Paul · Jan 30, 2022

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️The Secret to Establishing Competitive Enablement for the Enterprise with Chris Agnoli  ️

Competitive Enablement is quickly becoming something that no company can live without. 

In large part, this is thanks to industry pioneers like Chris Agnoli from Juniper Networks, Clara Symth at Slack, and Alex McDonnell at Airtable.

That’s why we were excited to have Chris on the pod, to break down the essence of what Competitive Enablement is and can be. 

Here’s how Chris explains the difference between competitive intelligence and Competitive Enablement:
“The difference between Competitive Enablement and Competitive Intelligence is CE allows for continuous and open knowledge sharing between teams, producing content and insights that move the needle. The old way of doing things (CI) is just a one-way street where an analyst blasts info they’ve come across to the entire organization and then forgets about it the moment after it’s sent.”
Some of the other best takeaways from the pod:

• Chris explains how Juniper’s sales team content & utilization rate has grown upwards of 187% since he launched his program
• Why setting realistic expectations is crucial in getting leadership buy-in to your program. 
• How companies that store competitive content in 10+ different places are doing it all wrong. 
• And his best advice for starting a competitive program at the enterprise level. 

Spoiler: Step 1 is to listen to the keynote speakers from Klue’s Competitive Enablement Summit.

You can do that here. 

7 Components of a Successful Win-Loss Program 

7️⃣The Seven Virtues of a Successful Win-Loss Program 7️⃣

Editor’s note: That title is supposed to be a play on the Seven Deadly Sins. I’m realizing now that if I have to explain what the subheading means then it’s probably a bad sign.

Anyway, moving on.

You probably know by now that a win-loss program is a key element of any good compete program. 

Systematically interviewing stakeholders, analyzing your won and lost deals, and using the findings to improve the way you do business should be a no-brainer.  

If you’re looking for a place to start, make sure to check out our Competitive Win-Loss Analysis 101 article.

Tl;Dr, there are 7 essential components of a successful win-loss analysis program. 

For a closer look at each of the 7 components, quotes from win-loss experts and more, read our latest blog.

“Brandon’s LinkedIn post was better than the actual Twitter Thread”

Our Competitive Enablement Lead’s Take on Some Twitter Drama 

If you don’t follow Brandon Bedford and Jason Oakley on LinkedIn, you need to stop everything and do that now. 

Brandon is our Competitive Enablement Manager at Klue and has more competitive knowledge in his head than Adam and myself combined. 

Maybe that’s not the best comparison. But just trust me he knows his stuff. 

Like when he weighed in on Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow‘s Twitter thread this week about how Stripe and YCombinator are the “Mob Bosses” of Silicon Valley. 

Here’s are the lessons Brandon drew from this thread — lessons applicable to competitive enablement professionals everywhere:

Network effects are unstoppable 

Building a community of advocates is critical if you want to dominate your category. Advocates that don’t just “like” your product. Ones that love it. Those that will champion on behalf of your product. Advocates that will put their reputation on the line for your product. THAT is powerful.

⚡️ Competition can change overnight ⚡

Whether or not Stripe conspired with Fast is beside the point. The reality is that with >$100m of new funding, Bolt had to compete with ANOTHER formidable opponent. Be prepared for your competitive landscape to grow unexpectedly. Sub-lesson here – funding matters. Money is fuel, and you’d better have enough fuel to hit escape velocity.

People love a good story 

Regardless of the veracity of Ryan’s claims, this is blowing up on Twitter. Bolt is surely getting a ton of eyeballs. There are many speculating that perhaps Bolt doesn’t actually believe these things, and that this is one of the most masterful guerrilla marketing campaigns of all time.

Thanks for reading this week’s edition of Coffee & Compete Newsletter. As always, please reach out to me and the rest of the team with your thoughts and feedback. 

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