Competitor engagement without creeping people out

A buyer liking your competitor's post tells you something real. Saying so in your opener is how you lose them.

Use the signal to decide who to write to and when. Then write about their problem, not about what you saw them click.

What the signal means

When a buyer comments on a competitor's post, attends their webinar or follows their page, they're thinking about the problem that competitor solves. Maybe actively. Maybe just curious.

That's useful. It tells you the topic is on their mind right now. It sits in the middle of the signal list, above funding and tech stack and below hiring and engagement with you.

But it's a weak signal alone. People like posts for a hundred reasons. A friend wrote it. The photo was good. They were bored on a train.

Stack it with something stronger before you act.

Where it gets creepy

The creepy version sounds like this. "I noticed you liked a post from one of our competitors about cloud migration."

Read that from the buyer's side. Someone you don't know has been watching what you click on, and they're telling you about it. That's surveillance, not research.

It's different from naming a job post or a 10-K. Those are things the company put out on purpose. A like is a small personal action, and people don't expect it to show up in a sales email.

The rule is simple. If the buyer published it for the world to read, you can name it. If it's a trace of their personal activity, don't.

How to use it well

Use it for timing. A buyer engaging with a competitor's content on migration this month is a good reason to move their account up your list this month.

Use it for topic. If they're engaging with content about data governance, that tells you which hypothesis to test. You don't have to say how you knew.

And use it as one of several. Competitor engagement plus a new leader plus three job posts on a data platform is a strong account. Competitor engagement alone is a maybe. The buying signals guide explains how they roll up to the account.

An example

Say a VP of data at a health plan has commented on two posts from a competitor about data governance. Her company recently posted for a data governance lead, and the last 10-K mentions new regulatory reporting requirements.

You don't mention the comments. You write about the public signals.

Your team just posted for a data governance lead, and the 10-K flags new regulatory reporting the plan has to meet. Those two usually land on the same desk, and the governance work gets rushed to hit the reporting date. My guess is the definitions still differ across the claims and member systems. Is that close, or is the harder part something else?

The competitor engagement told you to write now and what to write about. The opener stands on public facts. She never has to wonder what else you've been watching.

When a buyer talks about a competitor in public

There's one exception. If a buyer writes their own post about working with a competitor, or speaks about it at a conference, that's public. They chose to share it.

You still shouldn't attack the competitor. But you can acknowledge it. "You spoke about the governance program at the conference" is fine. It's their story to tell.

And be careful. A buyer who publicly praised a partner isn't looking to replace them. Look for the gap that partner isn't covering, or wait for a change.

Watch who follows, not just who clicks

A related signal is who follows a competitor's company page. A cluster of people from one account following a competitor in the same few weeks can mean a vendor search is starting. That's worth a closer look, and it's covered in the next piece in this series.

Use competitor engagement to choose your timing and your topic. Keep it out of the message, and nobody feels watched.