August 1998.
I’m heading the European Product Marketing at Adobe, and we just announced lackluster results. The stock is down.
Perfect time for some hostile takeover.
We’re four times bigger than Quark, our main competitor. But it doesn’t prevent them from placing a bid to buy Adobe.
Fortunately, even their customers raised significant concerns about such a move, and they’d eventually drop their bid.
But this episode acted as an electro-shock for us at Adobe. It led to major changes at the top and in our strategy.
It also took our obsession with key competitors to the next level: how to beat them, eat their lunch and literally destroy them.
But how could we build our best competitive intelligence?
Of course, we could count on customers, market data, and analysts to educate us about what was happening with the competition. We also leveraged our internal talent, played roles, and built “What if” scenarios to anticipate the most likely competitive moves.
Yet, it wasn’t enough.
Fortunately, we didn’t live in a bubble. Industry events, channels, and strategic partner activities allowed us to encounter top competitors directly.
So, some of us then did the unthinkable! We went further and dared to go to the source and talk directly to these “despised” competitors.
Such a move isn’t without risk, but once you have executive and legal clearance, and when handled with proper care, I’ve seen it pay off big time.
Here are some of the rules I’ve learned to get the best out of any encounter with my top competitors while minimizing exposure:
1 – Understand your trade secrets and keep confidentiality top of mind
You usually sign a non-disclosure agreement when you join your employer. That’s for an excellent reason! So make sure you decrypt it and understand what your trade secrets are. Do it before even thinking about opening your mouth in front of anyone, inside or outside your company.
2 – Have a short list of safe topics ready to share
In rare cases, you are both extremely strong at capturing insights, and your competitor is relatively inexperienced. Yet, in most cases, get ready to share some information if you want your competitor to share any. The golden rule, again, is only to share non-confidential information and focus on anything non-material to your success. If in doubt, keep it generic and avoid the specifics of a program, event, or process.
3 – Focus on asking probing open-ended questions
Try to get into your competitor’s mind, as you would in front of a customer. They should do most of the talking. So, make them feel comfortable and respected. Encourage them to share their stories. Get their opinion on relevant matters, and keep asking for more.
4 – Don’t mislead them. Don’t lie.
You might be tempted to bend some of the truth and bluff your competitor into flat-out false representations of your business or market situation. Don’t do it! We live in a small world, and today’s competitor might be tomorrow’s boss. You don’t want to ruin your reputation. So, if in doubt or cornered on a topic, don’t offer any insight, state you’re not in a position to discuss it, and move on.
You get it. If you take the necessary precautions, a conversation with a competitor will be pretty insightful. They might not reveal customer names or specific numbers. Still, you’ll get an immediate sense of what’s going on with them just by knowing the topics they’re engaging in and the types of questions they’re asking.
Any of these conversations can take unexpected turns and unveil real gems. Just be patient and genuinely curious about your competitor.
Competitors are human, after all. Take good advantage of it!