Spy on your competitors: 4 steps

By Kim Komando

Do you know where your competitors are right now?

In just a few hours, you could probably gather enough intelligence on your business competitors — intelligence that would have taken months to unearth just a few years ago — to get a good sense of where they are versus where you are in the marketplace.

Best of all, there are no phone calls to make or personas to assume. Just open your Web browser and it's free for the taking. Remember: Knowledge is power.

Here's a rundown of where you should concentrate your sleuthing efforts.

1. Know their products and pricing.

Drop by your biggest competitor's Web sites. There, you will find a fountain of knowledge, including what they are selling and at what prices. Compare these to your own and determine your advantages. More important, what can you do to improve your offering?

After you've scoured that Web site, go the extra mile. From the Microsoft Internet Explorer toolbar, select Tools and then "Show Related Links." Here, you may uncover other companies you'd never heard of, doing the same thing or in the same business.

Your competitor's Web site can tell you a lot. Perhaps more important, changes in the site can tell you how your competitor is doing.

But you probably don't have the time for regular visits to the competitor's site. No problem. Use a notification service. TimelyWeb, by EldoS (www.eldos.org), has several ways of notifying you when pages change, including via e-mail. The free program can monitor 10 Web pages. If your competitor has a large site, you may want to buy the commercial version for about $30. According to EldoS, it can monitor an unlimited number of pages.

There's also another monitoring service called ChangeDetection.com. It also notifies you by e-mail when a page changes, and it's free.

2. Look at any job openings.

Is your competitor expanding? Is he or she going in a new direction? You might get a clue through help-wanted advertising.

There are many sites on the Internet that bring employers and job seekers together. The big ones are Monster.com and HotJobs. Both allow you to search by company name, location or job type. There also are many specialized sites.

The listings can tell you more than what your competitor is planning. You can also check salaries being offered. If your competitor is pushing up salaries, you need to know that. Otherwise, your best people could be heading for the door.

Also, check newspaper classified ads. Most major newspapers are on the Web. You can usually access their classifieds. You probably would want to check papers where your competitor is headquartered or has a large presence. You can find links to most newspapers at Newslink.org.

3. Get the gossip.

What's the best place to hear industry gossip? Probably a convention, especially if your competitors aren't there. But that's really not a handy way to stay up.

So check out the newsgroups and message boards. There are innumerable such sites on the Internet. Often, dissident workers will use them to vent about the company, an immediate supervisor, bad products and so on. Many people express themselves poorly at the keyboard, so think through what you say and how you say it.

Newsgroups are easiest to find. Try MSN Groups (groups.msn.com) or Google. At Google, for example, you enter the name of the company or product in which you are interested. That will give you a listing of messages in which it was mentioned. The newsgroup to which the message was posted also will be shown. You can check that newsgroup for other industry gossip.

If you want to really tap into the newsgroups, you'll want to use newsgroup-reading software to read and post messages. You probably have it already. Microsoft Internet Explorer includes a newsgroup reader, as does Netscape's Communicator. If these won't do, try Free Agent by Forte (www.forteinc.com).

Be sure to search message boards, such as those of CNBC on MSN Money (moneycentral.msn.com) or Yahoo!. For Yahoo!, just put the company or industry name into the box and click Search.

A word of warning to those writing messages: Laws that govern libel and slander apply to the Internet. It's easy to slam out a nasty opinion about a competitor, or someone you just don't like. Be careful. If you decide to join a conversation ripping someone, you could be sued. Even if you tried to hide your identity, you probably could be tracked down. Don't expect Yahoo! or any other message board host to protect you. A subpoena works wonders when lawyers are looking for people.

The safest procedure is just to monitor the boards. You can do that anonymously.

4. Read up on competitors' plans and finances.

Drop by your industry association's Internet site. Members' Web sites often are linked to the association site. And if you're lucky, you may also find additional information about a member who is your competitor. Perhaps they were interviewed for the association's Web site or publication. You can learn a lot by reading what people say are their future plans.

If your competitor is publicly held, and has more than $10 million in revenues and more than 500 employees, it has to file forms with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These forms are accessible through the SEC Web site (www.sec.gov) and the EDGAR site is free. (In case you were wondering, EDGAR stands for the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval system.)

The EDGAR site includes a tutorial on how to use it. It also has a brief description of the forms. The most helpful filings are 10-Q (quarterly) and 10-K (yearly) statements. These are similar to the annual reports that companies send to investors, but have the fluff removed. Many other forms are posted, too. They vary in helpfulness.

If you're looking for quick information on publicly held companies, try CNBC on MSN Money. Look for the stock quotes at right on the home page, and put the stock symbol (usually three or four letters) in the text box and click Go. When the stock chart comes up, check out the links to the left — to SEC filings, recent news, stock ratings, insider trading, etc. The resulting pages display a wealth of company information. Be sure to read the "key developments," "analyst ratings," news and press releases. Similar data on public companies can be found at Yahoo!.

Also, round out your knowledge about your competitors by finding out how they fit into their local economies and trade areas. Do they dominate a regional market where your business should have a presence? Do they have a pipeline into a particular college or labor market that your company should also be tapping into for new employees?

Demographic research tools on the Web, enable you to understand the makeup of different U.S. geographic areas. The free Business Profiler tool, in particular, provides summary information on businesses within a specific geography or trade area. Simply input a particular ZIP code, county, state or metro area to see a profile of the businesses in that area.

So, enjoy your searching. Hopefully, it will help you keep your competitors better positioned on your radar.