Exception
A competitor's non-public information came in
Don't collect it and don't keep it in the record. Internal information you can't verify the source of is a risk, not information.
It gathers public information from the competitors and market channels you name, on a set schedule.
Competitor and market monitoring
Velros AI watches price changes, product news, hiring signals, and market announcements, so a rival's move reaches you the day it happens, not a week later.
The default of competition
Time of change detection
Response completion rate
You hear competitor news only when someone happens to see it and shares it. But competition isn't the exception; it's the default. 66% of the sales opportunities at software companies were deals a competitor was actually in. If you hear from a customer when the price changed or which feature shipped when, you're already too late.
A question like this, handled like this.
We gather the work as it actually arrives, and record what each step is judged against.
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Confirm what to watch
Decide the competitors and channels to watch (pricing pages, product news, job postings, public announcements, reviews). Non-public information isn't included.
Judgment Is this information public. -
Collect on a cycle
Gather public information on a set cycle and keep the collection time with it. To know when something changed, you have to know when you looked.
Judgment Is this a target whose cycle should be tightened. -
Extract the change
Compare against the last round, keep only the items that changed, and drop the rest. Reporting everything is the same as reporting nothing.
Judgment Is this a change or noise. -
Attach the basis for a judgment
Attach our standard and the expected impact to items that seem to need a response. Whether to respond isn't decided here.
Judgment Do we respond now, or keep observing. -
Record the response
Keep whether we responded and how it turned out, and feed it back into the next round's watch items.
Judgment Do we keep watching this item.
Non-public information, we don't collect.
We settle the exceptions that actually come up before they do. When a rule doesn't fit, we don't force it through. It goes to a person, with the evidence.
Exception
A change was detected but the cause can't be known
Don't guess; report only the observed facts. A person attaches the interpretation.
Exception
A competitor mention has to go into our public wording
Quote only public facts and send comparative wording to review.
Whether to respond is a person's decision.
Anything touching money, contracts, personal data, or the brand is drafted and no further. It sends only after a person approves.
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A pricing or terms change as a response
Money moves, and a lowered price is hard to reverse.
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A competitor mention in public wording
An unfair comparison is subject to disputes and regulation.
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A change to the watch targets and cycle
What you decided not to watch is your blind spot.
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An official announcement in response to a competitor
It can't be recalled.
How you know it worked
Did we know before the customer.
The default of competition
66% of software companies' sales opportunities were competitive (Crayon, State of Competitive Intelligence, 2023, n=900)
It's a survey by a competitive-intelligence vendor. Still, the sample and the time are stated.
Time of change detection
Did we know before hearing it from a customer. It's the one question this workflow actually has to answer.
Response completion rate
When detected items pile up with nothing done, it's not the watch cycle that's wrong but the watch items.
Rule
Acquiring or using another company's trade secret through improper means is prohibited under the Defend Trade Secrets Act. We limit collection to public information, and wording that compares a competitor unfairly in public copy is subject to US advertising law (the FTC Act).
There is less that a person has to hold on to.
Once the scattered checks and repeat replies are drafted and sorted, your staff can spend the day on review and exceptions, and you look only at the decisions that matter.
Get an assessmentChecks pile up on a person.
You only hear competitor news when someone happens to spot it and share it.
The work arrives ready to go.
Changes in pricing, features, hiring, and announcements come up organized on a set schedule, with only the ones that need a response flagged.
Time of change detection
Number of items needing a response
Response completion rate
What people ask before they hand this over
The things people actually check first about Competitor and market monitoring.
I heard adopting competitive intelligence raises win rate 22%.
That number is a single vendor's customer case, not an industry benchmark. It can't be generalized. What's confirmed is that competition isn't the exception. A competitor was actually in 66% of software companies' sales opportunities (Crayon, 2023).
What do you collect.
Only public pricing pages, product news, job postings, official announcements, and public reviews. Non-public information or anything that amounts to a trade secret we don't collect, and even if it comes in we don't keep it in the record.
What to sort out next
Partners contacted
Finding partnership prospects
Finding partnership prospects
Finding partnership prospects can be joined up the same way, on the channels you already use, from intake through to the approval queue.
Inquiry conversion by channel
Channel performance report
Channel performance report can be joined up the same way, on the channels you already use, from intake through to the approval queue.
Days to hire
Hiring pipeline
Hiring pipeline can be joined up the same way, on the channels you already use, from intake through to the approval queue.
See every workflow
Inquiries, bookings, quotes, order updates. You can compare the work that keeps a person busy, side by side.