In your bio, you describe yourself as a Competitive Intelligence Consultant. Briefly, what is competitive intelligence (CI), and what does a CI consultant do?
CI involves gathering and analyzing information about a company’s industry, business environment, competitors, and products, with the goal of having the findings direct its future strategy. A CI consultant supports clients with CI research and advisory services. I answer questions about a company’s external environment and likely future actions; typical examples include:
- What does the competitive landscape look like for a product my company is planning to launch?
- How can I enable my sales team to compete more successfully?
- What is my competitor planning to launch in the next 6 months?
- What can you find out about the new service I heard my competitor is starting to offer?
Each engagement is unique to a problem the client is trying to solve or a decision the client wants to make. The methods I use to answer the questions depend on the situation, but they often include secondary research, in-depth interviews, focus groups, and observational primary research (research done e.g., by observing customer behavior in a store).
In what situations do clients decide they need a CI Consultant?
Clients come to me with CI requests when they are:
- Designing or launching a new product.
- Acquiring or looking for a partner.
- Feeling threatened by a competitor.
- Entering a new market.
- Concerned about the future.
- … the list is endless!
Typical clients are in sales, marketing, strategy, and product teams within medium and large organizations.
What does it take to become a CI Consultant?
I have a background in Library Science, and this is a very typical path to working in CI given the deep research skills required. But people can come to the field from a variety of directions, including business, tech, and even science.
I have worked with other CI consultants from a variety of backgrounds, and our common characteristics are a thirst for knowledge and a desire to satisfy client requests.
What does someone need to succeed as a CI Consultant?
It’s necessary to have a variety of skills. Deep company-focused research is the core and obvious skill. But what good is research if the output isn’t easy for the client to digest? Therefore, other important skills are:
- Client management: engaging the client in the project process to ensure satisfaction with the end deliverable.
- Analytical mindset: the ability to determine what is important information for the client.
- Storytelling: crafting a deliverable that succinctly answers the questions for the client in an easy to digest way.
- Data visualization: enabling the audience to easily extract meaning from findings.
What is the best part of working as a CI Consultant?
My work is full of amazing aspects, but the part I love the most is when in my research into a specific company or product I uncover a noteworthy finding that was very challenging to obtain. It’s like being a detective and finding the clue that cracks the case – always satisfying!
Tanya Humphrey is one of the founders of HelloInfo, a strategic research firm focused on competitor, customer, and market intelligence. Contact Tanya at tanya@helloinfo.global.