Competitive intelligence: know their moves.
Big companies staff this function; you can run it in an hour a month. Public sources, systematically swept and filed, tell you most of what matters about competitors — Perplexity does the sweeping, you do the judging.
01 The dossier, per competitor
One thread (or Space) per competitor that matters, seeded with the standing questions: "Everything public and current on [competitor]: services and positioning, pricing signals, hiring activity, reviews and complaints, recent news. Cited, dated." Save the output as this month's baseline. The dossier isn't for admiring — every section maps to a decision: their pricing informs your quotes, their complaints inform your pitch, their hiring telegraphs their next move.
02 The monthly sweep (one hour, calendared)
Public sources only, no pretexting, no pretending. Websites, reviews, filings, job posts, news — all fair. Fake-customer calls, scraped private groups, misrepresented identity — off the table, and unnecessary: public information, actually read, beats espionage for every small business decision you'll face.
03 From intelligence to action
Each sweep ends with one line: "Given this, what's one thing we should do differently this month?" Sometimes the answer is nothing — fine. But pricing beneath a competitor's public raise, pitching against their review complaints, or moving before their telegraph — those are sweeps that pay for the year. Intelligence without a decision attached is trivia with a filing system.
Build the first dossier for your most direct competitor — the standing questions, baseline saved, sweep date on the calendar. Forty minutes to a function most rivals don't have.
Open Perplexity →This week's challenge
Dossiers for your top three competitors this week, first monthly sweep calendared, and one action item from the baselines. When a competitor's move stops surprising you for the first time, this lesson earned its tier.