Set up your project
Identifying your competitors
Track the brands that actually win buyer answers, including unexpected category substitutes.
Direct, adjacent, and answer competitors
Direct competitors sell a similar product to a similar customer. Adjacent competitors solve part of the same job. Answer competitors are the brands AI assistants repeatedly recommend for your prompts, even when your team does not consider them a sales competitor.
Build the first list
Start with sales-loss data, comparison calls, search results, review-site categories, and founder knowledge. After the first scan, add recurring unexpected winners and remove brands that never appear or do not belong in the buying decision.
Interpret competitor movement
A competitor’s gain can come from content, third-party mentions, product news, source availability, market differences, or answer variability. Use cited sources and individual results to form a testable explanation before copying tactics.