Day One: Creating a Competitive Product Strategy 

Using the Whole Product Concept

• Understanding the power of the customer’s point of view
• Writing a customer problem statement
• Defining a competitive, total solution to the customer’s problem
• Packaging market partners’ solution elements
• Responding to the differences in solution requirements of different segments and buyers

       Exercise: Write a customer problem statement

Summary: The customer’s point of view is the source of competitive advantage          

Defining a Solution Strategy

• Defining and measuring competitive differentiation
• Prioritizing solution vectors and elements
• Aligning core technology development to customer success metrics
• Meeting competitive cost-of-use benchmarks
• Identifying unique value to prevent price erosion
• Putting it all together into a statement of competitive solution metrics and strategy

Exercise: Write a solution strategy statement

Summary: Defining solution metrics will motivate your team and allow members to measure competitiveness

Day Two: Identifying Opportunities for Growth

Listening to Customers

• Making the case for cross-functional participation in the listening process
• Planning a structured program of customer visits 
• Ensuring an open-ended discussion 
• Overcoming listening challenges in Asia
• Documenting and synthesizing what you learn from customers

Summary: When marketing and development listen to customers as a team, they define more
competitive solutions faster

Prioritizing Market Targets

• Identifying opinion leaders and influence communities in the market and using them to
  speed sales
• Transferring the implications of the L-shaped early market to your engineering, marketing, and sales priorities
• Using portfolio analysis and the technology adoption model to rank growth opportunities
• Charting a map of your market, by use or application, and by user community
• Ordering segments for solution definition

       Exercise: Create your market map and the order in which you will take territory.

Summary: Winning a market is like winning a war—first you need a map of the territory

Day Three: Beating the Competition

Achieving Competitive Advantage

• Getting started with an environment scan
• Selecting and implementing one of four fundamental competitive maneuvers
• Focusing the market’s agenda on your competitive differentiation
• Establishing the ultimate competitive weapon: market leadership
• Using online social media tools to reinforce your market leadership

      Exercise: Explore the Technology Marketing Center at www.technologymarketingcenter.com 

Summary: The secret to beating competition is brutal self-analysis and aggressive campaign
execution