What does training have to do with competitive intelligence? Lots! Competitive monitoring can be a daunting task for many businesses. There are so many factors that go into it and so many difficulties encountered: lack of time, information overload, no tools or knowledge of existing solutions, how to efficiently structure the monitoring process – the list goes on and on.
This blog post highlights three reasons why training could help you improve your competitive intelligence efforts.
#1. Competitive training programs can ensure that everyone has the same practices in their organization
A competitive intelligence training program will allow your experts to build their competitive intelligence practices from the same grounds, such as understanding what tools are available or how to properly structure the monitoring.
The training program should be organized around what you are trying to achieve with them, such as training in a specific area or on specific skillsets. It should also include both sessions on theory and practical exercises using data sets would to be more valuable and actionable for your company.
Competitive intelligence training can also give a general overview of what competitive intelligence is and how it benefits the organization. It can help your organization develop a uniform way of working with competitive intelligence data. More importantly, it can shed light on some unseen or ignored issues in the company. This is especially important for those companies without dedicated resources that are tasked with performing competitive intelligence.
When people are trained to do specific tasks, they have a better understanding of what is expected from them and how it should be done. Training can also help improve company culture through new knowledge and process improvement.
Competitive intelligence training should be done to ensure that people are up to speed on the latest trends and changes in technology, training programs need to include updated training modules for new developments or skillsets.
#2. Competitive intelligence training can help improve your team’s productivity and lower the margin of error in competitive monitoring.
Competitive intelligence training can help you adopt a more strategic mindset with your competitive intelligence practices as well as increase efficiency. Here are some of the benefits of competitive intelligence training:
- It improves skills, efficiency and provides the competitive intelligence team with new ideas
- It is a great way to build on your existing strength for the long term
- It helps people combine resources, experience, and expertise from across functions/departments.
If your company does not have dedicated resources for training, getting the support of a consultant could be a quick way to get started or improve the skills of those in charge.
Good competitive intelligence courses are developed by professionals with know-how in strategy, information analysis, data monitoring practices and technologies, collaborative intelligence, etc. Competitive intelligence workshops must be interactive and should cover key skills from understanding data sources, to analytics tools, data visualization, how to communicate and collaborate, and finally how best to structure and automate the competitive intelligence process. When training staff, it’s important to stay relevant and include examples of how intelligence is used in real-world situations or in specific industries.
#3. You’ll be able to build on your existing strength for long-term success and develop a team as an asset.
The benefits of training are shared across the company and training is a great way to build on your existing strength for the long term. It’s important to build up your competitive intelligence team as an asset, rather than a cost centre. Training is an investment that will take time, but it pays off if done properly.
Why competitive intelligence training is a good investment?
- Training will give your team access to tools and methods they didn’t have before, which helps them become more efficient in their processes.
- It saves time later by helping employees make better decisions faster, which in turn saves time and money.
- It can help your team collaborate more effectively and share the knowledge that they have.
- It can be the starter point to create an efficient competitive intelligence network in your organization.
Competitive intelligence training can help with employee development, so training your employees to know more than just their skillset is a wise investment. It will help you create a strategy that ensures your company’s success and incorporates other disciplines of business such as finance, marketing, accounting, etc., thereby enriching the decision-making process for organizations.
Competitive Intelligence training is an investment because it saves time later by helping employees make better decisions faster, which in turn saves time and money. Training can also help with employee development. Training your employees to know more than just their skillset is a wise investment.
At Defoort Consultant, we offer competitive intelligence training for individuals or teams that want the latest strategy on how to be better informed about an industry as well as tools and methods to help them be more efficient in their processes.
If training is a good fit for your company, then please contact us and we can offer you a free consultation to help identify what training could work best for your team and company needs.
Have a look at our ready-made competitive intelligence workshops: https://www.defoortconsultant.com/competitive-intelligence-workshops/
Learn more about our ad hoc competitive intelligence training offer: https://www.defoortconsultant.com/competitive-intelligence-training/
Contact: contact@defoortconsultant.com
Julie Defoort, Director & Lead Analyst at Defoort Consultant
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Defoort Consultant is a consulting firm based in North East England, founded in 2017 by Julie Defoort, a French national. Our expertise lies within the biotechnology, plant care, and food science industries. We specialize in technology and competitive intelligence, with the goal of giving you an edge over your competition. At Defoort Consultant we are passionate about innovation and have infinite curiosity; we’re always looking to learn more about what’s happening across the industry so that we can help our clients stay one step ahead of their competitors.
Learn more about Defoort Consultant: https://defoortconsultant.com/about/
