Building a winning competitive strategy from the voice of the customer

Before you can position your product to win, you need to know what you’re up against—and where you stand out. That’s where competitive intelligence comes in. Great competitive intelligence (CI) is indispensable for product marketers- it gives them the clarity to shape stronger strategy, messaging, and market moves.

This piece is designed to help you get started building competitive intelligence, especially by tapping into one of the most valuable and often overlooked sources: voice of the customer. By capturing what buyers and customers are saying on sales calls at scale, you get a fuller picture of the competitive landscape that’s grounded in real-world data.

What is competitive intelligence, and why it matters

Ask any great product marketer what gives them an edge, and you’ll hear the same answer: clarity. Clarity on who they’re competing with. Clarity on what matters to buyers. Clarity on where they can win. That clarity comes from competitive intelligence.

Competitive intelligence (CI) is the practice of gathering and analyzing information about your competitors, market dynamics, and buyer perceptions to inform strategic decisions. When done well, CI shifts positioning from a creative exercise to a performance one—anchored in what the market is actually saying and doing.

For product marketers, CI helps answer crucial questions: What are we up against? What do our buyers really care about? Where do we stand out? It takes the guesswork out of differentiation.

To answer those questions, product marketers need to tap into a wide range of sources. Competitive intelligence isn’t confined to a single channel—it’s spread across conversations, reports, feedback loops, and digital signals. From what prospects say in sales calls to what current customers vent about in support tickets, each input helps paint a more complete picture of where your competitors are strong, where they fall short, and where your product has the edge.

Common sources of competitive intelligence

• Sales call recordings and transcripts Hear firsthand how buyers talk about competitors—what they like, what they’re frustrated by, and how they compare options in real time.
• Win/loss interviews and CRM notes These reveal the actual reasons behind buying decisions and uncover consistent themes around competitive strengths or weaknesses.
• Review sites like G2 or Capterra Offer unfiltered customer feedback on competitor products, highlighting gaps in UX, service, or performance that may not be visible elsewhere.
• Analyst reports and third-party benchmarks Provide structured market comparisons and feature matrices that help validate or challenge internal assumptions.
• Competitor websites, pricing pages, and changelogs Help you monitor how competitors are positioning themselves, what they’re prioritizing in product updates, and how they’re shifting pricing or packaging.
• Social media chatter and customer forums Surface informal but revealing commentary on product frustrations, trending opinions, and unmet customer needs.
• Customer support feedback and implementation pain points Expose the hidden friction points that often go unaddressed in public-facing materials—like confusing onboarding or unreliable integrations, especially if a customer is transitioning from a competitor, as you can learn a lot when they compare experiences.

A strong competitive intelligence program is key for many product marketing teams. It enables them to best position their products in the market, understanding how the products fit in a crowded landscape, how to position successfully against others, and how to sell with precision. While the sources of competitive intelligence are wide and varied, your customer conversations are often one of the best places to start for real, deep, insightful intelligence.

Why customer conversations are the best source of competitive intelligence

When it comes to competitive insights, nothing beats hearing directly from your buyers. In sales conversations, prospects speak openly about their experiences with competitors—what drew them in, what drove them away, and how they evaluated their options. These are not the polished narratives found on marketing sites or analyst reports; they are raw, specific, and incredibly telling.

This is the kind of feedback you won’t find on a competitor’s homepage. It’s grounded in current evaluations, recent experiences, and active decision-making. It captures how your competitors are showing up in the market today—not how they want to be seen. And for product marketers trying to craft positioning that resonates, this insight is gold.

Here are four types of competitive insights you can uncover from sales conversations:

1. Why customers currently use a competitor (and what they like about them) Buyers often share what initially attracted them to a competitor—whether it was a standout feature, attractive pricing, or a reputation for reliability. These details help you understand where your competitors are winning and what aspects of their offering resonate most with customers. For prospects hesitant to switch, these comments reveal which elements of the competitor’s product are keeping them in the lead, giving you clarity on what your positioning needs to address.

2. The biggest pains customers have with a competitor When customers are unhappy or considering a switch, they typically point to the friction: slow onboarding, poor support, missing features, or broken promises. These are the weak spots you can exploit in competitive messaging—and they’re equally critical in sales training. Make sure your sales team knows how to speak directly to these pain points, clearly articulating how your product solves them. This enables sellers to lead with confidence, frame your offering as the antidote to your competitors’ flaws, and avoid vague or generic messaging. The better your reps understand what frustrates buyers, the more effectively they can position your product as the better alternative.

3. Why customers are considering switching to you Customer conversations will reveal what they see as your edge—whether it’s better functionality, responsiveness, value, or alignment with their goals. This gives you the language to double down on your real differentiation. It highlights where your current positioning and messaging is working. Understanding what brought you on to a customer’s radar and why they’re even considering the switch is a clear spotlight on what you’re currently doing well from both a product and positioning lens.

4. Concerns or hesitations about switching to your product Buyers might like what you offer, but still hesitate due to unknowns—like migration complexity, missing integrations, or doubts about scalability. Identifying these concerns helps you preempt objections and shore up your value proposition. But they can also reveal true product gaps—needs your current roadmap doesn’t address. When these patterns emerge consistently, they’re not just objections to overcome; they’re opportunities to shape future product development in ways that make your offering more competitive and aligned with what customers actually need.

5. Other requirements for a final decision Sometimes it’s not about the product at all—it’s about timeline, budget, procurement preferences, or IT requirements. These contextual insights help you tailor your messaging and remove roadblocks in the sales process.

These insights don’t just fine-tune messaging. They give you a clear view of the competitive playing field from your buyer’s perspective. And when captured at scale, they become a foundation for positioning that’s not just sharp—but effective.

Next steps to deepen your competitive intelligence

Mining customer conversations gives you a solid foundation—but the most effective product marketers take it further. Once you’ve pulled key insights from what your buyers are saying, the next step is to validate, enrich, and expand that intelligence using external sources.

Start by conducting a competitor website audit. Examine how each competitor talks about their product, including their core value propositions, target personas, pricing models, and recent product updates. Look for shifts in messaging or packaging, and compare it against what you’re hearing in conversations—is their positioning matching what the market is saying?

Next, explore review sites like G2, TrustRadius, and Capterra to understand broader customer sentiment. See if common frustrations mentioned in calls show up consistently in reviews, or if new patterns emerge. Use Reddit, industry-specific subreddits, and customer forums to get unfiltered feedback from users who may not be on your radar—especially valuable for surfacing pain points that don’t come up in your sales funnel.

Then, review analyst reports from sources like Forrester, Gartner, and IDC. These give you a structured view of how the broader market evaluates each player and can help you spot trends or strategic gaps in your offering.

Finally, revisit your internal assets: win/loss data, support tickets, implementation feedback, and even Slack threads where sales and CS talk about what’s working and what’s not.

Putting competitive intelligence into action

With a clear picture of your competitive landscape, the next step is putting those insights to work across your organization. Competitive intelligence isn’t just for product marketing—it’s a resource that can empower nearly every go-to-market team when applied thoughtfully and consistently.

Start with your sales team. Refresh your battlecards using the most current language buyers are using to compare you with competitors. Include objection-handling scripts rooted in real customer concerns and side-by-side comparisons of feature gaps or strengths. Use these insights to build or refine competitive sales training sessions so reps are prepared to confidently speak to your strengths—and highlight the weaknesses that matter most to prospects.

Next, take action with your product team. If competitive intelligence reveals consistent product gaps or switching hesitations, route those directly into roadmap planning. These insights can guide prioritization of features that close competitive gaps and address the deal-breakers buyers are talking about. This makes your roadmap more aligned with market demand and ensures you’re building not just what your team thinks is valuable—but what customers say they actually need.

For customer success teams, competitive intelligence can fuel onboarding and support strategies. Training your CS team on where new customers are likely to have concerns—whether it’s about migrating from a competitor or hesitations around certain features—ensures they’re prepared to address issues proactively. At the same time, knowing what customers love most about your product allows CS to double down on those strengths, reinforcing a great first experience and setting the stage for long-term satisfaction and success stories.

From a marketing perspective, update your positioning, messaging frameworks, and persona guides to reflect how real buyers evaluate and compare options. If patterns emerge about what resonates in the enterprise vs. SMB space—or with certain roles—tailor your narratives accordingly. Use quotes or language snippets from conversations to strengthen campaign messaging or website copy.

Then, operationalize it. Build a recurring cadence—monthly or quarterly—where your team revisits competitor mentions, surfaces trends, and shares insights across GTM. Set up alerts or AI-based trackers to monitor competitive movement in sales calls. Create a centralized competitive intelligence hub to store and share assets like updated messaging docs, battlecards, training decks, and win/loss insights.

When competitive intelligence becomes a cross-functional asset—not a siloed project—you equip your entire team to win more deals, build a stronger roadmap, and stay one step ahead of the market.