Do you ever have the feeling that, despite reading the same competitive data report repeatedly, you ultimately gain an awareness of the numbers but can no longer draw conclusions from them? However, simply being aware of who your rivals are is insufficient. You need to dig deeper to obtain a better understanding of everything they are doing, including whether they are releasing a new feature that could affect your market share, what keywords they are focusing on, what kind of content they are creating, and how successfully they are luring followers and customers. It’s critical to focus on even the smallest details.
You can make things work if you merely have an overview of what’s important rather than just the endless stream of facts. Granular views are necessary in order to see the wider picture, yet they are time-consuming, difficult, and the results are often uncertain.
A competitive matrix aids in making sense of the large volume of data available.
Let’s look at how it might be useful and how one can extract insightful information for a business plan.
What is a competitive matrix?
A competitive matrix is a visual representation of the results of your competitor study, or just one particular element of it. Utilizing a competitive matrix allows you to identify market opportunities, identify competitive advantages, and create novel products, services, and marketing tactics that can be in line with your business plan. Competitive matrices come in a wide variety of forms, and which one you pick will depend on the extent of your benchmarking or comparisons and the answers you need. The competitive analysis matrix can resemble straightforward elements of a grid, comparison table, or scorecard.
To compare features, you can put them on a table. Then, to assess a competitor’s position in the market, you must display the competitor’s information on the grid. With competition research, you may take a close look at who your rivals are and the kinds of sales or marketing strategies they use to determine where they are succeeding in your industry.
In a graphic style, it is simple to identify your competitors and lay out their goods, sales, and marketing plans. You will also learn about your place in the market, what you can do to set yourself apart from the competition, and what you need to do to improve your processes so you can outperform them in the marketplace. You can, for instance, examine their sales procedures, their target market, the keywords they use to target them, the products they sell, how they price their offerings, and the lead magnets they employ. In addition to these, there are numerous other factors you can examine utilising the competitive matrix.
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It’s crucial to know that there are various sorts of competitive matrices you may use to compare your firm to your competitors before you enter into the world of the these tools:
1. SWOT Analysis Matrix:
A SWOT analysis is a method for evaluating these four components of your company. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
SWOT analysis is a tool that can assist you in identifying the current strengths of your business and developing a winning future strategy. SWOT can also reveal business areas that are restricting your growth or that, if left unchecked, your competitors may exploit.
2. Competitive Advantage Matrix:
A competitive analysis matrix is among the most often utilised formats. It provides you with a high-level overview of how you stack up against your rivals in terms of your target market, pricing, marketing approach (both online and off), strengths, weaknesses, competitive advantage, etc. This thorough analysis of you and your competitors can help you decide whether to modify an existing business strategy or develop a new one.
3. Competitive Profile Matrix:
Your business can use this tool to compare your company’s strengths and shortcomings to those of competitors in the market. To utilise this, you need four things: the critical success factor, the weight, the rating, and the score.
Your success depends on a number of critical success criteria. Examples include product variety, client loyalty, and sales per employee. You will determine a weight after choosing these parameters. This gauges how significant they are, with values ranging from 0.0 (low relevance) to 1.0. (high importance). Since each variable varies in relevance, each should have its own weight. Avoid using a weight of 0.3 or higher because the majority of industries are influenced by a variety of factors. This high value might fall.
4. Win/Loss Matrix:
In addition to highlighting the importance of a competitor, a win/loss matrix aids in determining where your rivals stand in relation to your business. Depending on the threat they offer to you, it can assist you in classifying your rivals as rivals, contenders, ankle-biters, and emergents. The win/loss ratio of players in the competitive environment is used in this graph to categorise them, as suggested by its name. You can use this to look for strategies to improve your overall competitive success.
5. Sales Matrix :
A method for determining the importance and viability of sales opportunities is the sales matrix. It assesses whether potential clients are interested in your company and whether they are a good fit for your goods or services. Consider concentrating all of your efforts on a prospective client. Imagine directing all of that energy toward a suitable client match who is interested in your brand and product. When deciding how much attention to give your potential customers at any given time, a sales matrix can assist you by using interest and best-fit traits.
6. Price Matrix:
To specify product costs, features, and tiers, a price matrix is a useful tool. You are able to choose the prices you will impose for various service levels. Price matrices are the only competitive customer-facing matrix types on this list, in contrast to the other matrices. It is something you are making for a potential customer.
Make your tiers the foundation of your price matrix. Layouts with two or three levels are typical. After naming them, write a succinct description for each. You can discover that including a few elements related to the category is simpler depending on the industry. After that, mention the costs. If not, include a call-to-action so your visitors can ask you for a quote
Advantages of a competitive matrix
Using a matrix for competitive comparison, you can:
- Analyze the distinctive qualities of your company, brand, product, or service.
- Assess the strengths and weaknesses of competitors
- Emphasize on the market segments’ and niches’ competitive environment.
- understand about market opportunities and potential risks to your position.
- Discover market or market niche gaps.
Because of these insights, you can boost the quality of your content, marketing, and product and encourage the creation of new tools and features. You will also be able to check and tweak your pricing approach and create a strategy for long-term expansion.
How Competitive matrix can help B2B teams?
 B2B competition analysis is a potent technique that aids in understanding where you and your rivals are in the market. Additionally, it enables you to discover the most recent market trends to enhance your company’s marketing and sales strategy. You can get the necessary direction to conduct a strategic B2B competitive analysis by using a framework for competitor analysis. A step-by-step explanation is provided here for your convenience.
Tips for B2B sales and marketing teams:
 1. Analyze the competitors:
When you start the competitive analysis, you must be aware of the rivals you’ll be evaluating and devote time and energy to both broad and targeted research. For a B2B firm, it is advisable to choose the top 5 competitors, and for the crucial outcomes, choose 3 direct competitors and 2 indirect competitors.
2. Categorize the competitors
After identifying your rivals, the following step is to properly classify them.
- Primary competitors, also referred to as direct competitors, are companies who share your target market, offer similar products and services, and are based in the same area.
- Secondary Competition – These rivals may offer similar products and services to yours, but their consumers will be different.
- Tertiary Competition: This group of rivals operates in your niche but does not offer comparable products and services.
3. Examine your competitor’s website, social media accounts, and customer reviews
An organization’s growth depends greatly on its online presence. Every B2B business plan must include it as a necessary component. Therefore, to assess your competitors’ online presence, keep a watch on their websites, social media profiles, and online reviews. Here, we’ve outlined a few crucial factors you need to take into account while conducting a thorough investigation of your rivals.
Firstly you should check what is their website’s blog strategy and FAQ section. Secondly, see the various product kinds that are accessible and how the website displays them. What are the number of comments, shares, and likes received on their social media posts and what is the frequency of social media posting.
Finally, you should evaluate your internet presence in comparison to those of your competitors, and if you notice anything different.
4. Analyze the sales strategies of the competition
Your sales and marketing team can greatly benefit from examining the sales strategies used by your rivals. They will be better able to handle the opposition. Annual reports of publicly traded companies might provide you with information. Find answers to questions like the ones below:
- What are their opinions of your products or services?
- How come they went with a different business?
- What qualities drew them in and convinced them to buy?
- You will learn what is keeping your rival ahead of you when you receive an answer to such queries.
5. Do a SWOT Analysis:
This technique has been used by businesses from a very long time and it helps individually as a person and also businesses. You should try implementing this. How your business measures up against its competitors can be determined via a SWOT analysis. The letters in the acronym stand for strength, weaknesses, opportunities, threats. It examines both internal and external elements that have an impact on your company’s potential in the present and the future. You may capitalise on your strengths, improve your shortcomings, seize chances, and get rid of threats by recognising these elements.
Having a strong track record of profitability for your business is a plus. A lack of product diversity offered by your business to customers could be viewed as a drawback. How do you choose the data to include in your SWOT analysis? You can use the questions listed below as a guide.
(a) Questions on Strength:
You can find out where your business succeeds by asking yourself the following questions. This knowledge will assist you in luring in new clients while also retaining current ones.
What do you have to offer?
What assets do you possess?
What distinguishes you from your rivals?
What makes you stand out from the competition?
Do you have a loyal clientele?
What features of your goods or services do buyers like best?
(b) Questions on weakness:
If your organization lacks a system to identify its vulnerabilities, improvement will be challenging. You must identify these flaws and fix them if you want to maintain your position as a leader in your field.
What about your products or services that customers find objectionable?
What assets are lacking for you?
Do you have a sufficient profit?
What areas do your rivals have the upper hand in?
Lack of expertise exists among you or your staff?
(c) Questions on Opportunities:
While keeping an eye on your competition is important, looking out for business opportunities will provide your company a competitive edge. These chances may arise from keeping an eye on both the developments in your sector and your competitors.
What are the trends right now?
What is lacking on the market?
Do you have access to any talent that you could hire?
Are the clients of your rivals becoming unsatisfied?
Is there a change in your target market that might be advantageous?
(d) Questions on Threat:
Threats might appear within a company at any time. These elements, which may hurt your business and its operations, can be internal or external. Understanding these dangers will make your company run more smoothly.
Who are your rival companies?
Any product existing in the market that can replace your product?
What challenges do you currently have to deal with?
Are your staff members happy with their compensation and benefits?
Has your competitor been stronger recently?
Are you going to be impacted by government regulations?
This kind of study is advantageous when entering a new market or releasing new features, or simply as a continuous market monitoring tool, in a complicated corporate environment or competitive market.
6. Analyze the Content Marketing Plan
Consider their content marketing strategy when examining the online presence of the rivals. You must analyze the content your rivals are producing, whether it takes the form of videos, blogs, or infographics. Find out the keywords your rivals are vying for, and try to determine whether their content approach is effective. Make sure their content directs users to the intended landing pages as well.
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Advantages of Using a Competitive Matrix:
 Basically, at the end of the day you may use a competitive matrix to compare any company characteristics with those of a competitor. These matrices can be more visual in nature (a plotted graph) at times, or they can just be an Excel document with columns of data.
The competitive matrix’s goal is to provide a quick overview of the marketplace’s competitive environment and your position within it.
With it, you can then focus in on your distinctive value offer and identify holes in the market.
A competitive matrix may prompt you to come up with previously unconsidered product concepts, tools, or features. Or perhaps you leave there with a ton of suggestions on how to enhance your content marketing approach. A competitive matrix can be widely used for a variety of purposes. You can use it to generate fresh concepts or to teach your sales staff how to set your business apart from the competition.
Write down your ideas, create KPIs, and conduct this analysis on a regular basis to keep your strategy current after deciding what to do with the information.
Final Words:
You can’t just wing a competitive analysis; you need a process if you want to do it right. More importantly, you require a repeatable procedure so you can stay current and identify long-term patterns. Contrary to popular belief, competition need not always be unpleasant. It may spur expansion and prompt you to investigate your company further in search of ways to enhance it. The use of competitive matrices can be a great tool for identifying your competitive advantages.
