Market Intelligence & Competitive Positioning

A mid-size civil engineering consultancy was preparing to expand into a new market segment. Leadership had a general sense of the competitive landscape but no structured intelligence to support the move. Proposal win rates sat at 12%, and the team suspected their value proposition wasn't landing with the new target audience.

They needed clarity on three things: who they were really competing against, how those competitors positioned themselves, and what the new segment actually valued when choosing a consultancy.

The core problem wasn't lack of ambition. It was lack of validated information. The expansion decision was being made on assumptions about the market, not evidence. Specifically:

No structured competitor mapping existed beyond anecdotal knowledge

The value proposition had been written for their original segment and never adapted

Proposal content didn't address the specific pain points of the new audience

Win/loss data was tracked but never analyzed for patterns

Phase 1: Competitive Mapping (Week 1) I identified and profiled 8 direct competitors operating in the target segment. For each, I documented: positioning, pricing signals, service scope, client types, public case studies, digital presence strength, and perceived differentiation. Sources included public filings, LinkedIn activity, website audits, SEMrush domain analysis, and industry publications.

Phase 2: Value Proposition Audit (Week 2) I compared the client's current messaging against what the target segment demonstrably valued. This involved analyzing RFP language patterns, interviewing two internal sales leads on win/loss patterns, and benchmarking against the top 3 competitors' positioning.

Phase 3: Strategic Repositioning (Weeks 3-4) Based on the intelligence gathered, I delivered:

A competitive positioning matrix showing where the client had clear advantages and where they were undifferentiated

A rewritten value proposition tailored to the new segment's decision criteria

Proposal template recommendations with specific language changes

A prioritized action plan for the first 90 days post-repositioning

Proposal win rate increased from 12% to 31% within 90 days of implementing the new positioning

8 direct competitors mapped with actionable intelligence profiles

Value proposition rewritten and validated against real market data

Sales team reported significantly higher confidence in proposal conversations

Client secured 3 new contracts in the target segment within the first quarter

Google Analytics, Google Sheets, Notion, Power BI, SEMrush