Competitive Analysis Checklist

The PMM names the segment, ICP, geography, and use-case in scope. A teardown of "all competitors" produces a useless deck — pick the buyer persona and deal type (e.g., mid-market RevOps buying lead-routing) so the rest of the workflow stays bounded.

Cite the source, vintage, and methodology — Gartner, Forrester, IDC, G2 category data, or industry trade reports. A 2019 TAM number is not the current TAM; flag any source older than 24 months.

Use Ahrefs or Semrush to pull category keyword volumes, year-over-year trend, and SERP feature ownership. Layer in 6sense or Bombora intent data if available so the demand picture isn't only organic search.

Call out anything that shifts buyer behavior in this category — new privacy laws (GDPR, CPRA, state-level US), category-specific rules (HIPAA for health, FINRA for financial services), pending tariff or rate changes. Skip if the category is unaffected.

Cap the list at 5-7 — direct, indirect, and one emerging entrant. Pull from G2 / Capterra category pages, win-loss notes from sales, and the last 90 days of CRM "competitor" field on closed-lost opportunities.

Use Crunchbase, PitchBook, or LinkedIn for headcount trend, last raise, and exec changes. A 30% headcount drop or a quiet 3-year fundraising gap is a meaningful signal worth flagging in the synthesis.

Walk the public product pages, request a demo where useful, and capture: features by tier, integrations list, security posture (SOC 2, ISO 27001), and platform claims. Screenshot the pricing page on the date pulled — pricing pages change without notice.

Capture list price, contract minimums, seat vs. usage pricing, and any "contact us" tiers. For "contact us" pricing, pull anonymized CRM notes from prior bake-offs to estimate real ASP.

Use a 1-5 scale across product depth, brand strength, GTM motion, customer support, and ecosystem. Anchor scores in evidence (G2 review themes, sales win-loss, support response benchmarks) — gut-feel scores fall apart in the readout.

Pull the H1, sub-headline, primary CTA, and category framing from each competitor's homepage and top solution pages. Note when the messaging shifted vs. the Wayback Machine snapshot from 6-12 months ago.

Run each domain through Ahrefs or Semrush. Capture organic traffic trend, top 20 ranking keywords, and content gap vs. our domain. Flag any pillar pages they own that we don't.

Use the Meta Ad Library and LinkedIn Ads Library for live creative; SimilarWeb or Pathmatics for spend estimates. Save the top three running creatives — landing-page variants and offers tell you their current funnel hypothesis.

Look at the last 90 days on LinkedIn, X, and YouTube. Note posting cadence, engagement rate, and the share of thought-leadership vs. product vs. customer-story content. Sprout Social or Sprinklr competitive views work if you already have a license.

Quote the exact USP from their homepage and one customer page. Distinguish the stated USP from the demonstrated USP — what their reviews and case studies actually credit them for is often different from what they claim.

Direct sales, PLG self-serve, partner-led, marketplace-led — tag each competitor's primary motion. Cross-check against their job postings on LinkedIn (hiring 20 AEs vs. 5 PLG growth engineers tells you a lot).

Filter Salesforce or HubSpot for closed-lost in the last 4 quarters where each competitor was named. Theme the loss reasons — price, missing feature, incumbent relationship, channel fit. Aim for 10+ deals per competitor before drawing conclusions.

Read the most recent 25 reviews on G2, Capterra, and TrustRadius for each competitor. Extract recurring "likes least" themes — these are the wedge points. Filter to reviews from your ICP segment, not the full population.

Triggered when review mining surfaces a clear wedge. One page per competitor: the wedge, the supporting review quotes, and the discovery questions an AE should ask. Drop into the sales-enablement Highspot/Seismic library.

Marketplace listings (Salesforce AppExchange, HubSpot App Marketplace, AWS Marketplace), reseller relationships, and named tech partners. A new marketplace listing or a deepened tech partnership is often a leading indicator of GTM shift.

One row per competitor; columns for product depth, pricing, primary motion, USP, wedge point, and threat level. Keep the matrix in Notion, Coda, or Airtable so it's the canonical reference, not a static slide.

Rank each competitor High / Medium / Low based on momentum (funding, hiring, win rate trend) and ICP overlap. Two High-threat competitors typically warrant their own quarterly cadence beyond this annual or semi-annual sweep.

10-15 slides max: market context, competitor matrix, three wedge points, recommended positioning shifts, and open questions. Pre-read circulated 48 hours before the review meeting — no surprises in the room.

Required attendees: VP Product Marketing, VP Sales, CMO, and the head of the affected product line. Capture decisions in writing — "we'll reposition against X" is a decision that needs an owner and a date, not a slide bullet.

Default to quarterly for High-threat competitors, semi-annually for the rest. Set the next run start date in Manifestly so the cadence doesn't lapse.