Over the last month, I've introduced 4 competitive document templates. I'd like to take this opportunity to pull them all together, into a Competitive Program.

If competitive information is lacking, and sales is being vocal about it, then we need to start a Competitive Program.

The first step is the interview. Put together a list of questions and get them out to your field people, and/or key sales managers. The questions should be broad, here are some examples:

- What percentage of deals do you encounter the competition?
- What are the top 3 competitors you come across?
- What competitive information are you lacking?
- What is the number one reason you lose deals?
- Describe what information you would like to see in competitive comparisons.

Once we have some good feedback, one can examine the responses and start to develop our Competitive Program.

Step 1
Competitive Maps
The first step of our program is to map out the competition. We want to classify them into Major, Secondary and Watch List competitors.

Step 2
Competitive Product Profiles
High-level comparisons of our top competitors.

Step 3
Competitive Product Updates
Detailed comparisons of a single competitive product.

Step 4
Competitive Bulletins
Keeping the field informed of major changes in the market, and their impact to us.

Simple steps like this can go along way to satisfying sales' need for competitive info. More importantly, it can define the process by which we build the material, and give sales a channel to provide feedback.

I had the pleasure of working in a competitive PM team at one point in my career, all we were focused on was getting info to sales, using much of the same layout I've detailed here. In most cases, PM's will have to handle this, and in almost all cases with their day jobs coming first:)

I'd be happy to share any of the templates for the 4 documents discussed, just send me an email. Also, if anyone has any thoughts or experiences on this topic, feel free to post a comment for the community.