Interview Question: What Do You Know About Our Competitors?

Where a company stands in the market is important to the company and you. The company cares because their long term outlook depends on either offering a better product or marketing their product better. You care because a company that fairs poorly may not last very long if the other companies manage to show consumers why their products are more effective.

Companies often ask applicants what they know about competitors for three reasons:

• It tells them how much research the applicant performed.
• It tells them how much knowledge the applicant has in that type of product.
• It tells them if they understand the product, by how they compare it to competitors.

How to Answer

You should research the major competitors of the company in order to have a solid answer to this question. Try your best to learn about the competitor’s products as well. When you answer, try to focus on the following:

• Specific feature differences and similarities.
• Projects/improvements in the pipeline.
• Market share and possibly marketing tactics of the company.
• Performance of the product and reviews.

Your answer should avoid the following:

• Simply listing facts and names that show no deeper knowledge.
• Saying anything negative about the company you are applying for.
• Hinting that another company may be better.

Bad Answer

“I know that your lead competitor, OpposiTech, offers a product called the ‘EyeSoar’ that offers similar functionality. I also know that they offer 3 other products and they have a lot of the market.”

These are just listing facts. It is not that impressive an answer.

Good Answer

“From what I have researched, OpposiTech offers the most competitive program to your own. Their software has slightly greater functionality, including the ability to gauge user trends, but their program is not considered user friendly and would take about 3 years of reprogramming to improve ease of use. On the other hand, it appears that your product has the functionality in the pipeline for later this year, so I suspect their share of the market will decrease dramatically before their Ui upgrade is out.”

Here you show much greater knowledge of the product. This is an in depth answer that shows you not only did your research, but you also compared and contrasted, and are intelligent enough to do so effectively.

Take Away Interview Tips

• I forgot to write anything here.

Difficult Interview Question: What Do You Know About Our Competitors?

Every legitimate job interview site talks about how important it is to research the company you are interviewing for. This is important for several reasons:

• Questions about what you know about the company come up all the time in interviews.
• You can tailor your answers to meet the needs of the company.
• Researching the company shows real interest and commitment.
• You should probably have some idea of where the company is going.

Really, there is no limit to the number of reasons that company research is important. However, what many of these sites forget to mention is that you need to research the competitors of the company as well. This presents you with a variety of benefits:

• You can learn where the company is headed and if it is a leader in the field.
• You can see what some companies offer that this one doesn’t.
• You can see what some companies don’t offer that your company does.
• You can answer this job interview question.

Yep, you might be asked what you know about your competitors. If you didn’t look anything up, it’s going to be hard to answer. Your best bet is to highlight the positives about the company you are interviewing for and perhaps mention a negative or two that the company is in the process of rectifying.

Bad Answer

“The software platform of your competitors is known to be a little bit less expensive, but it doesn’t have as many features. I don’t remember its name.”

Good Answer

“According to the Forbes list of top 10 enterprise research software, the only two companies ahead of you are Company X and Company Y. Company X’s design is not nearly as user friendly as your product, but it does have integrated analysis tools which I believe you are in the process of coding, correct? Company Y doesn’t have much of a platform but thanks to their marketing efforts they have pretty extensive brand recognition, but I expect them to fall down in the charts over the next few years.”

This is very specific and shows that you really did your research and pay attention to the field. Don’t mention things you cannot expand upon – for example, if you did not really read the Forbes article but skimmed for that specific talking point, don’t mention it in case the employer wants to discuss the details.

Take Away Interview Tips

• Thoroughly research the company’s competitors, especially their relationship with the company’s products.