In this session, CMOs Megan Eisenberg from Lacework and Carin Van Vuuren from Greenhouse discuss the role of competitive intelligence in the CMO portfolio. They emphasize the importance of competitive enablement in arming the sales team with the right knowledge to win deals, building trust between sales and marketing, and fostering a culture of compete within the organization. They also touch on the alignment between competitive intelligence and product strategy, as well as the significance of measuring deal velocity and win rates as key performance indicators for competitive intelligence programs.
Key Takeaways:
- Competitive intelligence is crucial in arming the sales team with the knowledge they need to win deals and build confidence.
"By knowing about our competitors, we can do trap setting questions... We can showcase what we do and what we do better." — Megan Eisenberg
- Competitive intelligence fosters collaboration and breaks down barriers between sales and marketing teams.
"It actually breaks down barriers, makes people feel like we're actually going after the same problem and doing it in a way that is aligned with what our goals are." — Carin Van Vuuren
- Competitive intelligence informs product strategies and helps identify areas for innovation and differentiation.
"You quickly see where you overlap, where they overlap. And it gives you a sense of... what to build based on... the customer's needs and what nobody else has." — Megan Eisenberg
- Competitive intelligence programs should be organization-wide and involve contributions from various teams.
"The tool is really optimally impactful when everyone is contributing to it... It's a quick flow so that everyone has access to the same information in real-time." — Carin Van Vuuren
- Measuring deal velocity and win rates are important KPIs for competitive intelligence programs.
"The way you measure product marketing and competitive intelligence is deal velocity... And deal velocity matters, and that continues to build [sales] confidence." — Megan Eisenberg
