SOP-001: Competitive Intelligence Gathering

Purpose: Establish a systematic process for monitoring competitors and identifying market opportunities.

Frequency: Weekly review, monthly deep-dive

Owner: Head of Strategy / Product Lead

Last Updated: 2024

Competitive intelligence is the systematic collection and analysis of publicly available information about competitors, market trends, and merchant needs. This SOP ensures your team maintains continuous awareness of the competitive landscape without duplicating effort or missing critical signals.

1.1 Google Alerts

Create alerts for each named competitor plus industry keywords:

• [Competitor Name] + "pricing"

• [Competitor Name] + "new feature"

• [Competitor Name] + "funding"

• [Competitor Name] + "acquisition"

• Industry keywords: "e-commerce platform" + "launch"

Set delivery: Daily digest to competitive-intel@company.com

1.2 Social Media Monitoring

Set up streams in Hootsuite or Sprout Social for:

• Competitor brand mentions

• Industry hashtag monitoring (#ecommerce, #shopify, #saas)

• Founder/CEO social accounts of key competitors

• Reddit monitoring via AlertBot for r/ecommerce, r/smallbusiness

1.3 Website Change Detection

Use Visualping or Wachete to monitor:

• Competitor pricing pages (check weekly)

• Competitor feature pages (check weekly)

• Competitor homepage (check daily)

• Your own pricing page (check daily — detect scraping)

1.4 Job Board Monitoring

Monitor LinkedIn, Greenhouse, and Lever job postings for:

• Competitor hiring patterns (which roles signal strategic shifts)

• Industry talent movement

• Compensation benchmarks

Every Monday at 9:00 AM, the assigned owner completes:

2.1 Alert Triage (10 min)

• Review Google Alerts from past 7 days

• Flag items requiring deeper analysis

• Categorize: Pricing, Product, Partnership, Funding, Talent, Other

2.2 Social Scan (10 min)

• Review social media mentions

• Note sentiment shifts

• Identify merchant complaints about competitors (opportunity signals)

2.3 Website Check (5 min)

• Review any Visualping notifications

• Document pricing or messaging changes

• Screenshot changes for archive

2.4 Update Dashboard (5 min)

• Add new intelligence to competitive dashboard

• Update competitor scorecards if needed

• Flag urgent items for leadership attention

First Friday of each month:

3.1 Competitor Scorecard Update (45 min)

For each top 5 competitor, update:

• Pricing and packaging changes

• Feature additions or removals

• Messaging and positioning shifts

• Funding or financial updates

• Key hires or departures

• Merchant sentiment trends

3.2 Whitespace Analysis (30 min)

• Revisit Three-Axis Competitive Map

• Identify any coordinate shifts

• Note new entrants in your whitespace

• Assess threat level of competitive moves

3.3 Strategic Implications (30 min)

• Document 3-5 key competitive insights

• Recommend product or positioning responses

• Identify partnership opportunities created by competitive gaps

• Escalate urgent threats to leadership

3.4 Report Distribution (15 min)

• Compile monthly competitive brief

• Distribute to leadership team

• Archive in competitive intelligence repository

Quarterly competitive strategy session with leadership:

• Review 90-day competitive landscape changes

• Assess positioning durability

• Update strategic priorities based on competitive shifts

• Approve any positioning pivots or strategic responses

• All intelligence must be sourced and dated

• Analysis must include "so what" implications, not just facts

• Urgent competitive threats must be escalated within 24 hours

• Intelligence archive must be searchable and accessible to all teams

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