Market research
Your biggest competitor just pivoted their positioning to directly target your strongest use case. What’s your playbook?
Find out first whether the pivot is a new message or a new product, since a homepage changes in a week and a product takes a year. Test their product, listen to buyers for a few weeks, and brief sales with an honest answer.
If their product is thin, defend with sharper proof and leave your message alone. If it’s solid, narrow toward the part of the use case they can’t reach soon.
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The decision under the competitor’s pivot
When a bigger rival moves onto your strongest use case, the room wants action. What earns points is diagnosing before you respond, and knowing when to leave a working position alone. That is strategic thinking as the rubric describes it, backed by market expertise.
Three choices sit underneath. You can defend the position with sharper proof, narrow toward the part of the use case the rival can’t reach soon, or move to new ground. The third is rarely right in the first month. Choosing between the first two depends on one fact, which is whether the rival changed its message or its product.
A new homepage takes a rival a week. A product built for your use case takes a year or more. Interviewers want to hear that you know the difference and how you would find out which one you face.
A first-month playbook against the pivot
- Week one, diagnose. Run a trial of their product on your core use case, read their release notes, and look at who they are hiring. Decide whether the change is words, product, or both.
- Weeks one to four, listen. Ask sales and customer success to log every conversation where a buyer mentions the new claim. Ten or twenty conversations tell you whether buyers believe it.
- Week two, brief the team. Give sales a short, honest answer and a question that brings the buyer back to proof. Tell support what existing customers might ask.
- Week four, choose. Defend if their product is thin, and narrow if it is solid. Tell leadership what may happen to win rate and when you will know more.
How a reading app for schools would answer
“I’d take a week before doing anything visible. We sell a reading practice app to elementary schools, and our strongest use case is intervention for first to third graders who are behind. Now the biggest curriculum platform in the market is calling itself the fastest path to grade-level reading. The first thing I need to know is whether that’s a new tagline or a new product. So I’d get a trial account, run it with a reading specialist on our team, and read their release notes for the last year. I’d also ask our reps to log every district conversation where it comes up for the next month. If their product is still a general curriculum with a new headline, I wouldn’t touch our message, because changing it hands them credit. I’d sharpen our proof instead, with growth data from districts that use us for intervention. If their product is solid, I’d narrow toward the part they can’t reach soon, such as students with dyslexia, where we have specialist content and they don’t. Either way I’d tell our leadership that renewals in districts using both products are the risk to watch this year.”
The last line separates Strong from Exceptional. It names a second-order risk, districts that already buy both products and might consolidate, and it points attention there before anyone asks.
Defend, narrow, or move, and what each costs
| Response | When it fits | What it costs |
|---|---|---|
| Defend with proof | Their product doesn’t yet match their claim | Time from customers and customer success to build proof, and little change to the message |
| Narrow to a slice | Their product is solid across most of the use case | You give up part of the market in exchange for a position you can hold |
| Move to new ground | The rival wins the core outright and you have a credible next position | A full repositioning, with the risk of confusing current customers. Rarely right in the first month. |
Where pivot answers lose the room
“I’d launch a campaign within two weeks reinforcing that we’re the leader in reading intervention. Customer videos, a new landing page, and a webinar with a respected literacy researcher. When a rival comes at your core, you have to show strength quickly or the market decides for you.”
The campaign is well made and confident, and it responds before knowing whether the rival’s product backs its claim. If it doesn’t, the campaign amplifies their message by answering it. If it does, the campaign defends the whole use case when narrowing might be the stronger play. Diagnose first, and say what you would learn in the first two weeks.
The other common slip is abandoning the position. A prepared person may suggest moving to a new use case to avoid the fight. That can be right eventually. In week one it gives away what you are best at on the strength of a homepage.
Follow-ups when a rival comes for your core
| Question | What sits behind it | Reply |
|---|---|---|
| What if their product is good? | Whether you can narrow without panic | Name the slice you would own and the proof you already have there |
| Would you change your own positioning? | Whether you protect a working position | Not in the first month unless the evidence forces it. Changing early signals that their claim landed. |
| How do you reassure existing customers? | Retention thinking | Through customer success, with proof of results in their own district, and no mention of the rival unless they ask |
| What do you tell the executive team? | Managing expectations | What you know, what you are testing, the risk to win rate or renewals, and the date you will decide |
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Frequently asked questions
- Should I change our messaging right away?
- Usually not. A fast change can weaken a position that still works, and it tells the market their claim hit. Confirm that the threat is backed by product before you move.
- What if the rival has far more budget?
- Pick the part of the use case where your proof is deepest, since you can’t outspend them everywhere. Say which slice you would choose and why a larger rival would struggle to follow you there.
- How is this different from a rival copying our product?
- A copied product is a product threat from day one. A repositioning may be words only, which is why the diagnosis comes first. The playbook changes once you know which one you face.
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