A 5-MINUTE STORY
The light table: the bar is everything your competitors say, combined
A buyer with four tabs open expects everything all four of them say.
Stack their sites on a light table and the union shows through. Every gap is a question for your team, and every yes becomes a page. Pick the work you want, then scroll.
INTELLIGENCE
FOR EQUIPMENT MAKERS, MARKETING TEAMS AND OWNERS
SCROLL TO LIGHT THE TABLE ↓
AS SAID · KICKOFF, MONDAY 9:00 AM
Four competitors, four sheets of vellum.
Say you build leak-test systems. At kickoff you name the four competitors you run into most. We read each site the way a buyer does and trace it onto its own sheet of vellum: every capability, part type and certification it states, one mark per thing said.
PENCIL: SAID ON A COMPETITOR'S SITE · BLUR: NOT READ YET · INVENTED COMPANIES
NEXT: THE READ ↓THE READ · TUESDAY, 2:15 PM
She reads all four at once.
A test engineer at a defense electronics maker needs helium leak testing for sealed sensor housings. She has four tabs open, and whatever any one of them says becomes part of what she expects. Slide the sheets into register on the light table and the union shows through. Half of everything the group says is said by only one company.
DARKER: SAID BY MORE OF THEM · ONE HATCH: ONE COMPANY ALONE · ILLUSTRATION
NEXT: THE COST ↓THE COST
The bar is the whole stack.
Together, the four sites say 132 distinct things. Traced heavy, that line is the ceiling. You, already the most complete in the group, say 79 of them. Every hatched cell is something she can read on a competitor's site and can't find on yours.
CEILING 132 · YOU 79 · BEST SINGLE COMPETITOR 74 · ILLUSTRATION
INK: SAID ON YOUR SITE · RED HATCH: ON THEIRS, NOT ON YOURS
NEXT: AS BUILT ↓AS BUILT · WEDNESDAY, 8:30 AM · YOUR FLOOR
A gap is a question.
A competitor publishing something doesn't prove it can do it, and leaving something out doesn't mean you can't. Your applications engineer reads the hatched list and stops at helium fine leak. “We built two of those last year. Never wrote it up.” Some gaps turn out to be work the floor already runs. Some are a clear no. Nobody knows which until someone asks.
? = NOT ASKED YET · NEVER A CLAIM ABOUT ANY COMPANY
NEXT: THE QUESTION ROUND ↓THE CHANGE
Every gap becomes one plain question.
Reading your competitors combined happens inside the Buyers Blueprint, our paid onboarding. IKE, our Industrial Knowledge Engine, turns every gap into one question for the Question Round: do you run this? A yes goes on your record with its source. A no is kept as a no, so nobody asks twice.
Nothing goes on your website without your yes.
BLUEPRINT · PAID ONBOARDING · FIRST STEP OF EVERY PROGRAM · SCOPED ON THE REVIEW CALL AFTER THE FREE AUDIT
SEE ALSO · COMPETITOR INTELLIGENCE
NEXT: RELEASED ↓RELEASED
Every yes becomes a page.
Each yes becomes a page title in the plan you approve, holding ground a competitor held alone. Each no stays off the page and on the record. Then the same engineer opens her four tabs again, and yours.
RERUN · YOU SAY 100 OF 132 · 21 PAGE TITLES · 32 KEPT AS NO · ILLUSTRATION
Illustration. A page gets you read. It doesn't promise traffic, and price, lead time and your team still win the order.
NEXT: YOUR TURN ↓EACH SHEET: ONE COMPETITOR'S SITE, TRACED · ILLUSTRATION
| Sheet | Things said |
|---|
| Gap | Said by | Answer | Where it ends |
|---|
Read them combined.
AS BUILT · DRAWN FOR DEFENSE WORK · 21 YES, 21 PAGE TITLES
Every program starts with a Blueprint. Step 2 reads your competitors combined, traces the ceiling, and turns every gap into a question your team can answer. Tell us who you run into most, and we'll show you where your light table would start.
DRAWN FOR DEFENSE WORK · CEILING 132 · SAID 79 TO 100 · 21 PAGE TITLES · ILLUSTRATION
| GAP | ANSWER | WHERE IT ENDS |
|---|
6 OF 53 SHOWN · 17 MORE YES AND 30 MORE NO ON THE FULL SCHEDULE · ILLUSTRATION
General notes
- The companies, people, websites and figures in this story are invented to show a pattern we see often.
- A gap is a question, never a claim about what any company can or can't do.
Check your own
Three yes-or-no checks you can run on your own site on Monday morning.
01 · READ THEM?
Have you read your three closest competitors' sites this year?
Page by page, the way a buyer would.
02 · LIST THE GAPS?
Could you list what they say that you don't?
Capabilities, materials, certifications, industries. Yes if you could write the list today.
03 · ASKED THE FLOOR?
Have you asked your floor whether you do it too?
Each gap is a question. Yes if someone has put each one to the people who run the work.
ANSWER ALL THREE · YOUR ANSWERS STAY ON THIS PAGE
Read them the way she does: all at once.
BLUEPRINT · PAID ONBOARDING · FIRST STEP OF EVERY PROGRAM · SCOPED ON THE REVIEW CALL AFTER THE FREE AUDIT
The Blueprint is paid onboarding and the first step of every program.
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