Advanced Market and Competitive Intelligence Training Course – London, 15–26 Mar 2027

Market and Competitive Intelligence is an advanced 2-week training course for market analysts, strategy and marketing managers and intelligence officers who turn scattered signals into a Competitive Intelligence Brief with competitor profiles and response options. Rivals now launch, reprice and partner faster than annual planning cycles can track, so leaders need timely, ethical insight before they commit capital. Jupiter Prime Training delivers this course for practitioners who brief executives on rivals and markets.

Why Market and Competitive Intelligence Matters Now

Three pressures push intelligence up the executive agenda: new entrants from adjacent sectors that redraw category boundaries, an explosion of open-source signals that buries the few that matter, and boards that want early warning rather than post-mortems. An organisation with a disciplined intelligence function spots threats while response options are still cheap; one without it reacts after share is lost. The course rests on the intelligence cycle promoted by Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP), on structured analytic techniques, and on established competitive models such as Porter's four corners, alongside ethical collection practice.

Who Gains Most from Market and Competitive Intelligence

• Analysts who collect and interpret market, competitor and customer signals
• Strategy managers who frame scenarios and growth options for leadership
• Marketing and product managers who position offers against named rivals
• Intelligence officers who maintain monitoring systems and alert stakeholders
• Sales operations leads who run win-loss reviews and battlecards

A strategy or insight unit that serves several business lines gains most when its analysts and their internal clients attend together and agree what intelligence the organisation needs.

Market and Competitive Intelligence Capabilities

Participants move from gathering facts to producing judgements that executives can act on.

• Specify key intelligence topics with decision-makers — executives setting collection priorities
• Design primary and secondary collection plans within ethical limits — legal and compliance reviewers
• Build competitor profiles covering strategy, capabilities and likely moves — product and pricing owners
• Apply win-loss analysis and structured analytic techniques — sales leaders adjusting pitches
• Test strategies through competitor war gaming — leadership teams choosing responses
• Communicate early-warning indicators and response options in a concise brief — boards weighing investment

Key Market and Competitive Intelligence Terms

• Intelligence cycle — the repeating sequence of planning, collection, analysis, dissemination and feedback that turns information into decision support.
• Key intelligence topics (KITs) — the priority questions decision-makers need answered, used to focus collection effort.
• Competitor profile — a structured summary of a rival's strategy, resources, capabilities, leadership and probable next moves.
• Win-loss analysis — systematic interviews and data review explaining why deals were won or lost against named competitors.
• War gaming — a facilitated simulation in which teams play competitors to test how rivals may react to a strategy.
• Early-warning indicator — a predefined signal that, when observed, suggests a threat or opportunity is developing.

Market and Competitive Intelligence Day by Day

Day 1: The Intelligence Function and Its Clients

• SCIP Intelligence Cycle — Structuring Work From Question to Decision
• Intelligence Maturity Assessment — Locating Gaps in Capability and Reach
• Key Intelligence Topics Interviews — Agreeing Priority Questions With Executives
• Intelligence Versus Information Distinction — Raising Outputs Above Data Dumps
• Ethics and Legal Boundaries Code — Protecting Reputation During Collection

Day 2: Secondary Research and Open Sources

• Open-Source Search Techniques — Locating Filings, Patents and Job Postings
• Source Reliability Grading — Weighting Evidence by Credibility
• Industry and Trade Data Mining — Sizing Segments and Share Shifts
• Digital Footprint Tracking — Reading Rival Web, Social and Pricing Changes
• Information Repository Design — Keeping Findings Searchable and Current

Day 3: Primary Research and Human Sources

• Expert and Channel Interviews — Gathering Insight From Distributors and Customers
• Trade Show Intelligence Plans — Collecting Signals at Events Ethically
• Elicitation Techniques — Asking Questions Without Misrepresentation
• Customer Survey Design for Competitive Insight — Measuring Switching Drivers
• Internal Network Harvesting — Capturing Field Knowledge From Sales Staff

Day 4: Market Structure and Industry Analysis

• Market Sizing Models — Estimating Total and Serviceable Demand
• Porter's Five Forces Update — Tracking Shifts in Category Profitability
• Value Chain Mapping — Spotting Where Margins Move
• Strategic Group Mapping — Clustering Rivals by Approach
• Disruption and Substitute Scanning — Watching Adjacent Entrants

Day 5: Competitor Profiling

• Porter's Four Corners Model — Inferring Drivers, Assumptions and Likely Moves
• Financial Statement Benchmarking — Comparing Cost Structures and Investment Capacity
• Leadership and Culture Profiling — Anticipating Decision Styles
• Capability and Resource Audit — Judging What Rivals Can Execute
• Competitor Battlecards — Equipping Sales With Counter-Positioning

Day 6: Win-Loss Analysis and Customer Perspective

• Win-Loss Interview Sampling Plan — Selecting Deals and Respondents
• Decision Criteria Coding — Quantifying Why Buyers Chose a Rival
• Price and Value Perception Mapping — Separating Price Losses From Value Gaps
• Feedback Loops to Product and Sales — Turning Findings Into Fixes
• Win-Loss Dashboard — Tracking Competitive Win Rates Over Time

Day 7: Structured Analysis and Judgement

• Analysis of Competing Hypotheses — Testing Explanations Against Evidence
• Cognitive Bias Checks — Countering Mirror-Imaging and Groupthink
• Scenario Planning Matrix — Framing Plausible Market Futures
• Estimative Language Standards — Expressing Confidence Consistently
• Signal Versus Noise Filtering — Prioritising Developments That Change Decisions

Day 8: War Gaming and Response Options

• War Game Design — Selecting Moves, Teams and Rules
• Competitor Role-Play Teams — Simulating Rival Reactions Realistically
• Response Option Matrix — Comparing Attack, Defend and Ignore Choices
• Blind Spot Review — Exposing Untested Corporate Assumptions
• Game Debrief Report — Converting Insights Into Strategic Adjustments

Day 9: Early Warning and Dissemination

• Early-Warning Indicator Design — Defining Triggers and Thresholds
• Monitoring Cadence and Alerts — Matching Frequency to Threat Speed
• Intelligence Product Formats — Choosing Alerts, Profiles and Briefings
• Executive Briefing Techniques — Leading With the Decision Implication
• Intelligence Impact Measures — Showing Decisions Influenced by Findings

Day 10: Practising the Competitive Intelligence Brief

• Key Intelligence Topic Confirmation — Anchoring the Brief to Client Questions
• Competitor Profile Set — Applying Four Corners and Benchmarking
• Win-Loss and Market Evidence Synthesis — Linking Customer and Rival Signals
• Indicator and Response Option Table — Preparing Pre-Agreed Moves
• Competitive Intelligence Brief — Presenting Findings and Options to Executives

Applying Market and Competitive Intelligence After the Course

• Hold key intelligence topic interviews with three executives and publish a one-page collection plan tied to their decisions.
• Run ten win-loss interviews on recent deals against one rival and share coded decision criteria with sales and product leads.

Market and Competitive Intelligence Questions (FAQ)

What is market and competitive intelligence and why does it matter now?

Market and competitive intelligence is the ethical collection and analysis of information on markets, customers and rivals to support decisions. It matters now because competitors move faster and signals multiply, so leaders need early warning and tested response options before committing resources.

Which roles gain most from market and competitive intelligence training?

Analysts, strategy managers and intelligence officers gain most. A pharmaceutical company uses these methods to track rival pipelines and launch timing, while a telecoms operator applies them to anticipate tariff moves and new entrants in its markets.

How does market and competitive intelligence training differ from a market research course?

Market and competitive intelligence training focuses on rivals' intentions and decision support. A market research course concentrates on survey design and customer measurement; this course adds competitor profiling, win-loss analysis, war gaming and early-warning systems for executives.

What do you bring back from market and competitive intelligence training?

You bring back a competitor-focused brief built on your own market. It contains priority intelligence questions, rival profiles, win-loss findings, early-warning indicators and response options ready for an executive discussion.

Market and Competitive Intelligence: The Way Forward

The Competitive Intelligence Brief first informs how leadership responds to the rival move most likely in the coming quarter. Strategy managers, product owners and sales leaders use it to pre-agree responses and monitoring duties. After its first use, the early-warning thresholds deserve recalibration, since real alerts usually show which indicators fired too late and which created noise.