If you want to find out what your competition would rather you didn’t know, here are a few insider secrets to help you get the information you really want.
Launch date
Company A heard that Company B was about to launch a product similar to one of theirs. It wanted to know when. This would allow them to run a counter-advertising campaign at the same time as Company B’s, to convince prospective customers that the rival product was no better than theirs just because it was newer. But who had the information?
Someone will always know the answer. The trick is to think who this might be, and assess who is most likely to divulge it.
People in the know would include Company B’s PR company, the press (who may have been sent press releases), other companies in the field, and the Company B’s major customers. There might even be information on Company B’s website about it.
Of course, Company B’s employees would know! Personnel like secretaries and receptionists are often willing to talk, simply because few bosses say to their staff, ‘Do not talk about this, it’s top secret!’
When sleuthing for information, avoid calling the target yourself because it could damage your reputation if you get caught. Instead, ask a colleague not linked to you, or a specialist consultant, to call them up and find out more – but brief them well first.
And call at lunchtime when it is likely that less senior people will answer the phone. They may not have been briefed on what may and may not be divulged, so you could be lucky!
Company A simply asked: ‘We are interested in the press reports about the new product – is there any more information that you could send us?’
They weren’t deterred by a negative response. They asked some other innocuous questions about the product, information that they already knew, then added, ‘This sounds really exciting – when will we be able to get hold of the product in the shops?’
In this case, the secretary released the desired information.
Warehouse capacity
Company C needed to know Company D’s warehouse capacity. Here, the people in the know might be staff in the warehouse (but they tend to be hard to get hold of on the phone, and they could refer you to their boss rather than talk to an unknown caller) and the operations manager, who’d certainly want to know more about who wanted to know, and why.
However, security guards also know about a company’s property, its layout and contents. They work long, unsocial hours and phone calls are a welcome diversion.
What happened? Company C called up at 10pm one Sunday evening. When the security guard answered, Company C asked when the warehouse opened for deliveries – a reasonable question and likely to prompt a request for identification.
Company C then asked, ‘Is it better to be early to beat the queue, or are there enough loading bays to cope with demand?’
The security guard indicated that there were probably enough bays, but the idle question, ‘How many bays are there?’ prompted a specific answer. As the security guard became more expansive, Company C risked asking, ‘Out of curiosity, who else delivers to the warehouse?’ The guard was surprisingly unguarded in his replies!
The moral
Think laterally and you will find the answers you need. Think about who else needs to know the information you’re after. It is often the least likely people who are your best bet.
