you find yourself meaninglessly scrolling through the internet looking for intel on your competitors? Well, you can make that time 10x more effective with just a few tips and tricks. It’s all a ...
How to Set Up Free Google Alerts to Monitor Your Competitors
Editor's note: Google Alerts is an imperfect solution. We did an experiment to prove it. The internet is constantly buzzing with the latest and greatest updates from companies and buyers alike. This ...
How to Use Your Competitors’ Twitter Activity to Your Advantage
Everyone’s marketing team works hard to build a strong social presence for their brand. But how aware are they when it comes to the social presence of competitors? Social media isn’t an easy outlet ...
A Primer on Win Loss Analysis as a Competitive Intelligence Tool
There is nothing quite like the feeling of closing a sale with a successful team effort, especially when up against a top competitor. But after the celebration fades, how often do teams have an ...
What We Can Learn From Our Competitors' Customers
We can learn volumes from our competitors' customers. Customers that take the time to say something about a company online likely have strong opinions. Customer sentiment can be good, bad, and ugly. ...