Son of a Fisherman | Competitive Revenue Analytics | PMM Tools

He grew up the son of a fisherman in towns all over the Gulf Coast, for no more than three months at a time, picking up a hint of each accent along the way. 

Oh and he’s also one of the most dedicated and impressive compete professionals you’ll ever meet.

His name is James Raffield and he was the guest on this week’s episode of the Competitive Enablement Show. 

We asked him for his three biggest pieces of advice for anyone writing a competitive intel newsletter. His response: 

• Continue the saga
• Engage
• Inspire

We’ll dive into all three in today’s edition of ☕ Coffee & Compete 🤜🤛 

But also…

📈 Introducing Competitive Revenue Analytics by Klue

🔧 Must-have PMM tools according to Eric Holland

And away we go,

Ben ✌️

🎓 Three things I learned about competitive intel newsletters

1️⃣ Continue the Saga 1️⃣

The battle between you and your competitors might not actually be an epic saga.

But the more you tell the story in your competitive intelligence newsletter like it is an epic saga, the more you’ll hook your audience.

And as James puts it, the main characters aren’t just you and the competition. It’s the people in your organization who do the work every day.

“I want to set up the narrative early on so I can train the AEs, SEs and Directors to be part of that narrative and not just watch it from the outside.”

Epic saga or not, your newsletter can and should have all the elements of a good story:

A compelling origin of your competitor’s past, detailed accounts of the moves they’re making today, and where those moves might take them in the future.

2️⃣ Engage

The all-important culture of compete only takes form when your colleagues are actively sharing intel.

And in order to get there, you need them to be actively engaged.

“I’m using that narrative to get them engaged with the story. What I find is when I do that, they come back with more intel.”

At a high-level your storytelling in the newsletter will get stakeholders involved and interested in your compete program.

(After all, connecting dots and drawing insights that directly help your audiences be better at their job should be the main driver of your program.)

But more specifically, you need to be celebrating and acknowledging your colleagues who share intel.

This will create a knock-on effect, spurring others to join in the fun.

3️⃣ Inspire 3️⃣

Including engaging content in your newsletter will inspire your team to keep coming back for more.

Actionable insights are one example of engaging content. But it doesn’t end there.

“We’re always tracking how we might have taken market share or how we took an account from a competitor. I’m using intel like that to inspire and engage.”

Big win stories, tough loss stories — not only do they provide valuable case studies for your team to leverage, they elicit emotion.

That painful loss and that huge win inspire action.

And if you’re accomplishing that with your competitive intel newsletter, you’re doing it right.

💰 The ‘Other’ CRA 💰

Generally speaking, Canadians don’t feel warmly towards the CRA. That’s because it stands for Canada Revenue Agency — the Canadian Taxman. 

The NEW CRA however will be music to everyone’s ears no matter where you’re from. 

We launched Competitive Revenue Analytics this week.

And instead of TAKING money from you like that lame, old CRA, this one gives you all the data you need to start winning more deals and beating the competition. 

Check out our blog, written by none other than Klue’s Competitive Enablement Manager Brandon Bedford, and learn more.

👭Coffee & Compete Community Corner 👬

Okay so Eric wrote this post on a Monday and you’re reading it on a Sunday…

But the tools here will make your life easier no matter what day of the week you’re using them.

Especially that first one 👇

Newsletter >