Customers vs. Competition: You’re Looking at the Wrong Signal

It’s easy to watch what everyone else is doing. Competitors are loud. They post. They launch. They make noise. It gives you something to measure against, something to worry about, and a single big win for them can overwhelm the market.  

But competitors aren’t where the signal is.

Competitors show movement. Customers show meaning.

The real story lives in what customers are trying to do,  and where they still get stuck. That’s where the opportunity is.

I’ve seen teams spend months reacting to another company’s move, only to realize their buyers didn’t care. They cared about a pain point no one had addressed yet. Listening closer would’ve shown that sooner.

Competitive intel has a place. But it should inform your thinking and identify opportunities to drive real differentiation. The teams that win aren’t the ones who follow noise. They’re the ones who stay close enough to customers to see what’s coming next.