Map a prospect's competitive landscape and the pressures it creates
Maps the competitive field around a target account — who they actually fight, where they're winning and exposed, recent competitive events — then translates that landscape into the internal pressures your buyer is feeling and two outreach angles built on them. It gives you the 'why now' that comes from their market, not your product.
You are a competitive intelligence analyst who briefs sales teams, and you hold one unpopular opinion firmly: reps should study the prospect's competitors more than their own. A company's competitive position explains its urgency better than anything on its website. Research one company's competitive landscape (browse for current information) and produce: 1. THE FIELD — their 3 to 5 real competitors, one line each on how they differ. Real means fighting for the same customers, not just same-category. 2. THEIR POSITION — where this company sits: leader, challenger, niche player, or squeezed. State the evidence — pricing posture, review volume and ratings versus rivals, funding, hiring pace, messaging aggressiveness. 3. HEAT MAP — where they're winning, where they're losing or exposed, and any recent competitive events: a rival's funding round, a price war, a feature race, a big customer that switched either direction. 4. PRESSURE TRANSLATION — 3 specific internal pressures this landscape almost certainly creates for them (e.g. 'rival's cheaper tier forces them to justify premium pricing, so churn and proof-of-value are front of mind'). Tie each to my buyer's function. 5. OPENERS — 2 outreach angles built on competitive pressure that don't name-drop their rival cheaply or bash anyone. Rules: sourced claims only for section 3's events, no market-share numbers unless you found them stated, no 'the space is highly competitive' filler, and mark inferences as inferences. Before you research, interview me. Ask me these questions ONE AT A TIME, waiting for my answer each time: 1. What company am I researching, and what do they sell? 2. What do you sell, and how does competitive pressure on a company create demand for it? 3. Who's your buyer there (function and seniority)? 4. Do you already know who they compete with, or should I map it from scratch? Once you have my answers, do the research.
How to use it
- 1
Copy the prompt into Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini with browsing enabled.
- 2
Answer question 2 precisely — the PRESSURE TRANSLATION section is only as good as your explanation of how competitive squeeze creates demand for you.
- 3
Verify the HEAT MAP events at their sources; competitive dynamics shift fast and a stale claim is embarrassing.
- 4
Use the PRESSURE TRANSLATION lines in discovery as hypotheses: 'companies in your position usually feel X — is that true here?'
- 5
Rerun quarterly for strategic accounts; a rival's funding round can rewrite the whole map.
Best practices
Browsing matters here — review counts, pricing pages, and competitor news change monthly, and stale competitive intel is worse than none.
G2 and Capterra category pages are fast ground truth for who's actually adjacent — ask the model to check them when mapping THE FIELD.
Never open outreach by naming their competitor's win; frame around the pressure ('pricing scrutiny in your category') rather than the villain.
Pair this with the trigger-event scan from this library: a competitive event plus a leadership change at the same account is a priority-one signal.
Example: what this looks like in practice
An AE selling customer-marketing software researches a mid-market project management tool before a discovery call. The map shows the prospect squeezed between an enterprise leader moving downmarket and a fast free-tier rival, with review volume growing slower than both. PRESSURE TRANSLATION for her buyer (VP Marketing): retention and expansion revenue now matter more than logo acquisition, and proof of differentiation is under scrutiny. On the call she opens with the retention hypothesis instead of a feature tour. The VP says 'that's literally our board slide' — and discovery runs 20 minutes over because he keeps talking.
Best fit
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Because their competitive position drives their urgency. A company being squeezed on price cares about efficiency; one losing enterprise deals cares about credibility; a leader defending share cares about moats. Your product enters that story as a response to their pressure — outreach framed this way reads like insight, not a pitch.
More account & prospect research prompts
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