Making business intelligence is not necessarily an expensive. A few simple actions and quasi-free can keep an eye on what its competitors and what is the market. Here are some ways to integrate competitive intelligence into its current management.

The press but not only

The interesting information on the market or its competitors is not necessarily guarded as a state secret. Yet should we go look for where it is. The press and media in general is obviously a well of knowledge whose side he should not pass. But they are not alone.

Other communication media accessible to all can provide valuable information. This is the case of speeches of heads of competing companies and their advertisements of vacancies. The outline of their strategy can sometimes be guessed by reading between the lines. Regular monitoring of the accounts of the competitor, on official sites such as infogreffe.fr , is also needed. Summary, they warn, however, a competitor may encounter difficulties at some point. Finally, having available the sales brochures of competitors is of course indispensable to recover quietly from a reseller, a common customer or even pretending to be a prospect.

Pooling efforts

But when you’re an entrepreneur, you do not always have time to peel all those documents. To better screening, it is necessary to pool efforts. Each employee must be involved in this process, provided they have a minimum of organization. This involves optimizing the reading of the press by distributing among the various staff titles, but also specialized generalist, or even very small circulation newsletters of organizations such as professional journals or providers, suppliers or customers. A project manager - the entrepreneur, for example - then centralizes all the information gathered.

Then begins a crucial phase on which it is often too quick analysis. To find the right answers, it is still necessary to ask the right questions. They are asking where is your weak point in terms of knowledge. The products of your competitors? The evolution of regulations? The latest market trends? With newer technologies? News from your suppliers? Once these answers found, a statement to your employees is necessary because the recognition of the value-added work of each is the key to this device. It also helps measure the effectiveness of the system by drawing a statistical report. What additional revenue was generated? What savings have been achieved? What risks have been avoided? So many results to be harvested.