# Reading competitors from public sources

> An honest competitor scan: what you can learn from public sources, how to check an AI summary, and the line you never cross. Dana applies it to her own tutoring practice.

- Course: [Marketing Strategy: Who to Win and How](https://productovi.com/courses/marketing-strategy.md)
- Module: What does marketing decide, and against what?
- Lesson 3/32, ~25 min
- Source: https://productovi.com/courses/marketing-strategy/reading-competitors-from-public-sources

## A shortcut Alex refuses

**Alex Tutor:** Still at Klasna: you know the real alternatives now. Uliana wants the rivals that families do name, the large online school and the local tutoring center, on one page.

**Uliana:** I want to know what they promise parents and how they sell. Ostap says he can book their sales call pretending to be a parent. Ten minutes and we'd hear their whole pitch.

**Alex Tutor:** No. Posing as a customer to get a rival's pitch is deception, however common it is. So is asking their staff for internal numbers, joining closed groups under a false name, or using a former employee's files.

**Sofia:** Then what's left?

**Alex Tutor:** Plenty. Everything they publish: their site, offer terms and prices, public reviews, job ads, public posts, what comes up when you search the questions parents ask. And honest conversations with families who compared you.

> **Exercise:** Which ways of learning about a rival school are fine for Klasna's team? Select all that apply.

## A routine, not a raid

**Alex Tutor:** Run a **competitor scan** as a routine: three to five alternatives, the same questions for each, every fact with its source and date, and a column for what you couldn't find.

> **Competitor scan: one row per alternative**
>
> | Column | What goes in it |
> |---|---|
> | Alternative | The large online school, a local tutoring center, free videos with a chatbot… |
> | Whom they speak to | Parents, teens, adults, as their own pages show |
> | Main promise | Their headline claim, in their words |
> | Proof they show | Results, reviews, guarantees, as published |
> | Where customers complain | Recurring themes in public reviews, with how many you read |
> | Source and date | Link and the day you checked |
> | Unknown | What you couldn't find out honestly |

**Sofia:** Could an AI assistant do the first pass?

**Alex Tutor:** Yes: give it their public pages and ask for a summary in these columns. Then check every claim against the page itself. Assistants mix up sources and sometimes invent details.

**Uliana:** And nothing about our own families goes into the tool. Public pages in, our customer data stays out.

**Alex Tutor:** Also ask the assistant how it describes Klasna. Parents ask these tools too, and the answer comes from what's written about you on the web.

**Alex Tutor:** So an assistant can help, with rules. Which uses are sound?

> **Exercise:** Uliana wants an AI assistant to help with the scan. Which uses are sound? Select all that apply.

> **Exercise:** Put the steps of a competitor scan in order.

## What the scan tells you

**Uliana:** First finding: every one of them says "experienced tutors" in the headline. So do we.

**Alex Tutor:** Then it's the entry ticket, not a reason to choose. A scan shows you what's already claimed, so you don't build your message on it.

**Uliana:** Second: several of the large school's reviews complain that tutors change mid-course.

**Alex Tutor:** Useful, but it's a clue from a few voices. Note how many reviews you read, then ask Klasna's own families whether a steady tutor matters to them before it goes into any message.

**Alex Tutor:** A second finding came from the reviews. How much weight can it carry?

> **Exercise:** Uliana read 40 public reviews of the large online school; 12 complain that tutors changed mid-course. What should Klasna do with this?

> **Exercise:** The scan shows that every alternative's headline promises "experienced tutors". What does that mean for Klasna?

## Dana's practice

**Alex Tutor:** Now a much smaller business. Dana teaches English at Klasna, and in September she started her own practice for adults: three private students from friends, a social-network profile with a few posts, a messenger channel and some free evenings.

**Dana:** I don't really have competitors. I'm one person with a few evenings.

**Alex Tutor:** Your students had alternatives, though. What would each of them have done without you?

**Dana:** The QA engineer has free group classes at work and uses an AI chatbot for his emails. The one preparing for an English exam for a job abroad looked at a large online school's exam course. And the bakery owner had been putting it off for two years.

**Alex Tutor:** So your market is adults who'd otherwise use free classes at work, a big school's course, or nothing. The same lens as Klasna's, at the size of one person.

**Alex Tutor:** Dana thought she had no competitors. Is that ever true?

> **Exercise:** Dana is one tutor with a few free evenings, so competitive alternatives don't really apply to her practice.

> **Exercise:** Match each of Dana's students' alternatives with a way Dana could be the better choice (a hypothesis to check with the student).

## Dana's line

**Dana:** One more thing. A few Klasna parents have asked me privately whether I'd teach their kids outside the school. Easy clients, right?

**Alex Tutor:** Easy, and against your contract: you never solicit Klasna's families or learners. Not in their chats, not in lessons, not with a quiet discount.

**Dana:** So I point them back to Klasna and find my adults elsewhere.

**Alex Tutor:** Yes. Keeping that line is what lets you do both jobs with a clear conscience. Your scan also has a line: public sources and honest questions, nothing else.

> **Exercise:** Dana may post in a Klasna parents' chat that she has free evening slots, as long as she doesn't mention a price.

## Your turn: one hour a month

**Dana:** I can spare maybe one hour a month for this. What should that hour look like?

**Alex Tutor:** Write it for her as a routine: which alternatives to watch, which public sources, one thing she never does, and how she checks an AI summary.

**Sofia:** Short enough to fit an evening, then.

**Alex Tutor:** Yes. A routine she'll actually keep beats a perfect one she won't.

> **Exercise:** Write Dana's monthly one-hour competitor-scan routine in 3–5 short lines: which alternatives she watches, which public sources she uses, one thing she never does, and how she checks an AI summary.

> **Key ideas**
>
> - A **competitor scan** uses public sources only: sites, offer terms, prices, public reviews, job ads, public posts, search results, and honest questions to your own customers.
> - Never pose as a customer, ask a rival's staff for internal information, join closed groups under a false name or use a former employee's files.
> - Keep the same columns for every alternative, a source and date for every fact, and a column for what you don't know.
> - AI assistants can do a first pass on public pages; check every claim against the page, and keep customer data out.
> - What everyone claims is an entry ticket, not a reason to choose.
> - A one-person business uses the same lens: Dana's market is what her students would do without her.

**Alex Tutor:** Next lesson, back at Klasna: the module's case. You'll rewrite Uliana's situation row before it goes to Leo.

- Previous lesson: [Who you really compete with](https://productovi.com/courses/marketing-strategy/who-you-really-compete-with.md)
- Next lesson: [Case: the situation row](https://productovi.com/courses/marketing-strategy/the-situation-row-case.md)

---
Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.