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CRAYON COMPETITIVE
INTELLIGENCE BLOG

Why Competitive Enablement Is the Ultimate Key to Closing More Deals

David Cardiel

David Cardiel on Thu, Nov 21, 2024

In today’s hyper-competitive sales landscape, every deal counts. Two-thirds of sales opportunities are competitive, and here’s the kicker: these deals close 5x faster and at significantly higher value. Yet, many sales teams are still fumbling with outdated battlecards or scrambling for insights mid-call.

If your sales team is stepping into competitive deals without the right tools, you’re not just losing opportunities—you’re handing them to your competitors.

The Cost of Outdated Competitive Enablement

Using old-school competitive enablement is like trying to stream Netflix on ...

How a Competitive Strategy Boosts Your Marketing Impact
David Cardiel

David Cardiel on Wed, Nov 27, 2024

Marketing today isn’t just about creativity—it’s about strategy, pipeline, and outperforming competitors. But here’s the reality: relying on traditional marketing tools may no longer cut it. With ...

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Why Competitive Enablement Is the Ultimate Key to Closing More Deals
David Cardiel

David Cardiel on Thu, Nov 21, 2024

In today’s hyper-competitive sales landscape, every deal counts. Two-thirds of sales opportunities are competitive, and here’s the kicker: these deals close 5x faster and at significantly higher ...

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One Month Later: Sparks Has Had a Transformative Impact on Crayon Customers ✨
Jonah Lopin

Jonah Lopin on Fri, Nov 1, 2024

Since its launch a month ago, Crayon Sparks has had an outsized impact on how Crayon customers compete, enabling them to transform data overload into effortless, actionable enablement. Sparks By the ...

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5 Ways to Build a Stronger Product Marketing + Sales Relationship
Sheila Lahar

Sheila Lahar on Wed, Oct 16, 2024

In B2B organizations, Product Marketing and Sales teams are critical drivers of growth, yet aligning these two functions can often be a challenge. This is why we teamed up with Yi Lin Pei, PMM ...

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Build a World-Class Competitive Enablement Program: A CXO’s Guide
Jonah Lopin

Jonah Lopin on Thu, Oct 10, 2024

In today’s business landscape, hyper-competition is the norm. A staggering 94% of companies report that their markets have become more competitive over the past year, a trend that has compounded over ...

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Crayon Announces Sparks, the First AI-Analysis Tool that Transforms Data Overload into Actionable Enablement
Sheila Lahar

Sheila Lahar on Thu, Sep 12, 2024

Call Clips for Gong Also Unveiled to Deliver Real-Time Competitive Insights from Call Recordings In the literal sense, a spark ignites or triggers something — whether that be an electrical discharge, ...

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The 5 Flaws of Old-School Compete Programs (and How to Fix Them)
Sheila Lahar

Sheila Lahar on Tue, Aug 13, 2024

As summer winds down and the out of office replies become less frequent, companies are in full on planning mode for 2025. While there are many inputs that go into annual planning and setting revenue ...

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Webinar Recap: Elevate Your Competitive Enablement Strategy
David Cardiel

David Cardiel on Mon, Aug 5, 2024

In a world where business competition is fiercer than ever, having a strategic edge is no longer optional—it's essential. Our recent webinar, "Elevate Your Competitive Enablement Strategy with Crayon ...

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Introducing Crayon Answers: The Industry's First Gen AI Compete Assistant for your Revenue Team
Sheila Lahar

Sheila Lahar on Wed, Jul 24, 2024

In today's fiercely competitive sales landscape, two-thirds of open deals are head-to-head with competitors. Yet, traditional competitive enablement is falling short. Battlecards, while essential, ...

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Customer Corner: How Cognism's Compete Program Influenced $6 Million in Revenue
Sheila Lahar

Sheila Lahar on Tue, Jul 9, 2024

Enabling a sales team of hundreds of reps with real-time competitive intel is no easy feat. When Cognism partnered with Crayon — replacing their previous CI platform — the two person team of Kathy ...

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The State of Competitive Intelligence in 2024: AI Meets CI
Sheila Lahar

Sheila Lahar on Wed, Feb 28, 2024

Looking back, what two words would you use to define the past 18 months or so? If you say Taylor Swift, well, you’re not wrong. But we’d have to go with artificial intelligence (AI). As of January ...

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Customer Corner: How HiBob Surpassed User Engagement Goals in Crayon BEFORE LAUNCH
Sheila Lahar

Sheila Lahar on Tue, Feb 27, 2024

Bringing on competitive intelligence software is transformational for your compete program — when done right. The “when done right” caveat boils down to setting your teams up for success. Chances ...

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Introducing Executive Summary: Prove the ROI of Your CI Program
Garrett Denney

Garrett Denney on Tue, Feb 13, 2024

In today's competitive landscape, doing more with less is no longer a luxury, it's a necessity. And for compete leaders, that means it is more vital than ever to prove the impact of your work. Forget ...

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Introducing Seller Engagement: A New Way to Analyze Battlecard Usage and Win Rates
Sheila Lahar

Sheila Lahar on Thu, Dec 14, 2023

Creating competitive enablement assets like battlecards can feel like a futile effort if they aren’t being used by your sales team. Is anyone reading this intel? Are these battlecards making an ...

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Customer Corner: How ConnectWise Increased Global Battlecard Adoption by Centralizing CI
Sheila Lahar

Sheila Lahar on Mon, Dec 11, 2023

The leading characteristic of any successful competitive intelligence program is consistent, enthusiastic adoption. But before your sales reps can dive into the competitive assets you create for ...

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Customer Corner: How Later Created a Must-Read Competitive Newsletter with a Little Help from the Kardashians
Sheila Lahar

Sheila Lahar on Wed, Nov 1, 2023

If you’re a CI leader, you’re creating competitive assets left and right to help enable your colleagues and support your company’s overall goals. One of these assets is most likely an internal ...

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How Product Marketing Can Better Align with Sales: Advice from Bob Boyle, a Seller Who Accidentally Became a PMM
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Tue, Oct 24, 2023

If you visit Bob Boyle’s LinkedIn profile, you’ll see that he became a product marketing manager (PMM) in January 2023. But if you have a conversation with him, you’ll quickly realize that he started ...

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3 Tips On Presenting CI Results to Senior Leadership from Our Webinar with Rachel Pangburn
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Wed, Oct 11, 2023

Rachel Pangburn and Garrett Denney—who lead competitive intelligence at RF-SMART and Crayon, respectively—are well-versed in the act of presenting CI program results to senior leaders. They’re so ...

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Industry Benchmarks: Median Number of Competitors Tracked + Battlecards Created
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Wed, Oct 11, 2023

Last month, we began collecting responses for our 2024 State of Competitive Intelligence survey. So far, of the 106 people who have completed the survey, 62% have said they struggle to gather ...

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How to Run a Competitive Intelligence Platform as a Team of One
Shannon De Marco

Shannon De Marco on Thu, Oct 5, 2023

In 2024, it’s quite possible that your CI team has gotten smaller, or the amount of time you can dedicate to the program has decreased. Organizations are trying to do more with less, but while ...

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Battlecard Views per Competitive Deal: A New Measure of Seller Confidence
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Thu, Sep 28, 2023

If you’re responsible for competitive enablement, you should survey your sales reps on a quarterly basis and ask them how confident they feel selling against your top competitors. Their responses ...

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New Data: 7 Industries Where AI Dominates the Conversation
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Thu, Sep 21, 2023

Last week, I used data from Crayon’s competitor tracking software to show you that your competitors are talking about AI 5x more than they did in 2022. The data in that blog post is industry ...

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11 Examples of Companies Hinting at Product Announcements with Content Marketing
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Wed, Sep 20, 2023

When a competitor announces a major product release or an acquisition, the natural reaction is to wish you’d known about it sooner—because the sooner you know, the more time you have to prepare ...

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The Simple Habit That Makes It Easier to Predict Your Competitors' Product Releases
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Tue, Sep 19, 2023

In a perfect world, you can see the future. You know what your competitors are going to do months before they actually do it. I wish I could tell you that I have a portal to this alternate universe. ...

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3 Ways CI Leaders Can Use AI Chatbots to Their Advantage
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Fri, Sep 15, 2023

A few days ago, we started collecting responses for our 2024 State of Competitive Intelligence survey. As I’m writing this, the sample size is still very small (42 responses), but the early results ...

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New Data: Your Competitors Are Talking About AI 5x More Than They Did In 2022
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Thu, Sep 14, 2023

For the data presented in this blog post to make sense, you need some background on Crayon. Crayon is a competitive intelligence platform. Our customers use our technology to monitor their ...

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How to Use Champions to Improve Adoption of Competitive Intelligence
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Tue, Sep 12, 2023

Champions (a.k.a. advocates or evangelists) are coworkers who encourage their peers to consume the content you produce. They are essential to the success of your competitive intelligence program. So ...

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Indirect Competitors 101: What They Are + How to Keep an Eye On Them
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Tue, Sep 5, 2023

Your company has two kinds of competitors: direct and indirect. You know the former. Those are the competitors that your sales team goes head-to-head with every single day. Meanwhile, an indirect ...

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Customer Corner: How AB Tasty Used Market and Competitive Intelligence to Improve Employee Onboarding
Sheila Lahar

Sheila Lahar on Tue, Aug 22, 2023

Creating a culture of CI can feel like training for a marathon. It requires serious dedication and repetition (So. Much. Running). And for most, running 26.2 miles doesn’t happen on the first day. ...

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Struggling to Prioritize Your Competitors? Use the Competitor Coefficient + the Threat Thermometer.
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Thu, Aug 17, 2023

Being a CI team of 1 in a saturated market is a tough job. Ideally, you'd like to keep tabs on every competitor, but you don't have nearly enough bandwidth to do that. You need to prioritize. You ...

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Compete Program Maturity Model: How to Advance From Level 2 to Level 4
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Mon, Aug 7, 2023

For nearly a decade, Crayon has been helping people like you build excellent compete programs—programs that increase win rates and influence executive decision-making. We decided to take everything ...

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Compete Program Maturity Model: How to Advance From Level 5 to Level 6
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Mon, Aug 7, 2023

For nearly a decade, Crayon has been helping people like you build excellent compete programs—programs that increase win rates and influence executive decision-making. We decided to take everything ...

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Compete Program Maturity Model: How to Advance From Level 4 to Level 5
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Mon, Aug 7, 2023

For nearly a decade, Crayon has been helping people like you build excellent compete programs—programs that increase win rates and influence executive decision-making. We decided to take everything ...

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Compete Program Maturity Model: How to Advance From Level 0 to Level 2
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Mon, Aug 7, 2023

For nearly a decade, Crayon has been helping people like you build excellent compete programs—programs that increase win rates and influence executive decision-making. We decided to take everything ...

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Crayon and Clozd Announce a New Integration that Gives Customers the Insights They Need to Win More Deals
Sheila Lahar

Sheila Lahar on Tue, Jul 25, 2023

Here at Crayon we surveyed the market for the 2023 State of Competitive Intelligence report to get a deeper understanding of how teams rank the importance of different types of intelligence. More ...

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3 Tips From Our Battlecard Webinar with Sam Niro
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Thu, Jul 20, 2023

Earlier today, I had the pleasure of talking to Sam Niro, Competitive Intelligence Manager @ Talkdesk, about how she creates and rolls out new battlecards. Here's the recording of our conversation: ...

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Guest Post: Complete Your Compete Program
Mark Gigliotti

Mark Gigliotti on Thu, Jul 6, 2023

This is a Crayon guest post from one of our partners, Fletcher. Visit the Crayon Partner Directory to learn more! So, you've started your Compete program... What more should you do? As a CI ...

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Introducing Compete Hub: Automated, Real-Time Announcements and Community for Your Sales Team
Garrett Denney

Garrett Denney on Tue, Jun 27, 2023

A lot can happen in a week. One of your competitors updates their pricing. Another competitor releases a new AI feature. A third competitor publishes a comparison page on their website. We know that ...

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How Crayon Onboarding Empowered MiQ to Achieve 70% Battlecard Adoption
Madison Blask

Madison Blask on Fri, Jun 23, 2023

From the very first time Rachel Foskett, VP of Global Product Marketing at MiQ, met with Crayon, she had high expectations for her onboarding experience — and she knew that to run a thriving CI ...

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2 Tips + 2 Takeaways From Our Win/Loss Webinar with Nick Siddoway and Brad Rosen
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Wed, Jun 14, 2023

For the third installment of our new Win/Loss Wednesdays series, we had the pleasure of chatting with Brad Rosen, President at Sales Assembly, and Nick Siddoway, President & CRO at TruVoice from ...

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Start Small and Don’t Surprise People: Tips From Our Win/Loss Webinar with Scott Frost
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Wed, Jun 7, 2023

For the second installment of our new Win/Loss Wednesdays series, we had the pleasure of chatting with Scott Frost, who’s led competitive intelligence at Stripe, Adobe, and New Relic. By the end of ...

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Value + Variety: How CI Leaders Can Capture Mindshare and Drive Adoption
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Fri, Jun 2, 2023

When I was a kid, car commercials puzzled me. I remember asking my dad: Why do they make these? No one is gonna get off the couch and buy a Camry after watching a Toyota commercial. Which is true — ...

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Guest Post: We Need Win/Loss Insights Even More During an Economic Downturn
Matthew Reeves

Matthew Reeves on Thu, Jun 1, 2023

This is a Crayon guest post from one of our partners, Goldpan. Visit the Crayon Partner Directory to learn more! Win/loss analysis isn’t a nice-to-have. Understanding your buyers and prospects is ...

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Some Competitors Don’t Deserve Your Time: Why Gong and Crayon Are Better Together
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Tue, May 30, 2023

There’s a trope in teen movies where the protagonist’s mom prepares an extraordinary breakfast — eggs, bacon, bagels, fresh fruit, coffee, orange juice — only for said protagonist (annoying, ...

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Crayon AI: Capture and Summarize Critical Competitive Insights In Minutes
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Mon, May 22, 2023

Few activities are more tedious than sifting through Google Alerts in search of important competitive insights. Not only is it tedious, it’s detrimental to your CI program — because the time you ...

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3 Takeaways From Our Win/Loss Webinar With Egencia’s Jayde Phillips
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Thu, May 18, 2023

For the first installment of our new Win/Loss Wednesdays series, we had the pleasure of chatting with Jayde Phillips, who manages market and competitive intelligence at Egencia, an American Express ...

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How Salsify and Dropbox Reap the Benefits of Crayon + Slack
Madison Blask

Madison Blask on Thu, May 11, 2023

Slack is the communication backbone of tens of thousands of companies around the world because while it’s true that knowledge is power, we all know that the true power comes only once that knowledge ...

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The Future is Here: Testing out ChatGPT with Win/Loss Analysis
Ken Schwarz

Ken Schwarz on Tue, May 9, 2023

This is a Crayon guest post from one of our partners, PSP Enterprises. Visit the Crayon Partner Directory to learn more! “Let’s talk about how I can use GPT to help me with competitive intelligence.” ...

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Improve Battlecard Adoption by Creating an Awards Ceremony for Your Sales Team
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Thu, May 4, 2023

Competitive intelligence leaders are often so focused on improving the content of their battlecards that they overlook a simple yet vital responsibility: reminding their sales teams that the ...

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The CI Leaders at Akamai and Deltek Want You to Do These 3 Things
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Wed, May 3, 2023

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of speaking with Mimi An and August Jackson — who run competitive intelligence (CI) at Akamai and Deltek, respectively — about the top insights from Crayon’s 2023 ...

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The Worst Thing a Seller Can Do In a Competitive Situation (+ More Takeaways From Our Latest Webinar)
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Fri, Apr 28, 2023

A few days ago, I had the pleasure of hosting a webinar that featured Crayon’s VP of Strategy, Chris Pope, and Aircall’s Director of Sales, Tommy Jester. We talked about the mistakes that sellers ...

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How Alteryx Increased Battlecard Adoption 40% in Just 60 Days
Madison Blask

Madison Blask on Thu, Apr 27, 2023

According to the 2023 State of Competitive Intelligence report, 58% of those who measure their battlecards think they’re well-adopted. Among the ranks of that majority is Spencer Hong, Senior ...

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Guest Post: Understanding Competitive vs Competitor Intelligence
Jim Caldwell

Jim Caldwell on Tue, Apr 25, 2023

This is a Crayon guest post from one of our partners, Atlantic Intelligence. Visit the Crayon Partner Directory to learn more! What separates competitive from competitor intelligence? Simply put, ...

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Customer Corner: How Intellum Used Crayon to Renew an At-Risk Customer
Madison Blask

Madison Blask on Mon, Apr 24, 2023

After successfully enabling the sales organization with competitive insights at Intellum, Kaitlyn Smith — Product Marketing Manager and competitive intelligence practitioner extraordinaire — set her ...

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Hey, Product Marketer: Your Battlecards Shouldn’t Be Perfect
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Mon, Apr 17, 2023

In high school, my economics teacher loved to remind us that “there’s no such thing as a free lunch.” It’s an old-timey way of saying “everything comes at a cost.” Oftentimes, the cost of something ...

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Customer Corner: How SafeGuard Cyber Increased Win Rates with Battlecard Adoption
Madison Blask

Madison Blask on Wed, Apr 12, 2023

In our fifth installment of the Crayon Customer Corner, we sat down with Dan Dearing — Senior Director of Product Marketing at SafeGuard Cyber. As a competitive intelligence team of one who maintains ...

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NEW DATA: Field Intel Is Vital to Your Competitive Program. Here Are 5 Tips to Help You Capture It.
Jake Liguori

Jake Liguori on Mon, Mar 27, 2023

Here at Crayon, we recently published the 2023 State of Competitive Intelligence, a benchmark report based on a survey of CI leaders and stakeholders. We gave CI leaders a list of 11 sources of ...

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NEW DATA: The Secret to Earning Your CI Stakeholders’ Trust
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Thu, Mar 23, 2023

Here at Crayon, we recently published the 2023 State of Competitive Intelligence, a benchmark report based on a survey of CI leaders and stakeholders. “Stakeholders” refers to people who need CI to ...

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Guest Post: How B2B Companies Use Competitive Intelligence to Improve Retention
Evan Klein

Evan Klein on Wed, Mar 22, 2023

This is a Crayon guest post from one of our partners, Satrix Solutions. Visit the Crayon Partner Directory to learn more! You’ve probably heard the saying, “A rising tide lifts all boats.” It’s ...

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Find Your Perfect Competitive Intelligence Partner:Crayon Launches CI Partner Directory
Sheila Lahar

Sheila Lahar on Tue, Mar 21, 2023

Competitive Intelligence professionals and product marketing leaders know the struggle of being resource-constrained. Product marketing in particular often owns competitive intelligence (and all that ...

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Introducing Draft Control: The Secret to Building Better CI Deliverables
Erica Jenkins

Erica Jenkins on Fri, Mar 10, 2023

Creating effective competitive intelligence deliverables is like trying to build a sandcastle on the beach: Just when you think you've got it right, a new wave comes crashing in and changes ...

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The State of Competitive Intelligence In 2023
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Mon, Feb 27, 2023

When Crayon published the first edition of the State of Competitive Intelligence on January 16, 2018, “Despacito” was still comfortably in the Top 40. You had just heard the term “Bitcoin ...

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8 Key Steps to Help You Spot Competitor Analysis Trends in 2023
Madison Blask

Madison Blask on Mon, Feb 6, 2023

While they might be a thorn in your side, your competitors aren’t special. They, like every other business on the planet, are coming into 2023 with all kinds of newfangled ideas. The optimists are ...

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It Takes a Village: How to Elevate Your CI Program Through Multi-Threading
Jake Liguori

Jake Liguori on Mon, Jan 30, 2023

As a Customer Success Manager here at Crayon, I have seen over 100 CI programs in action. Nearly all of them have the same success criteria: “Enabling the sales team to win competitive deals and ...

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It’s a Three-Peat: Crayon Is Once Again Named the PMA Pulse Leader for Competitive Intelligence
Sheila Lahar

Sheila Lahar on Wed, Jan 25, 2023

In the world of sports, a team that wins three or more championships in the span of only a few years is considered a dynasty. Today, Crayon is celebrating a dynasty of our own in the competitive ...

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Crayon and Primary Intelligence Develop a Market First Integration: Sellers Now Automatically Have the Win-Loss Insights they Need to More Close Deals
Sheila Lahar

Sheila Lahar on Mon, Jan 23, 2023

When your win/loss data is disconnected from your competitive intelligence tool, trying to understand your differentiators is like trying to appreciate the Mona Lisa from a mere 6 inches away — you ...

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3 Strategies Customer Success Managers Need to Keep Customers From Switching to Competitors
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Thu, Jan 19, 2023

Your sales team just won a competitive deal. It was a taxing evaluation: multiple demos, a trial period, extensive pricing conversations—the works. Until the account executive on your sales team got ...

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The 4 Types of Role-Based Battlecards You Need to Build
Madison Blask

Madison Blask on Wed, Jan 11, 2023

Battlecards are one of the most popular sales enablement materials businesses create today, with two-thirds of competitive intelligence teams saying that they regularly maintain competitive ...

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Podcast Episode: A Practical Guide to Competitive Intelligence
Madison Blask

Madison Blask on Mon, Dec 19, 2022

Tis’ the season for a brand new episode of Into the Fray: The Competitive Intelligence Podcast! In our latest installment, podcast guest host Will Thompson (Crayon’s Director of Growth Marketing), ...

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What's a SWOT Analysis?
Madison Blask

Madison Blask on Fri, Dec 9, 2022

Tesla, Rivian, and Toyota all make electric vehicles, but the way they perceive their respective roles in the EV market (and the way prospective purchasers perceive each brand) couldn’t be more ...

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Podcast Episode: Using Competitive Intelligence for Product-Led Growth
Madison Blask

Madison Blask on Thu, Dec 8, 2022

As we glide into a new month, you know what that means — a new episode of Into the Fray: The Competitive Intelligence Podcast has arrived! In our latest installment, guest host Will Thompson sat down ...

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Your Sellers’ Needs Are Always Changing. Hit the Bullseye Every Time with Competitive Performance Insights.
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Wed, Dec 7, 2022

The best competitive intelligence programs are proactive, meaning they identify threats as soon as they begin to emerge and enable their sales teams accordingly. That sounds pretty straightforward—so ...

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Your Competitor’s Next Big Move Is Coming. Get Ready with the Accelerator Course.
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Mon, Dec 5, 2022

A product launch. An acquisition. A groundbreaking go-to-market partnership. Sooner or later, your competitor will do something big—something that directly threatens your market share. You have two ...

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Customer Corner: The Dos and Don’ts of Running a CI Session at Sales Kickoff from Talkdesk’s Holly Jackson
Holly Jackson

Holly Jackson on Mon, Nov 21, 2022

In this edition of Customer Corner, we caught up with Holly Jackson, Director of Competitive Intelligence at Talkdesk. Below she gives her best advice for any CI practitioner trying to make a splash ...

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10 Best Practices for a Successful Win/Loss Program
Ken Schwarz

Ken Schwarz on Fri, Nov 18, 2022

This is a Crayon guest post from one of our partners, PSP Enterprises. Visit the Crayon Partner Directory to learn more! The hypercompetitive New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner said it best: ...

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NEW DATA: The Industries with the Most Mature Competitive Programs
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Thu, Nov 17, 2022

There are several obstacles to building a successful competitive intelligence program—one of the biggest being the lack of consensus on what a successful CI program actually looks like. That’s why ...

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Never Get Blindsided by a Competitor Again. Crayon Introduces CI Without Limits.
Sheila Lahar

Sheila Lahar on Wed, Nov 16, 2022

It’s a typical Monday morning as you go through emails and catch up. Suddenly an urgent email arrives from the CEO: “Did you see this?” Cue instant anxiety….palms sweaty, knees weak, arms are ...

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Build and Implement Your Sales Enablement Strategy (in 7 Simple Steps)
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Tue, Nov 8, 2022

It doesn’t matter if you’re building a strategy from scratch or overhauling tired practices established by marketers of yore: Sales enablement shouldn’t be an afterthought. In fact, if you aim to ...

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What Is Sales Enablement? Your Burning Questions Answered
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Thu, Nov 3, 2022

Alec Baldwin wouldn’t be the patron saint of closing deals if, in perhaps the most cliche sales reference in cinematic history, he’d said “always be… enabling.” Sellers are hired to sell. It’s the ...

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How to Create a Competitive Matrix (Step-by-Step Guide With Examples + Free Templates)
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Tue, Nov 1, 2022

A competitive matrix is a visual resource that enables you and your colleagues to better understand your company’s position within the market—that is, to better understand how your company stacks up ...

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5 Tips for Building Your Competitive Intelligence Dream Team from CI Leaders at Dropbox and Stripe
Madison Blask

Madison Blask on Thu, Oct 27, 2022

Assembling a team takes more than just finding candidates with the right keywords on their resumes — company culture, soft skills, and communication styles are key to putting together the right ...

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Your Competitor Is Up to Something—But What? Use Analysis of Competing Hypotheses (ACH) to Crack the Case
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Mon, Oct 24, 2022

Imagine you lead the intelligence function at a CRM software company. One day, you notice that your closest competitor has recently published a couple blog posts about contracts and document ...

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Podcast Episode: How to Train Your Whole Company on Competitive Intelligence Techniques
Madison Blask

Madison Blask on Thu, Oct 20, 2022

As we inch closer to the end of another month, you know what that means — a brand new episode of Into the Fray: The Competitive Intelligence Podcast has arrived! In our latest installment, podcast ...

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Podcast Episode: Building a Competitive Intelligence Program That's Collaborative and Connected to What Your Users Really Need
Madison Blask

Madison Blask on Wed, Oct 5, 2022

Just in time to kickoff Q4 — a brand new episode of Into the Fray: The Competitive Intelligence Podcast has arrived! In our latest installment, podcast host, Erik Mansur (our VP of Product ...

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Building A Top-Tier Market Intelligence Strategy
Madison Blask

Madison Blask on Tue, Sep 27, 2022

After watching the new Amazon-meets-Middle-Earth show last week (it’s good!) I decided to watch the extended cuts of the Lord of the Rings movies. 10+ hours of whimsy and brimstone, what a delightful ...

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Crayon Customer Corner: How Splash Used Crayon to Implement a Culture of Competitive Intelligence
Madison Blask

Madison Blask on Mon, Sep 26, 2022

In our fourth installment of the Crayon Customer Corner, we sat down with Zach Napolitano — Director of Product Marketing at Splash. As a first time CI practitioner, Zach took his role as a student ...

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How to Measure Product Launch Success: 12 KPIs You Should Be Tracking
Madison Blask

Madison Blask on Fri, Sep 23, 2022

According to Harvard Business School, of the approximately 30,000 new products launched each year, about 95% fail. Of course, the product failure rate varies from one industry to another—for example, ...

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Sales Battlecards 101: How to Help Your Sellers Leave the Competition In the Dust
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Wed, Sep 21, 2022

Sales battlecards (also known as competitive battlecards, or simply as battlecards) give your sellers the facts, tactics, and materials they need to win competitive deals. Before we go any further, a ...

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The Competitive Program Grader: A Free Tool for Anyone Who Wants to Master Competitive Intelligence
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Mon, Sep 19, 2022

Imagine waking up and finding yourself in the driver’s seat of a car, parked on the side of a road that you don’t recognize. You’re alone, and your phone is nowhere to be found. A stranger walks up ...

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Everything You Need to Know About Competitive Analysis (Template Included!)
Madison Blask

Madison Blask on Thu, Sep 15, 2022

When it comes to competitive analysis, scope is everything. If you’re just starting out, you might go broad and deep on a dozen market stalwarts (like oil painters and SEC tailgaters, building a base ...

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Podcast Episode: Using Competitive Intelligence to Influence Your Content Marketing Strategy
Madison Blask

Madison Blask on Thu, Sep 1, 2022

Just in time to kick off the month — a brand new episode of Into the Fray: The Competitive Intelligence Podcast has arrived! In our latest installment, podcast host, Erik Mansur (our VP of Product ...

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How do you Conduct a Competitive Audit?
Madison Blask

Madison Blask on Tue, Aug 16, 2022

Few things are more intimidating than the prospect of an audit. You know, those mildly invasive processes in which someone from an SEO consultancy or the IRS or some other authoritative three letter ...

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Scaling Your Competitive Intelligence Team? Start Here
Madison Blask

Madison Blask on Thu, Aug 11, 2022

What does the compete department at your company look like? Is competitive intelligence the responsibility of one person? Two people? A whole team? Odds are, your CI program is just a fraction of one ...

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Competitor Tracking 101: Identifying the Competition and Your Biggest Questions Answered
Madison Blask

Madison Blask on Tue, Aug 9, 2022

The Olympic podium. Bookish teens jockeying for valedictorian. The couples on the cusp of a $50K payday on British reality TV phenomenon Love Island. There is nothing more fundamentally human than ...

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You’re Not a Factory, Gift Cards Suck, and Other Takeaways from Our Latest CI Live Event
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Thu, Aug 4, 2022

A couple weeks ago, when we sat down with Andy McCotter-Bicknell and Fouad Benyoub—leaders of competitive intelligence programs at ClickUp and Everbridge, respectively—we were expecting to talk about ...

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Podcast Episode: Taking a Tiered Approach to Your Competitive Landscape
Madison Blask

Madison Blask on Fri, Jul 29, 2022

Another month is here and you know what that means — a brand new episode of Into the Fray: The Competitive Intelligence Podcast! In our latest installment, podcast host, Erik Mansur (our VP of ...

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How to Use Slack + Crayon to Unlock Real-Time Intel, Delight Your Colleagues, and Win More Deals
Erica Jenkins

Erica Jenkins on Wed, Jul 27, 2022

The last time I made an appearance on this blog, I showed you how to optimize your competitive intelligence program for both search mode and awareness mode. I showed you, in other words, how to ...

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How to Write a Better Battlecard: Follow the ABCs
Sheila Lahar

Sheila Lahar on Tue, Jul 26, 2022

If you’re working with a sales team actively involved in competitive deals, you’re probably familiar with battlecards. Battlecards are a fundamental resource to help your sales team win more deals ...

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I Used Google Alerts to Collect Intel for a Month. Here Are 5 Things I Missed.
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Wed, Jul 20, 2022

When I was in 4th grade, my elementary school did an invention convention. Each student had to identify a problem in their everyday life and come up with a solution. My 9-year-old brain—which was ...

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How to Win More Competitive Deals (and Lose With Dignity)
John Judge

John Judge on Mon, Jul 18, 2022

Competitive deals are emotional. How could they not be? You’re in sales because you like to win and make money. Competitors get in the way of both. I don’t care how senior you are—when a competitor ...

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The Key to Handling Competitive Objections and Landmines: “Why?”
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Wed, Jul 6, 2022

An account executive on your sales team, Jen, is chatting with a prospect. The conversation is going well. The prospect doesn’t seem to be evaluating any other vendors. And then they say this: “Talk ...

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Podcast Episode: Creating a Win/Loss Program That’s Repeatable and Actionable
Madison Blask

Madison Blask on Thu, Jun 30, 2022

June is here and with it comes a brand new episode of Into the Fray: The Competitive Intelligence Podcast! In our latest installment, podcast host, Erik Mansur (our VP of Product Marketing), sat down ...

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Your Seat at the Table Awaits: Introducing the Architect Certification Course
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Wed, Jun 29, 2022

A lot of smart, creative people have taken the lead on competitive intelligence and found themselves trapped in a vicious cycle: It’s not an infinite cycle, of course—it does, eventually, come to an ...

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New Data: Battlecard Benchmarks and Best Practices Based On 1,200+ Survey Responses
Conor Bond

Conor Bond on Thu, Jun 16, 2022

Sadly, the impact of good product marketing is often obscured. A flawless product launch, an inspiring positioning statement, a face-melting slide deck—you and I both know that each of these things ...

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Whether You Want to Play Pop Music or Pro Hockey, Crayon Has Your Back