How to find out my competitor’s prices?

his article asks how do I find my competitors prices. Competitor pricing can be the first thing you will look for when conducting a Competitor Analysis. It is good practice to benchmark against your competitors’ prices. If you don’t monitor your competitor’s prices, then you are missing a trick — a trick they certainly won’t be missing.

Pricing is usually the most readily available competitor information. However, it’s not just the prices you need to analyse. How about:

• Is there a link to any price changes and the competitor’s financial performance?
• Does the price indicate how much of a priority the product/service is?
• Are they clearing the stock for a new product?
• Does, it tell you how well the product is selling?
• Do they have a better, more efficient supply chain than you?

Ask them

In a retail environment, it is simple to find the price. You just walk around their shop. But in any other sector, it can be challenging. Within B2B price collecting is much more challenging as most companies will not want to tell you. Some may not even have a price list, but the best way to find the price in this situation is to ask them. Now, it is likely they are not going to tell you, but if you ask enough people, you will start to build a picture.

Asking for a price by calling head office last thing or first thing sometimes works. It depends on who answers the phone. You don’t need to tell them who you are, but you should not lie either. Now, if you intend to purchase, then you can claim to be a customer. It may sound complicated, but you have to prepare well for the call.

However, you will be able to find most pricing information in open source. If not, it is likely your customers snd your competitor’s customer will have a good idea on pricing and discounts etc. So when your sales team are meeting prospects get them to ask the question. Again, they may not tell them, but over time, you will build a picture.

Speak to your customers

Speak to former customers and those who contacted you but went elsewhere. Ask them what they paid for the product or service. If they ask why you are asking, inform them that you are just trying to make sure you are more competitive next time. Also, look at your industry journals and attend trade shows and keep your eyes and ears open. Take a look at the many tender databases. But remember there is more than one factor when a customer decides to buy.

So often you don’t need to know the actual number to work the price out. Try and work out what your competitors are thinking and why and how they price their products or services. Like most things Competitive Intelligence and Competitor Analysis, success is down spending time defining the great questions you are going to ask. When thinking about these questions, take a look at your competitors:

• Priorities. Are these products/services high on their list of priorities? Will they go head to head with you on pricing?
• Performance. Are they struggling to sell the product or service? Or are they flying in the market?
• Resources. Will they point these resources against your product and challenge you on price?

Finally

Exploring prices will also highlight your competitors’ weaknesses and isolate some opportunities you did not realise existed. This article asked how do I find my competitors prices. Competitor pricing may be to look for when conducting a Competitor Analysis, but it is all down to asking the right questions and digging deep into secondary research sources.

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We help brands and investors like yourself reimagine how you can beat your competitors, make more money, be disruptive, and enter new markets. Enabling you to grow faster with more certainty with Competitive Intelligence, Due Diligence and good old common sense. We live in an increasingly uncertain, competitive and ever-shifting world. What you need is active real-world strategy. Where deep expertise combines with Competitive Intelligence based actions. To answer the what and the how, for the now and the next.