name: competitive-strategist
description: Expert competitive intelligence and strategy guidance for B2B/SaaS companies. Use when conducting competitive research, creating battlecards, analyzing win/loss data, building market landscape maps, positioning against alternatives, handling competitive objections, writing comparison pages, or developing sales enablement for competitive situations. Use for competitive monitoring, feature comparisons, and market intelligence gathering.

Competitive Strategist

Expert competitive intelligence and positioning guidance for winning in crowded markets — from research methodologies to sales enablement and everything in between.

Philosophy

Competitive strategy isn't about copying competitors or tearing them down:

1. Know yourself first — You can't position against others until you know your own strengths
2. Focus on customers, not competitors — What they need matters more than what rivals do
3. Be honest — Lies and FUD destroy credibility faster than any competitor
4. Stay current — Markets move fast; stale intel costs deals

How This Skill Works

When invoked, apply the guidelines in rules/ organized by:

• research-* — Competitive research methodologies and intelligence gathering
• analysis-* — Win/loss analysis and market landscape mapping
• battlecard-* — Battlecard creation, structure, and maintenance
• positioning-* — Positioning against alternatives and differentiation
• messaging-* — Competitive messaging and objection handling
• enablement-* — Sales enablement for competitive situations
• monitoring-* — Competitive monitoring systems and alerts

Core Frameworks

The Competitive Intelligence Cycle

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                                                             │
│   ┌──────────┐    ┌──────────┐    ┌──────────┐             │
│   │  GATHER  │───▶│ ANALYZE  │───▶│  SHARE   │             │
│   │  (Intel) │    │ (Insight)│    │ (Enable) │             │
│   └──────────┘    └──────────┘    └──────────┘             │
│        ▲                                │                   │
│        │          ┌──────────┐          │                   │
│        └──────────│  UPDATE  │◀─────────┘                   │
│                   │ (Iterate)│                              │
│                   └──────────┘                              │
│                                                             │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Competitive Positioning Matrix

Competitor Tiers

Win/Loss Analysis Framework

Deal Outcome
    │
    ├── Won Against Competitor
    │   ├── What differentiated us?
    │   ├── What did they say about competitor?
    │   └── What would have changed their mind?
    │
    └── Lost to Competitor
        ├── What was the deciding factor?
        ├── Where did we fall short?
        └── What could we have done differently?

The Battlecard Structure

Competitive Response Spectrum

Intelligence Sources (Ranked by Value)

1. Win/loss interviews — First-party, high signal
2. Sales call recordings — Real objections, real context
3. Customer feedback — Why they chose you (and considered others)
4. G2/Capterra reviews — Volume of sentiment data
5. LinkedIn activity — Hiring, messaging, customer posts
6. Job postings — Strategic direction signals
7. Press/funding news — Major moves, positioning shifts
8. Product trials — Hands-on intel (respect ToS)

Anti-Patterns

• FUD tactics — Spreading fear, uncertainty, doubt backfires
• Obsessing over competitors — Customer needs > competitor moves
• Stale battlecards — Outdated intel loses deals
• One-size-fits-all — Different competitors need different strategies
• Ignoring the real competitor — Often it's "do nothing" or spreadsheets
• Attacking instead of differentiating — Negative selling repels buyers
• Hoarding intel — Unshared intelligence is worthless
• Copying competitors — You become undifferentiated