Which Competitor Should You Watch Closest?
A lightweight competitor prioritizer. Enter three competitors you're tracking, answer five questions about their moves and overlap, and receive a ranking with the reason for each.
Who it’s for: PMMs, competitive-intel leads, and CMOs choosing where to point a finite monitoring budget across a competitive set.
Across your last 20 competitive deals, which competitor showed up most?
Frequency is the first signal. A competitor you rarely face is rarely worth monitoring.
Read it honestly, not charitably.
The output is a priority, not a ranking. You should still track all three competitors — but the highest-frequency monitoring, the weekly 30-minute check-in, the battle-card refreshes, should go to the winner.
If the gap between winner and runner-up is one point, you are actually telling yourself you face two near-equal threats. Split the watch effort rather than picking one.
Three moves you can make this week.
- Set up three intel feeds — one per competitor — with clear primary and secondary tags. The primary gets a weekly review slot; the others get monthly.
- Update the battle card for the primary within 14 days. An out-of-date card against your top threat costs deals every week.
- Re-run this wizard every quarter. Threat priority changes faster than most teams realize — a fast-mover becomes the incumbent in 18 months.
Why these questions, in this order.
Five questions because the five things that decide monitoring priority are overlap frequency, win-rate weakness, recent movement, buyer mindshare, and future expansion potential. A competitor strong on one of those is a footnote; one strong on three or more is the watch priority.
The framework deliberately separates competitors into archetypes (incumbent / challenger / specialist) rather than names. This keeps the logic transferable — the named competitor behind “incumbent” today may be a different company in a year.
Run the full Competitor Signals.
Daily monitoring of competitor moves before they become surprises.
- Which Differentiator Fits You Best?Six questions → a recommended differentiation type, with the trade-offs.
- Should You Change Your Pricing Model?Seven criteria → a reasoned yes, no, or not yet.
- Is Your Positioning Defensible?Uniqueness, verifiability, sustainability, competitive response. A defensibility grade.