Competitive Intelligence Portal

Here is a list on things you may want to find out about the company you are profiling:

• Basic contact information. This includes the name and/or legal name, address, phone number, fax number,  website, etc… You can usually find this information on their website or by calling their customer service.
• The structure. You will also want to know if it is individually owned, incorporated, a partnership, etc.
   
• Public or private? Is the company public or private? Find out as much as you can about the ownership.
   
• Mission statement. Find their mission statement and try to determine what the company’s philosophies and beliefs are.
   
• Nature of competition. How much of a threat is this company to you? Are they direct or indirectly competing with your business?
   



• Patents or trademarks. Do they hold any patents or trademarks? Check with the government and/or patent office.
   
• What’s their brand? A strong company usually has a “branding” or a feature that makes them identifiable to the consumer. If the company you are profiling has one, what is?
   
• Their product/service. List their product and/or services in as much detail as possible. What kind of support do they give their product or service?
   
• Determine quality. In general, how is their quality? Even more important, how do people perceive their quality? Are the customers satisfied?
   
• Loyalty. How loyal are their customers?
   
• Product development. Can you determine anything about their product development process? Do they have any products or services in the works?
   
• Their resources. Can you determine anything about their available resources, both internal and external? Do they subcontract? What are their employees like? What education requirements are required for their positions? What types of equipment do they use? How are the benefits? Do they let people telecommute?
   
• Their sales. What kind of data can you find out about their sales? What is their revenue? How much of the overall market do these figures represent? What is their sales team like? How big is it? How does the sales force sell the product or service?
   
• The market. What is their target market? Are they planning on expanding? Can you determine their market strategy? How do they price their products?
   
• Distributing their product. How do they distribute their product? Where do they distribute it? Do they have an international presence? What is their distribution channel?
   
• Customer service. How much can you determine about their customer service? You may want to call them to experience it yourself. How do their customers perceive their customer service skills?
   
• The decisions. Who makes the decisions in the company? Is it an individual or a board? What skills do the decision makers have that set them apart from the rest of the company? Are they planning on making any changes to their management?
   
• Their finances. What can you determine about their finances? Do they have any assets? Are they bankrupt? How do they manage their money? Find out as much of their financial data as possible. If this is a public company, you shouldn’t have a problem. If this is your initial  collection of this information, try looking back over the past few years in order to identify trends.