Competitor analysis template
A competitor analysis compares your company with the firms your customers could choose instead, on the things those customers weigh when they decide. This free Excel template has a weighted scoring matrix (your company and up to three competitors, scored 1 to 5 on criteria you weight to 100%), a profile sheet for each rival, and a worked example.
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It answers a narrower question than a SWOT analysis. Not "where does our company stand?" but "why would a buyer pick them over us, and where do we win?"
What's in the template
The workbook has a read-me, a scoring matrix, a competitor profiles sheet and an example of each. In the matrix you weight each buying criterion, score your company and three competitors from 1 to 5, and the template works out the weighted scores, the gap to the best rival on each row and a verdict. The example's scores:
| Buying criterion | Weight | Us | A | B | C | Gap vs best rival | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly price for a long-term van | 25% | 3 | 4 | 3 | 5 | -2 | Behind |
| Van available when needed | 20% | 4 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 0 | Level |
| Breakdown response and replacement van | 15% | 5 | 3 | 4 | 2 | +1 | Ahead |
| Delivery and collection on site | 10% | 5 | 3 | 4 | 2 | +1 | Ahead |
| Range: vans, tippers and 7.5-tonne trucks | 10% | 3 | 5 | 2 | 4 | -2 | Behind |
| Flexible terms: early return and swaps | 10% | 4 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 0 | Level |
| Account management and invoicing | 10% | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | +1 | Ahead |
| Weighted score (out of 5) | 100% | 3.90 | 3.55 | 3.05 | 3.25 |
The profiles sheet records, for each competitor, its type, size, target customers, main offer, price position, where it beats you and where you beat it, recent moves, how you win against it, a threat level, sources and the date each profile was last checked.
How to do a competitor analysis
- Define the market and the buying decision. "Vans hired for one to twelve months by trades and contractors in our region" gives a sharper answer than "the hire market", because the rivals change from segment to segment.
- List the real alternatives: direct competitors, firms meeting the same need another way, and customers doing the job themselves. Ask recent customers and lost prospects who else they looked at.
- Choose five to eight criteria from the buyer's side, such as price, availability, service, range and terms, and weight them to 100%. Your win and loss notes show what actually decided past deals.
- Score with evidence. Have two or three people score separately, compare the results and write the evidence on each row. A score nobody can explain is an opinion.
- Fill in a profile for each rival from public sources: its website and price lists, job adverts, reviews, trade press and exhibitions, and for a UK company the documents it files at Companies House. Date every entry.
- Decide what to do about each gap. Behind on a heavily weighted criterion: fix it, or stop chasing the buyers who care most about it. Ahead: say so in proposals and sales conversations. Give each response an owner and a date in an action plan.
- Refresh it twice a year, and after any big win or loss.
Example: a fictional van and truck hire company
The example scores a fictional 50-person van and truck hire company against a national hire chain (A), a local independent (B) and an online booking platform (C). Weighted out of 5: us 3.90, A 3.55, B 3.05 and C 3.25.
Leading overall hides two gaps. The company is two points behind the online platform on price, the most heavily weighted criterion, and two behind the national chain on range. It leads on breakdown response, delivery to site and account management. Its response: stop bidding for fleet contracts decided on price alone, sell to customers whose vans earn money every day (for them a same-day replacement matters more than a lower monthly rate), and put the cost of a day's downtime into every proposal.
Competitor analysis or SWOT?
A SWOT analysis looks at your own company: the strengths and weaknesses inside it and the opportunities and threats around it. A competitor analysis looks at named rivals, criterion by criterion, through the buyer's eyes. Do the competitor analysis first. It shows which of your claimed strengths rivals can match, and it gives the SWOT's threats box real names.
Stay on the right side of competition law
Gather information from public sources and from customers who choose to tell you, never from the competitors themselves.
- UK: GOV.UK says you cannot share information with other businesses that might reduce competition between you, such as prices, customers or the markets you plan to sell to, and must not discuss your prices or tender bids with competitors. A business can be fined up to 10% of its worldwide turnover.
- US: the Department of Justice defines price fixing as an agreement among competitors to raise, fix or otherwise maintain the price at which their goods or services are sold. Breaking the Sherman Act is a felony.
Watching a rival's published prices and setting your own is ordinary competition; agreeing prices with the rival is what the law forbids.
Common mistakes
- Criteria that matter to you rather than to the buyer, such as years in business or the size of your fleet.
- Equal weights for everything, which hides the one or two things that decide most deals.
- Scores from memory. Salespeople remember the deals they lost on price; check the win and loss notes.
- Forgetting the in-house option, which can be the alternative you lose to most often.
- Undated facts, so last year's price list drives this year's decisions.
Frequently asked questions
How many competitors should I analyse?
Three to five in depth: the ones you meet most often in deals, plus any newcomer that is winning your customers. The scoring matrix takes three at a time, so copy the sheet for the next three.
Can we use our competitor analysis in marketing?
Carefully. In the UK, the CAP Code allows comparisons with identifiable competitors only if they compare products meeting the same need, objectively compare material, relevant, verifiable and representative features, and don't mislead. In the US, the FTC encourages naming competitors but requires clarity and, if necessary, disclosure to avoid deception. Keep the evidence for every claim.
What's the difference between a competitor analysis and a market analysis?
A market analysis sizes the opportunity: how big the market is, how fast it's growing, its segments and trends. A competitor analysis looks at who you'd be up against in that market and how you compare on what buyers value.
Sources
- GOV.UK: types of anti-competitive activity
- GOV.UK: avoid and report anti-competitive activity (penalties)
- US Department of Justice: Price fixing, bid rigging and market allocation schemes (an antitrust primer)
- GOV.UK: get information about a company (Companies House)
- ASA: the CAP Code, section 3 (misleading advertising, testimonials and comparisons)
- eCFR: 16 CFR 14.15, the FTC's statement of policy regarding comparative advertising