Competitor Research (AU)

When to use

Triggers:

• "Run a competitor analysis" / "Who else does what we do?"
• "Research [competitor]" / "Look up [company]"
• "Competitive landscape for [business / niche]"
• "Market research for [new product / launch]"
• "Should we worry about [specific competitor]?"

Don't fire for:

• Deep market-sizing work (use business-plan-writer-au for TAM/SAM/SOM)
• Brand positioning alone (distinct workflow — positioning follows competitor analysis but isn't the same)
• One-off "should we do X" strategic decisions (use claude-4-7-extended-thinking-for-sme)

Why most competitor analysis is useless

Common failure modes:

1. Too many competitors — analysing 20 companies dilutes insight; 4–6 deep is better
2. Feature-comparison paralysis — 80-row spreadsheet comparing every feature, impossible to turn into action
3. Missing the status quo — "doing nothing" or "using a spreadsheet" beats your actual competitor in most SME sales
4. No actionable output — analysis sits in a doc, never feeds into pricing, positioning, or product
5. Ignoring adjacent industries — a different industry solving the same job-to-be-done is often the real threat

Useful competitor analysis is narrow + specific + action-producing.

The 4 competitor categories

Not every rival is a "competitor" in the same way. Sort them:

1. Direct competitors

Same solution, same target customer, same geography.

• Brisbane accountant vs Brisbane accountant
• AU SME invoicing app vs AU SME invoicing app
• Manufacturer of product X vs manufacturer of product X

Usually 3–6 companies.

2. Indirect competitors

Different solution, same job-to-be-done, same customer.

• Bookkeeper (human) vs Xero (software) — both handle the books
• Pub Saturday-night dinner vs restaurant Saturday-night dinner
• Claude vs ChatGPT for a given use case

Often under-analysed; frequently the real threat.

3. The status quo

The customer doing nothing, or continuing their current workaround.

• Continuing to process invoices manually
• Tracking leads in a spreadsheet
• Not hiring an accountant at all

For most AU SME sales, this is your #1 competitor. If your analysis doesn't include it, the analysis is incomplete.

4. Adjacent / insurgent threats

Different industry, different pattern, but could solve the job differently if they decided to.

• A big-box retailer entering a niche
• A platform player deciding to build what you offer
• A foreign entrant with different pricing

Monitor; don't over-analyse. But check in quarterly — the 3-year threat is usually here, not in direct competitors.

The 8 dimensions to research

For each of the 4–6 competitors you pick, look at these dimensions:

1. Positioning

• What do they say they do (website headline)?
• Who do they say it's for?
• What's their differentiator claim?
• What emotional territory do they own (fast, cheap, premium, personal, smart)?

2. Product / service scope

• What's in scope
• What's out of scope (often tells you their strategy)
• What's new (launched in the last 6 months)

3. Pricing

• Published prices? Or "request a quote"?
• Pricing model (subscription, per-use, project, retainer)
• Tiers + differences
• Discounting patterns (signup, annual, enterprise)

4. Customers

• Named case studies / logos on site
• Reviews (Google, ProductReview.com.au, Trustpilot, Capterra)
• Testimonial patterns — what do customers consistently say?
• Obvious ICP (industry, size, geography)

5. Marketing channels

• Where are they showing up? (SEO / ads / LinkedIn / events / PR)
• What's their content cadence?
• Who's their public face (founder, marketing team, ambassadors)?
• What lead magnets do they use?

6. Sales motion

• Self-serve signup?
• Book-a-call?
• Sales team?
• Partner channel?
• How long is their typical sales cycle (infer from form-to-close signals)?

7. Team + funding

• Team size (LinkedIn, About page)
• Funding history (Crunchbase, TechCrunch, news)
• Notable hires or departures
• Hiring pattern (job ads tell you where they're investing)

8. Strengths + weaknesses (honestly)

• What are they better at than you?
• What are they worse at than you?
• What would it take for them to close the gap (on their better-than-you items)?
• What would it take for them to widen the gap (on their worse-than-you items)?

Intellectual honesty test: can you name at least 2 things each competitor does better than you? If not, you're not looking hard enough.

Where to find the information

Public sources (always free)

• Their website — every page, not just homepage
• LinkedIn — company page + key team members' profiles
• Instagram / TikTok / X — if relevant to their marketing
• Google reviews + ProductReview.com.au — the unfiltered customer view
• News search — "[company name] Australia" on Google News
• Wayback Machine — their pricing 12/24 months ago (changes tell you a lot)

Semi-public sources

• Job ads on their careers page or Seek/LinkedIn — reveals investment areas
• Conference speaking — founder's or CEO's recent talks
• Podcast appearances — long-form candid info on their strategy
• Press releases / blog archive

Paid sources (optional)

• Ahrefs / SEMrush — their SEO traffic, top-ranking keywords, ads
• Crunchbase Pro — funding + team change history
• IBISWorld — industry reports

Direct conversation (the gold standard)

• Mystery-shop — buy / trial as a customer where possible (legal; commonly accepted practice)
• Talk to their ex-customers — your network almost certainly includes 1–2
• Talk to their ex-employees — LinkedIn messages to former staff often get candid 15-min calls

The analysis output

Competitor matrix (one row per competitor)

| Competitor | Positioning claim | Price point | Target ICP | Strengths | Weaknesses | Recent signals | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | [Comp 1] | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |

One-page format; resist the 40-column spreadsheet.

Positioning gap analysis

Where on the map are they? Where are you? Where is nobody?

Pick 2 axes that matter for your market (e.g. price vs personalisation, or speed vs depth, or DIY vs done-for-you). Plot competitors on the 2x2. The empty quadrant — and whether anyone actually wants a product there — is your positioning opportunity.

Customer-voice analysis

From reviews + case studies + testimonials:

• What customers praise (across all competitors) — this is table-stakes; you need it too
• What customers complain about (across all competitors) — this is your opportunity
• What specific competitor gets praised for — this is their moat
• What specific competitor gets complained about — this is where their customers are vulnerable to switch

Pricing signals

• Where are you relative to the market (below / at / above)?
• Are prices rising, flat, or falling across the set?
• Is anyone introducing a new pricing model? (Usage-based, outcomes-based, packaged — signals where the market is heading)

3–5 things to act on this quarter

From all the above, distil to 3–5 specific actions:

• "Our landing-page headline says X; the 3 leading competitors all say Y. Test Y."
• "All competitors offer [feature]; we don't. Scope it for next quarter."
• "Customer reviews of [competitor] consistently complain about [pain]. Build our outbound around solving it."
• "Pricing has moved 15% up in 2 years; we haven't moved. Raise."
• "Competitor [X] is targeting our industry segment; they launched a Brisbane-specific landing page 3 weeks ago. Respond."

If the analysis doesn't produce 3–5 actions, redo the analysis.

What AU-specific context adds

• Australian market size is different — global competitors often under-invest here, leaving local opportunity
• Trust signals matter more — "Australian-owned / AU-hosted / local team" pulls weight
• Government + industry procurement — panel placements, approved supplier lists change the landscape (especially for B2G work)
• Compliance competitor — an industry body / government body offering a free or subsidised version of what you do (e.g. Fair Work's pay calculator vs paid payroll tools) — always factor in
• Distance + tyranny of geography — competitors in Sydney aren't automatically competitors in Perth for service businesses

Quarterly refresh cadence

Don't do this once. Set a quarterly ritual:

• Top 4–6 competitors: full refresh every 6 months
• Top 2: monthly skim for new announcements / pricing / positioning
• Whole landscape: annual deep-dive

Log changes in a shared doc — over 2 years it becomes a strategic asset showing where the market is heading.

What this skill does NOT do

• Tell you to copy competitors. Analysis identifies opportunities and gaps; strategy is your judgment.
• Replace primary research. Looking at a competitor's website is low-quality vs talking to their customers.
• Do illegal data-gathering. No scraping behind logins you don't have authorised access to; no pretexting; no trade-secret fishing.
• Handle M&A due diligence. That's formal financial + legal work, not competitive intelligence.

Output format

Per request:

1. Competitor matrix — top 4–6 competitors, 8 dimensions
2. Positioning gap analysis — 2×2 plot with opportunity identified
3. Customer-voice summary — what customers praise vs complain about across the landscape
4. Pricing signals — where the market's moving
5. 3–5 actionable items for this quarter — with owner + deadline
6. Refresh schedule — who revisits what when

Tier access

Base. Universal strategic need. Pro-tier adds a live monitoring cadence — monthly updates on the top 2 competitors.

Related skills

• customer-persona-builder — competitor research feeds into persona definition
• pricing-packaging-professional-services — pricing intelligence feeds this
• business-plan-writer-au — the competition section of a plan pulls from here
• au-local-seo-small-business — competitors' local-SEO presence is one dimension

References

• Alan Weiss — positioning frameworks for professional services
• Christensen Institute — Jobs-To-Be-Done competition
• IBISWorld — Australian industry reports
• ProductReview.com.au for AU-specific customer voice