The very first things that investors, analysts and potential partners want to know about your company have to do with听revenue, run rates, net sales, operating income and a bevy of other financial data. They听are the best barometer of success and are valued more than most anything else. They are highly regulated and guarded. And they鈥檙e exactly what you want to get your hands on when building your competitor profiles.

A simple web search can show you almost everything you want to know about a specific public company. I

nformation on private companies, however, can be much more difficult to find听and, if you do find competitor financial data online, there鈥檚 no guarantee that it鈥檚 accurate.听Competitive intelligence is about the collection and analysis of a lot of information from multiple data points.

The internet, your emails, wikis and Slack channels are full of bits and scraps that product marketers and analysts must gather and curate to develop an accurate and holistic understanding of the competitive landscape鈥攖he valuable, actionable insights are the sum of many thousands of parts.

I鈥檝e previously offered some basic tips for uncovering competitive intelligence online. Today I鈥檓 going further, with some sources for financial intel on your rivals, as well as some clever ways to build a complete competitor profile by putting it all together.

Uncovering competitor financial data on acquisitions, funding and revenue

:听An听aggregate of useful business information on companies all over the world. Information is submitted听by registered public members and听subject to review by a moderator before being accepted.
笔谤辞蝉:听Includes figures from both public and non-public companies
Cons:听Financial intel is limited. They don鈥檛 offer much beyond revenue, funding and acquisitions
Best used for:听Basic financial information
Is the data reliable? 听Yes!听I鈥檝e fact checked their numbers dozens of times and found that they are almost always up to date and accurate.
They compile all the important bits you would normally find on a financial statement.听Figures can be tracked over time. They also offer handy visualization tools.
笔谤辞蝉:听They track nearly everything you would find on a financial statement and you can view trends over time.
Cons:听Insights seem to be focused on public companies.
Best used听for:听In-depth financial intel (Revenue, EPS, Net Income, Dividends, Valuations, etc), Public companies
Is the data reliable? Reliable.听Their figures seem to be pulled directly from financial statements, so they are almost always correct
: Information from and Crunchbase, in addition to crawling the web for relevant content. There have been occasions where they have had information that听wasn鈥檛 available on Crunchbase.
Pros:听They compile figures from both public and non-public companies
Cons:听You must sign up and actually pay to view some of their more advanced figures
Best used for:听Basic financial information (Revenue, funding, acquisitions)
Is the data reliable? Mostly. There have been a few times when their figures weren鈥檛 up to date.
痴叠辫谤辞蹿颈濒别蝉听&补尘辫;听Pros: They compile figures from both public and non-public companies
Cons:听Beyond 鈥渇unding鈥� information, they don鈥檛 display any sort of additional financial intelBest used for:听Funding
Is the data reliable?听Mostly.

Uncovering competitor financial data on pricing

Pricing information is rarely shared on enterprise tech websites, but there are a variety of ways you can find unofficial prices online.

  1. Advanced Google search (Company name + pricing): A fairly obvious solution, yet it sometimes is very effective. It can be as easy as uncovering a price page not listed on the main site navigation, or you may end up in the forums or comments section of an industry site. Unwitting customers sometimes share this intel in blog posts, PDFs and PowerPoints.
  2. G2Crowd, Get App, TrustRadius: These websites compile user reviews for thousands of software products. Search for a particular company on any of these websites. Use the 鈥渟elect all鈥� shortcut key to select all of the text on a particular page, and then the 鈥淔ind鈥� shortcut key to search through all of the text you鈥檝e selected. Search for听鈥淧rice,鈥� 鈥淧ricing,鈥� or 鈥�$.鈥澨�

Uncovering competitor financial data on targets and sales

You can accurately estimate rival sales targets and actuals by collecting and combining figures publicly posted on , , and other employment-related websites. We worked with one client recently to buildout a听near complete analysis of EU sales in 2015 based solely on the LinkedIn profiles of it鈥檚 Regional Sales Directors and other accounts team members.

Mistakes are made and things like profit and investor reports can end up in an unsecured section of a website. Charts and tables might not be redacted from public-facing presentations. Customers may post sensitive information publicly without meaning to give anything away. The point is that it鈥檚 difficult, if not impossible, to secure every piece of content when the market demands accessibility and transparency. As you work through these sources, tools and tips, remember to test your own exposure. You might be surprised what you find.