Crayon’s 6th Annual State of Competitive Intelligence Report Reveals That 66% of Software Sales Opportunities Are Competitive

BOSTON, MA, February 27, 2023 — Crayon, the premier competitive intelligence (CI) platform, today released the 2023 State of CI, the 6th edition of the industry’s longest-running benchmark report. Based on survey responses from more than 900 CI leaders and stakeholders, the report illuminates why and how companies create CI programs.

For software companies, the need for CI is especially clear: On average, 66% of their sales opportunities are competitive. In fact, compared to 2020, CI leaders are 12% more likely to say their markets have gotten much more competitive. As competition intensifies, so does the need to enable sellers with CI—which is why 63% of CI leaders in general (and 86% of CI leaders in the software sector) create battlecards. Competitor profiles, competitive landscape reports, and sales decks are also popular CI deliverables.

“This year’s State of CI report makes it clear that revenue teams need competitive insights at their fingertips in order to hit their targets,” said Jonah Lopin, founder & CEO of Crayon. “We’ve entered the era of tech-enabled selling, and the world’s best companies—including 7 of the 10 largest software companies—use Crayon to enable their revenue teams to win and retain competitive business. Most companies have yet to optimize this competitive selling motion, and we’re excited to work with them as we continue to build this category.”

Additional findings from the report include:

CI leaders continue to get better at measuring the impact of their work. In 2018, the first year Crayon published the State of CI report, 16% of CI leaders said they were measuring success with KPIs. That figure is now 36%—a 125% increase. Competitive win rate, revenue from closed-won competitive deals, and sales team confidence are three of the most popular competitive intelligence KPIs.

Intel sourced by coworkers is the most valuable intel of all. 63% of CI leaders say the intel they get from their coworkers is “extremely valuable,” making it the most coveted intel of all. For comparison, only 27% of CI leaders say the same about the intel they get from the news.

CI leaders can earn stakeholders’ trust by delivering ad-hoc support. CI stakeholders who get ad-hoc support are nearly 2X more likely to say they trust the insights they get from their CI teams. That said, CI leaders should try to supplement ad-hoc support with regular updates on the competitive landscape, as 88% of stakeholders say they want regularity.

“The real winners [in business] will be those organizations that can not only manage their business functions through ‘perpetual disruption,’ but actually use it as a catalyst for growth,” said Paul Santilli, CEO of Strategic & Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP). “This report reinforces the fact that organizations with intelligence disciplines are better equipped in times of perpetual disruption.”

About Crayon

Crayon empowers revenue teams to win and keep more customers by putting real-time competitive intelligence at their fingertips. Hundreds of companies, including Gong, ZoomInfo, and Dropbox, use Crayon to capture and distribute the competitive insights they need to achieve their revenue goals. Learn more at www.crayon.co.