Competitor analysis is the study of the alternatives your target buyers are considering, so you can decide where to compete and how to win. In B2B, those alternatives include direct competitors, different kinds of solutions, building the solution in-house, and doing nothing at all. A competitor analysis is useful when it changes a decision: which segments to target, what position to take, which benefits to lead with, or what to charge.

Many competitor analyses end up as a slide comparing features and logos, filed and forgotten. Marketing is primarily responsible for competitive intelligence in 53.6 per cent of companies, according to the 2026 CMO Survey of 308 US marketing leaders. That makes marketers well placed to do this work properly, and to make sure it reaches the decisions it should inform.

Who Your Competitors Really Are

Your competitors are the options your target buyers consider when they decide what to do about the problem your product solves. Most teams list only the companies that sell a similar product. B2B buyers usually have a wider set of options:

• Direct competitors: companies selling a similar product to the same buyers.
• Different kinds of solutions: a different way of solving the same problem, such as an outsourced service instead of software.
• Building it in-house: the buyer's own IT team, an internal tool or a hire.
• Doing nothing: keeping the current spreadsheet, process or supplier, because changing feels risky or isn't a priority this year.

Doing nothing is a strong competitor in B2B, because it needs no budget, no approval and no change. If your analysis leaves it out, your marketing will compare you with rivals the buyer may not even be considering.

The best way to find out who you're really competing with is to ask. Run win and loss interviews, read sales call notes and talk to recent buyers to find out which options were on the table and why one was chosen. Check review sites and marketplaces to see which suppliers buyers compare side by side.

Why Businesses Underestimate Their Competitors

People deciding whether to enter a market rely mainly on their judgement of their own abilities, and give relatively little attention to the strength of the competition. Don Moore, John Oesch and Charlene Zietsma found this pattern in company founders, in people considering starting a company, and in a market-entry experiment, published in Organization Science in 2007.

An earlier experiment by Colin Camerer and Dan Lovallo, published in the American Economic Review in 1999, found the same problem from another angle. When success depended on skill, more people chose to enter a market, without allowing for the fact that their competitors had also chosen to enter because they rated their own skill highly. Edward Zajac and Max Bazerman argued in the Academy of Management Review in 1991 that managers also have systematic blind spots when predicting how competitors will respond to their decisions.

A business planning its next campaign, launch or price change tends to think mostly about its own product. Marketers can correct this by asking the business, before any of those decisions, what the alternatives are, how good they are, and how they'll respond.

What to Study About Each Competitor

Study the competitors that matter in each target segment, not every company in the category. For each one, collect what buyers in that segment would recognise:

• Who they target: the industries, company sizes and job roles they focus on, based on their case studies, events and advertising.
• What position they claim: what they want buyers to think of them, based on their website, sales material and advertising.
• What buyers actually think of them: what customers praise and complain about, from reviews, win and loss interviews and your sales team. This often differs from the position they claim.
• Their value proposition and proof: the benefits they lead with, and the evidence they offer.
• Price and how it's structured: list prices where published, plans and tiers, setup fees, contract length and discounting reported by your sales team.
• How buyers can buy: direct sales, partners, marketplaces, free trials or self-serve checkout.
• Where they're visible: the channels, events and publications where buyers in the segment come across them.

These headings follow the marketing mix: product, price, place and promotion. That makes it easier to compare your own mix with each competitor's, and to see where you're stronger, weaker or the same. The marketing mix in B2B explains each part.

AI tools can speed up the collection. A model can summarise competitor websites, reviews and published case studies into a list of claims and complaints in minutes. Check anything you plan to rely on against the original source, because a confident summary can still be wrong. Using AI for market research covers how to do this well.

Which Decisions Competitor Analysis Should Change

A competitor analysis is only worth doing if it changes a decision about targeting, positioning, the value proposition, price or the campaign brief.

Which segments to target. A segment where a strong competitor is already well established and well liked is expensive to win. A segment where buyers complain about every current option may be easier to enter. B2B market targeting covers how to weigh segments against each other.

What position to take. Kotler and Armstrong define positioning as arranging for a product to occupy a clear, distinctive and desirable place, relative to competing products, in the minds of target consumers. You can't choose a distinctive place without knowing which places competitors already hold. B2B positioning sets out how to decide.

Which benefits to lead with. If every competitor already claims "easy to use", leading with ease of use won't set you apart, even if it's true. Lead with the benefits buyers value and competitors don't deliver well. Value proposition vs positioning explains how to choose them.

What to charge. Kotler and Armstrong define customer value as the customer's evaluation of the difference between the benefits and the costs of an offer, relative to competing offers. Your price is judged against the alternatives, including the cost of doing nothing.

What goes in the campaign brief. Include a list of the claims competitors already make, alongside the proposition, so the agency knows which messages are already taken.

Competitor analysis can also lead to the wrong decision. When a team studies competitors closely, it's tempting to copy their features, their messages and their price. Copying makes it harder for buyers to tell you apart. Use the analysis to find where you can be different and better for your chosen segment.

Competitor Analysis in Practice: An Example

For example, a company sells expense management software to mid-sized businesses. Its competitor slide lists the three best-known expense software brands, with a feature comparison showing the company matches or beats each one.

The marketing team interviews 20 recent buyers and 20 businesses that chose not to buy. The interviews show a different picture:

• Most lost deals weren't lost to another software brand. They were lost to finance teams deciding to keep their spreadsheets and email approvals for another year.
• The businesses that did switch to a competitor mostly chose the one already built into their accounting software, because it needed no separate contract.
• Buyers who chose the company said the deciding factor was how quickly staff could submit expenses from their phones, not the features on the comparison slide.

Each finding changes a decision. The main competitor for this segment is the spreadsheet, so the value proposition leads with the time finance teams spend chasing receipts and approvals each month. The accounting software's built-in option is the main named competitor, so the price and contract need to be simple enough to compete with something that feels free. And the position moves from "the most complete expense software" to "the fastest way for staff to submit expenses", which competitors don't claim and buyers already value.

How to Run a B2B Competitor Analysis

Start with one target segment. Name the segment, then list the options buyers in that segment consider, including building in-house and doing nothing.

Talk to buyers. Interview recent customers and businesses that chose not to buy. Ask what else they considered, what they nearly chose, and what decided it.

Collect what competitors say and what buyers say about them. Use websites, sales material, reviews and your sales team's notes, and record each competitor under product, price, place and promotion.

Write down the decisions it changes. For each finding, note which decision it affects: targeting, positioning, the value proposition, price or the campaign brief. A finding that changes nothing doesn't need to be in the summary.

Keep it to one page per segment, and update it. Review it each quarter, and whenever a competitor changes its price, launches a product or wins a large customer from you.

FAQ

What is the difference between competitor analysis and market research? Market research studies buyers: their needs, how they buy and what they value. Competitor analysis studies the alternatives those buyers consider. Good competitor analysis uses market research, because what buyers think of each competitor matters more than what competitors say about themselves.

Is a SWOT analysis the same as a competitor analysis? No. A SWOT analysis lists your own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. A competitor analysis studies each alternative your buyers consider. The competitor analysis is one input to the threats and opportunities in a SWOT.

How many competitors should I analyse? The ones buyers in your target segment actually consider, which is usually a small number per segment. Include doing nothing and building in-house if buyers consider them.

How often should a competitor analysis be updated? Review it each quarter, and update it straight away when a competitor makes a significant change to its product, price or position.

Study the Alternatives Before You Decide the Position

Competitor analysis is the study of the alternatives your target buyers are considering, including doing nothing. Businesses tend to underestimate those alternatives, so ask buyers directly, study each competitor segment by segment, and use what you learn to decide where to compete and how to stand apart. B2B Marketing Fundamentals covers the strategy decisions that come before any campaign, and ends with a one-page growth strategy for your own business.

Sources

• The CMO Survey, 35th edition, 2026. 308 US marketing leaders, fielded January 2026. Source of the finding that marketing is primarily responsible for competitive intelligence in 53.6 per cent of companies. cmosurvey.org
• Don Moore, John Oesch and Charlene Zietsma, "What Competition? Myopic Self-Focus in Market-Entry Decisions", Organization Science, 18(3), 2007. Source of the finding that people deciding whether to enter a market focus on their own abilities and give little attention to the strength of the competition. doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1060.0243
• Colin Camerer and Dan Lovallo, "Overconfidence and Excess Entry: An Experimental Approach", American Economic Review, 89(1), 1999. Source of the experiment on market entry when success depends on skill.
• Edward Zajac and Max Bazerman, "Blind Spots in Industry and Competitor Analysis: The Implications of Interfirm (Mis)perceptions for Strategic Decisions", Academy of Management Review, 1991. Source of the argument that managers have systematic blind spots when predicting how competitors will respond.
• Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong, Principles of Marketing. Source of the definitions of positioning and customer value.