COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE CONSULTANCY
GROW
MEASURE
PROTECT
Our payments competitive intelligence service includes 3 key components:
#1 COMPETITOR BENCHMARKING AND MONITORING
Looking for an edge starts with a direct match-up.
We work with clients to establish the comparative criteria, then uncover all of the relevant data.
With this in place, we create different visual frameworks to highlight the comparisons, such as:
- Perceptual maps
- Market positioning grids
- KPI dashboards
- Heat maps
- Spider charts
- Lifecycle curves
- Price-value scatter plots
- Weighted SWOT matrices that are color-coded
…among other options.
The frameworks depend on what you wish to benchmark and what will make the comparisons more visually impactful.
The benchmark reveals your edge over competitors—and where you need to catch up.
Monitoring can help you by updating you on competitor plans, initiatives and launches so you can adjust as needed—and close the gaps to overtake that competitor.
#2 PRICE BENCHMARKING
As with regular benchmarking, the goal is a direct comparison between you and your competitors.
We use the best visual framework to illustrate the differences and look to add nuances and factors that shade in the meaning behind the numbers.
But it’s not just showing what you charge for X service vs. the competition. Our price benchmarking goes further to show:
- Whether competitors are over- or under-priced in terms of perceived value (using customer surveys)
- The component factors (base cost, value adds) of price differentials
- Comparing prices across products, regions and time periods to highlight patterns or anomalies
- Pricing ladders to show differences between tiers in each company
And more.
This approach gives you the intelligence to gauge how solid your pricing strategy is—or make the right strategic adjustments to edge out your competitors.
#3 BEST PRACTICES ANALYSIS
This can be a comparison: how do your practices stack up against a competitor’s?
Or a case study: what are your competitor’s best practices so you can use them?
In either scenario, we sharply define the focus, whether it’s best practices in pricing, technology, customer service, retention tactics, marketing approach, etc.
For a comparison, we conduct thorough research into both your company’s and your competitor’s practices through surveys, in-depth interviews, and secondary data analysis.
For a case study, we focus exclusively on your competitor, dissecting their methods and success factors in the chosen areas of focus.
We then translate each best practice into measurable variables and apply statistical techniques to assess how strongly these practices correlate with superior results. Context is controlled, findings are validated, and a composite ranking of practices is developed.
The outcome is either:
- A “best practices contest” showing how you and your competitor perform across key dimensions, or
- A ranking that highlights which practices make your competitor excel.
Finally, we present the findings through clear visualizations—matrices, charts, or heatmaps—supported by concise written insights that explain the context, nuances, and implications of each result.
NEED TO KNOW MORE?
Contact us for case studies showing how our competitive intelligence services have helped other clients.
Contact us to set up a call to:
1. Review your competitor concerns
2. Determine which competitive intelligence service(s) will deliver the optimal results for your company
FAQ
How can we benchmark our payments business against competitors and keep track of competitive moves over time?
PCMI’s Competitor Benchmarking and Monitoring service helps payments companies compare their performance against competitors using visual frameworks such as perceptual maps, market positioning grids, KPI dashboards, heat maps, spider charts, lifecycle curves, price-value scatter plots, and weighted SWOT matrices. It also helps teams monitor competitor plans, initiatives, and launches so they can adjust strategy and close gaps over time.
How can we benchmark our pricing against competitors and see whether our pricing strategy is actually competitive?
PCMI’s Price Benchmarking service helps payments companies compare their pricing directly against competitors while also evaluating whether competitors are over- or under-priced relative to perceived value, what factors drive price differences, and how prices vary across products, regions, and time periods. This gives companies clearer guidance on whether to defend pricing or make strategic adjustments.
How can we identify the competitor practices that are helping others outperform us in payments?
PCMI’s Best Practices Analysis service helps payments companies compare their own practices with competitors or study a competitor’s approach in focused areas such as pricing, technology, customer service, retention, or marketing. PCMI then translates those practices into measurable variables, tests how strongly they correlate with stronger results, and ranks the practices that appear to matter most.