Competitor analysis isn’t just a marketing exercise—it’s a powerful tool for sales teams to sharpen positioning, anticipate objections, and highlight what truly sets them apart.
By digging into how rivals sell, where they fall short, and what customers actually care about, reps can craft more relevant, confident pitches.
The takeaway? Great sales strategies don’t ignore the competition—they use them as a mirror to clarify and amplify their own value.
Competitor analysis isn’t just a marketing exercise—it’s a powerful tool for sales teams to sharpen positioning, anticipate objections, and highlight what truly sets them apart.
By digging into how rivals sell, where they fall short, and what customers actually care about, reps can craft more relevant, confident pitches. Companies that track competitive win rates are 31% more likely to exceed their revenue targets, and teams with access to competitive intelligence close deals 28% faster than those flying blind.
The takeaway? Great sales strategies don’t ignore the competition—they use them as a mirror to clarify and amplify their own value. And in 2025, the most successful teams aren’t waiting for quarterly reviews to gather insights. They’re tracking competitive data continuously, building it into their CRM, and treating it as a living, breathing strategic advantage.
Competitive market analysis reports involve evaluating the competitive landscape to determine how a business can succeed in the market. Competitive analysis can help a company develop effective overall business strategies and strategies in areas like product, sales, and marketing. These analyses help businesses understand who their competitors are and how they can position themselves for success.
Why is it important to conduct a competitor and market analysis when creating your sales strategy?
Competitive analysis reports enable businesses to identify their strengths, weaknesses, and what makes them stand out from the competition. Using this information, companies can determine how best to position themselves to win more sales and which strategies will likely drive the best results.
Beyond sales, competitor market analysis can assist with positioning and targeting for marketing strategies and identifying new market opportunities.
Here’s what competitive analysis actually delivers:
Stronger win rates: Teams with competitive intelligence achieve 28% higher win rates. That’s not about knowing more—it’s about being prepared when objections come up. Your sales rep already knows Competitor X offers lower pricing? They can confidently explain why your value justifies the investment. That confidence closes deals.
Faster sales cycles: Deals move 28% faster when your team has competitive context. There’s no time wasted on misaligned pitches or scrambling to answer “How do you compare to…” questions. You’ve already mapped it out.
Better forecasting: When you understand which competitors you face most frequently and your win rates against each, you can forecast more accurately and allocate resources to your highest-opportunity competitive battles.
Positioning that sticks: The most compelling value propositions aren’t generic. They’re built on a clear understanding of what makes you different from the alternatives your prospects are actually considering. Competitive analysis surfaces that difference.
Beyond sales, competitor analysis also assists with:
Positioning and targeting for marketing strategies: Messaging that resonates because it directly addresses prospect concerns about alternatives
Identifying new market opportunities: Gaps where competitors are weak become your entry points
Informing product development: Understanding which competitor features customers actually value (and which they don’t) guides smarter product decisions
Why competitive analysis matters now: 2025 trends and impact
The competitive landscape has shifted dramatically. In 2025, companies compete across entire ecosystems, not just against direct rivals. Your customers aren’t just comparing you to your obvious competitors—they’re evaluating adjacent solutions, alternative approaches, and emerging technologies that could solve their problems differently.
That’s why the most successful sales teams are moving from quarterly competitive reviews to continuous competitive tracking. According to research from Primary Intelligence, organizations conducting always-on competitive analysis capture insights 73% faster than those relying on project-based reviews. And here’s the bottom line: teams with real-time competitive intelligence report 22% higher win rates within 18 months of implementation.
What changed? Three things:
Speed of change: Competitors launch features, adjust pricing, and shift positioning constantly. By the time you finish your annual analysis, the market has already moved.
Sales rep needs: Your team doesn’t need a competitive report to read—they need quick answers during sales conversations. “Why should we choose you over Competitor X?” doesn’t wait for next quarter’s market analysis.
AI-powered insights: Modern CRM systems can now automatically track competitor frequency in your deals, flag win/loss patterns, and surface insights without manual work. This technology makes continuous tracking practical for teams of any size.
The bottom line: Competitive analysis in 2025 is less about gathering information and more about making that information actionable in the moment your sales reps need it.
Where to find information for your analysis
Where can you find information for your competitor and market analysis?
Some information is readily available online. You can, of course, find basic information on your competitors’ websites. Third-party industry analyses and reports are a great source of more impartial details about companies and the market in general. For publicly traded companies, you can also find financial information and reports online.
Another valuable source of competitor information is your sales reps. They have likely talked with leads about competitors and have insights into what your leads think about competitors and how they compare to your business.
If you don’t have a process set up to collect information about which competitors leads are considering, it’s helpful to start tracking that information in your CRM.
In addition to sales reps, support specialists and other client-facing team members likely have insight into how customers think about your competitors. Additionally, you can interview certain customers who considered or moved over from a competitor.
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What to include in your competitive analysis report
How do you conduct competitor and market analysis to help with creating your sales strategy? Here are some steps to follow.
Determine who your competitors are
The first thing you’ll need to do is come up with a list of your competitors. You likely know who your main competitors are, but you can create a more complete list by searching online and gathering information from your sales reps about which companies your leads mention.
There are several types of competitors to consider:
Direct competitors: Your direct competitors meet the same need as you and target the same market. These are the companies you hear about most often from your leads.
Indirect competitors: Your indirect competitors will have some overlap with your company in what they offer and who they target, but they won’t match your company’s offers and targets exactly. For example, fast food chains and more standard restaurants meet similar needs but differ somewhat in their offers.
Potential competitors: Potential competitors are companies in similar industries who don’t compete with you yet but may move into your space eventually.
Partner competitors: Partner competitors don’t compete with you directly but compete with companies you partner with, such as those you subcontract with or those whose technology you use as part of your product or service.
Assess how often you face each competitor
Assessing your competitive relationships further can also help you uncover the best opportunities for improving your positioning.
First, you’ll need to assess how often you’re up against each competitor when working with leads. It’s helpful to track this information in your CRM, and your sales reps can provide additional information about it.
You can then assess your win and loss rates against each competitor and the size of those deals. This will help you determine your best opportunities when it comes to positioning yourself against competitors.
Armed with this information, you can prioritize positioning your company against the competitors you face most often and have the most potential revenue to gain from beating more often.
Gather details about your competitors
Once you know which companies you want to look at as part of your competitive analysis report, you can begin gathering information about them.
Start with basic information such as their products or services, pricing, and company size. You can use this information to compare your company with competitors and determine how to position yourself.
You can typically find this information online via company websites, profiles, and industry reports.
Research competitors’ sales strategies
You can also research your competitors’ sales strategies as part of your analysis. This information can be challenging to find, but even a little bit of insight can be beneficial in creating your sales strategy.
You may be able to find some relevant information on your competitors’ websites, such as whether they have a partner reselling program.
The marketing and sales content and materials—such as blog posts, whitepapers, testimonials, and webinars—that companies have on their website may also provide valuable insights. These materials can give you insight into what information competitors typically focus on and how they position themselves.
Sales representatives can also glean useful insights from talking with leads and customers about their experiences with your competitors.
Analyze strengths and weaknesses
Another helpful step is performing SWOT analyses of both your company and competitors. These analyses are valuable for determining how to position yourself against competitors in your sales strategy.
Performing a SWOT analysis involves evaluating your company’s or competitor’s:
Strengths: Things your company does especially well and things that help you stand out from competitors
Weaknesses: Areas where your company needs improvement or where competitors have an advantage
Opportunities: Chances to improve your company’s position in the market, such as industry trends, shifting customer behavior, or new technologies
Threats: External factors that pose a risk or may become a risk to your company, such as supply chain issues, evolving technologies, or increased competition
To collect this information, work with a variety of people in your organization and consider information you’ve gathered from customers and your competitive research.
Come up with ideas for positioning
You can then use the information you’ve gathered about your competitors and your assessments of them to determine how best to position yourself. Consider what makes you stand out, who your ideal customers are, and what makes you the right solution for those customers.
You can highlight this positioning in your sales pitches, messaging, and materials and use it to inform sales methods such as which prospects or leads you reach out to and the information you track in your CRM.
From analysis to action: Making competitive intelligence continuous
Here’s the challenge every sales leader faces: by the time you finish your annual competitive analysis, the market has shifted. Competitors have launched new features. They’ve adjusted pricing. They’ve changed their messaging. Your hard work becomes outdated.
That’s why the most successful teams in 2025 are treating competitive analysis differently. Instead of an annual event, they’re making it a continuous practice—woven into their CRM and their daily workflow.
How to make competitive analysis continuous:
Track competitor frequency in your CRM: Log which competitors appear in each deal. Over time, you’ll see patterns: Which competitors show up most often? Which ones are you beating consistently? Which ones are taking deals from you?
Monitor win and loss rates: Track not just whether you won or lost, but why. “Lost to Competitor X” is data. “Lost to Competitor X because they offered integration with our existing tool” is intelligence. Use that intelligence to refine your positioning or identify product gaps.
Update your competitive playbooks monthly: Your salesforce should have quick-reference guides showing how you compare to each major competitor. But these shouldn’t collect dust. Update them monthly based on new competitive moves you spot—pricing changes, product launches, messaging shifts.
Brief your team weekly: A five-minute weekly standup where you share one competitive insight keeps the entire team aligned and ready. “This week, Competitor X announced a new feature that addresses the scalability concern. Here’s how we’re different…”
Use your sales reps as sources: Your team talks to more prospects than anyone. They hear what competitors are saying, which features customers care about, which objections keep coming up. Make it easy for them to feed those insights back into your competitive intelligence. A simple Slack channel or form can capture this.
The infrastructure to do this already exists in most modern CRMs. You don’t need a separate tool or a dedicated analyst. You just need process and intention.
Stand out from the competition with the help of Nutshell
1. How often should you update your competitor analysis?
Conduct a comprehensive competitor analysis annually, with quarterly check-ins to track major changes. For fast-moving industries, review key competitors monthly. Set up automated alerts for pricing changes, product launches, and major announcements to stay informed between formal reviews.
2. Can small businesses with limited budgets do effective competitor analysis?
Absolutely. Start with free resources: competitor websites, Google Alerts, social media monitoring, and customer conversations. Your sales reps are goldmine sources—they hear about competitors daily. Use your CRM to track which competitors you’re facing in deals and your win/loss rates against them.
3. How do you train sales reps to use competitor analysis in conversations?
Create simple battlecards highlighting your advantages against each major competitor. Include common objections, competitive differentiators, and talking points. Role-play scenarios where reps practice positioning against competitors. Update these regularly based on win/loss feedback and new competitive intelligence from the field.
4. Should you analyze indirect competitors for your sales strategy?
Yes. Indirect competitors can steal market share by solving customer problems differently. They often signal emerging trends or alternative solutions your leads might consider. Track them quarterly to spot potential threats early and identify new positioning opportunities before they become direct competition.
5. What tools can help you track competitor information in your CRM?
Use custom fields in your CRM to log which competitors appear in deals, win/loss outcomes, and reasons. Create reports showing competitive frequency and win rates by competitor. Tools like Nutshell let you track this data automatically, helping you prioritize which competitors to focus on.
