Competitive Lessons Learned From Shadowboxing
Smart companies scrutinize their actions as closely as their competitors’. Professional sports teams track their every play, personnel grouping, and decision to determine if future moves can be predicted by adversaries. Professional poker players watch video of old games to identify tells, the unconscious cues that convey the strengths of their cards. Boxers spend hours shadowboxing to eradicate the tendencies opponents might exploit. Shouldn’t your company do the same?
I studied the martial arts for decades and although my training evolved, one routine remained the same. I scrutinized my actions in the mirror like a teenager preparing for prom. I watched every kick, every punch, every weight shift, every step, and every twitch. I launched hundreds of thousands of punches and kicks at the mirror hunting the inadvertent tendencies that might convey my intentions. Dropping a hand before kicking or shifting weight before punching might trigger an adversary’s attack while I was the most vulnerable. It might knock the wind from me. It might break my jaw. It might leave me unconscious with an imprint of the mat on the side of my face. Failing to see my actions with my opponents’ eyes left me face-down and embarrassed. Changing my perspective kept me upright and uninjured.
The practice of self evaluation isn’t as common in the business world. As a competitive analyst, I discovered many rivals that left glaring issues exposed. One was so predictable its actions could be marked on calendars months in advance. Each year, the opponent released a new product or upgrade before the a particular industry conference. It reduced prices linearly decreasing the identical percent with each product introduction. It incorporated feedback from a handful of customers — who asked the same of my company. This created a reliable preview of future products’ timing, pricing, and capabilities before they were released. The competitor left a trail that wasn’t just easy to follow; it was easy to anticipate.
Smart businesses perform regular — ideally ongoing — competitive assessments to determine the impact of publicly available information. These firms determine how the customers, the industry, and the competitors view them. The best source to gather this information is your customers — especially the ones that chose not to purchase from you.
Customer input provides an external perspective of you, your vulnerabilities, and your strengths. Interview as many clients as possible, embrace the good news, and learn from negative feedback.
Interview your clients personally if possible. People always share more in-person than electronically. If that is not possible, call, use video conferences, text or even instant-message buyers. When those methods aren’t practical, attempt to humanize the exchange in whatever way you can. Send email requests from real addresses not robot accounts. Write individual notes instead of forwarding form letters. Pursue former customers like they are about to buy something.
Communicate how the client benefits from the interview. Answer the most important question first, “What’s in it for them?” You are willing to shape products and company plans around their feedback. Invite buyers to influence your future and theirs. This is an investment. Make it clear when requesting the interview.
Listen with open ears but wider eyes. Most clients will be forthright but human interest may invade the conversations. Comments regarding product capabilities are typically truthful. However, some customers may exaggerate competitor’s prices to negotiate more aggressive discounts. Verify whatever seems implausible.
Make conversations safe. Most clients are uneasy discussing competitors’ proposals since statements can easily divulge sensitive-possibly confidential- information. There are legal and ethical boundaries they and you cannot cross. Let customers know beforehand you will respect the lines.
Limit the number of the people in the interview. It’s easier to communicate with one or two people than divulge information to dozens. Assume that the interviewee may be uneasy and do everything possible to make the environment comfortable. Make the exchange a conversation not an interrogation.
Look for patterns everywhere. Purchasing habits vary by location, demographic, country, day of the month, and who knows what else. Most firms can glean patterns from spreadsheets, pivot tables, and diligent research. Assume nothing and evaluate everything.
Ask the same questions in each interview. If more than one person is interviewing clients, make sure all of them are querying the same information. Otherwise, the results cannot be compared.
Don’t attempt to force responses into prefabricated categories. I always end every interview by asking, “is there anything else I should know?” This is where I insert the customer- or situation-specific detail. Analysis is a balancing act between accurately normalizing information and artificially manipulating it.
Ratings lie! Buyers that author unsolicited reviews do not represent the entire market. They write because they experienced fantastic service or horrendous failures. However, most go silent because their interactions weren’t compelling enough to warrant a rating. You need feedback from those who weren’t inclined to share their experiences. You need feedback from buyers who thought your product was just adequate, unfamiliar, or mildly substandard. You need statistically relevant information and ratings do not represent a sampling of every potential buyer.
Include feedback from less valuable customers. Most companies adhere to the 80/20 rule where 80% of the revenue comes from 20% of the purchasers. They neglect or devalue input from buyers. Your business should pursue ideal customers only but you should listen everyone willing to share. These insight may identify new markets or encroaching competitors. Precious metals and gemstones are always buried in dirt. You must be willing to sift through it to find treasure.
Share information internally. The best information comes from your failures, not your successes. Too many companies fear sharing negative information. The running joke as a competitive analyst was that every salesperson attributes successes to teamwork and superior products and losses to poor pricing. That response is superficial, often inaccurate, reinforces the status quo, and provides no actionable intelligence. You lost because the product didn’t meet expectations, the solution wasn’t compelling, the brand was weak, and/or the buying experience was flawed. Facts aren’t fake. Critical feedback communicates a problem needing improvement not a dirty secret requiring a hiding place.
Create a culture where bad news is embraced. One of the best pieces of information I ever received was concealed in a lost opportunity. Instead of purchasing from the traditional vendors, the clients chose a new disruptor. Identifying that threat early, gave my company a chance to adjust and respond. Had I been coerced into communicating an artificially positive assessment, the company might have become needlessly vulnerable to new competitors.
Provide unvarnished feedback. I often said my job was to tell the emperor that he had no clothes and needed to diet too! Analysis should relay customers’ sentiments. If they are angry or severely unsatisfied, make sure to impart their feelings accurately.
Create actionable intelligence. Good analysis molds flawed and incomplete data into meaningful and unbiased options. It provides the audience choices and likely results. Don’t tell the audience what to do. Inform them what should happen when they make a choice.
Beating your competitors requires addressing your shortcomings. You may not have more resources than your competitors. You may not be able to forecast their plans and you will never have perfect information. But you can control your vulnerabilities. Ask, “How would you compete against yourself?” Research until you know most of the answers. Then fix them. The results are the difference between walking away from a fight and being carried away from it.
