Competitors

When you lose a deal to a competitor, that information is valuable. Tracking which competitors win, how often, and in which situations helps you understand your market position and time re-engagement for maximum impact.

This article covers how competitor tracking works in Rizer, how to set it up, and how to use competitive data to win back lost deals.

Why track competitors

Lost deals contain competitive intelligence. Every time a prospect chooses someone else, you learn something about your market position — if you capture and analyze the data.

Competitor tracking helps you:

See patterns you’d otherwise miss. Anecdotally, you might think you lose to Competitor X a lot. But is it really a lot? More than Competitor Y? More this year than last? Data replaces gut feelings with facts.
Understand where you’re strong and weak. Maybe you win against Competitor A when selling your enterprise product but lose when selling your starter tier. That product-level view reveals positioning opportunities.
Time re-engagement strategically. If you know a prospect signed a one-year contract with a competitor last March, you can set your callback for February — right when they’re evaluating whether to renew.
Craft better re-engagement messaging. When you reach back out, you can address the specific competitor they chose. “I know you went with Competitor X — how’s that been working out?” opens a different conversation than a generic follow-up.
Spot market shifts. If a competitor that used to win occasionally is suddenly winning a lot, something changed. Maybe they improved their product, cut prices, or got better at sales. Trend data helps you respond.

The competitors

The main view of your competitive data lives at Competitors.

What you’ll see

The report displays a table with your competitive win/loss data:

Competitor products — The competitor’s specific product or offering that won the deal. If you’ve mapped their products, you’ll see names like “Competitor X – Enterprise” rather than just “Competitor X.”
Satisfaction — If captured during recycling, how satisfied the prospect seemed with their choice. This helps prioritize re-engagement — unhappy customers are warmer targets.
Our product — Which of your products the competitor beat. This shows you the specific competitive matchup.
Losses — Number of deals lost to this competitor/product combination.
Amount lost — Total value of deals lost to this competitor.

The report is sortable. Click column headers to sort by number of losses, amount lost, or alphabetically by competitor name.

Filtering the report

Narrow down the data using filters:

Product filter — See competitive data for specific products. Useful when you want to understand the competitive landscape for one part of your business.

Reading the data

The report answers questions like:

Who are we losing to most often?
Which competitor is costing us the most revenue?
Which of our products face the most competitive pressure?
Are competitive losses increasing or decreasing?

Look for concentrations. If one competitor accounts for 50% of your competitive losses, that’s where to focus your competitive strategy. If losses are spread evenly across many competitors, you might have a different kind of problem — maybe positioning or differentiation issues.

Drilling into details

Click the arrow next to any competitor row to expand and see the individual deals:

Company name
Deal value
Lost date
Contact information
Current recycling status

This drill-down shows you exactly which prospects chose that competitor. When it’s time to re-engage — say, around contract renewal time — you have a ready-made list.

Setting up competitors

Before you can track competitive losses, you need to configure your competitors in Rizer.

During onboarding

When you first set up Rizer, the onboarding wizard includes a competitors step. The AI scans your HubSpot deal history and suggests competitors it found mentioned in deal notes.

For each suggested competitor, you can:

Accept it (it’s a real competitor)
Edit the name (clean up how it appears)
Remove it (it’s not actually a competitor)
Add their products
Map to your products

This gives you a starting point based on your actual data.

Adding competitors later

To add a competitor after onboarding:

Go to Competitors
Click + Competitor
Enter the competitor’s company name
Click Save

The competitor now appears in dropdown lists when recycling deals.

Adding competitor products

Each competitor can have multiple products. Adding these enables more granular tracking — you can see that you lose to “Competitor X – Enterprise” differently than “Competitor X – Starter.”

To add a competitor’s products:

Go to Competitors (or access from the report)
Find the competitor and click the menu icon
Click Edit
In the Products section, click + Product
Enter the product name
Select which of your products this competes with
Click Save

Mapping competitor products to your products

Product mapping connects their offerings to yours. This enables reporting that shows specific matchups — “When we sell Product A, we lose to Competitor X’s Enterprise product 60% of the time.”

When adding a competitor product:

Enter the competitor product name
Select which of your products it competes with
You can select multiple products if their offering competes across your line

The mapping doesn’t have to be perfect. If you’re not sure, make your best guess. You can always update it later.

Recording competitor information when recycling

Competitor data gets captured when you recycle a deal. Here’s how to record it properly.

The competitor section

When recycling a deal — whether from HubSpot or Rizer — you’ll see a competitor information section in the form.

Solution type

First, indicate what the prospect chose instead of you:

Competitor — They chose a named competitor you can identify.
In-house solution — They decided to build their own rather than buy.
No solution — They decided not to solve the problem at all.
Unknown — You don’t know what they chose.

Only select “Competitor” if you actually know who won. If you’re guessing, “Unknown” is more honest and keeps your data clean.

Competitor name

If they chose a competitor, select which one from the dropdown. This shows competitors you’ve configured in Rizer.

If the competitor isn’t in your list, you can add them on the fly:

Click + Add new
Enter the competitor name
The new competitor is created and selected

Competitor product

If you know which specific product they chose, select it. This dropdown shows products you’ve configured for the selected competitor.

If you don’t know the specific product, leave it blank. Some data is better than no data — you can still track that you lost to the competitor even without product-level detail.

Satisfaction

How satisfied does the prospect seem with their choice? Options typically range from very satisfied to very dissatisfied, with options in between.

This is subjective — based on what you’ve heard or inferred. Maybe the prospect mentioned concerns during the sales process. Maybe you’ve heard through the grapevine that the implementation isn’t going well.

Satisfaction helps prioritize re-engagement. A prospect who’s unhappy with their choice is much warmer than one who’s thrilled.

If you don’t know, leave it blank or select a neutral option.

Contract timing

If you know when the competitor contract started or when it renews, record it:

Contract start date — When they signed with the competitor.
Renewal date — When the contract comes up for renewal.

This information is gold for timing re-engagement. If you know they signed a one-year contract in March, you can set your callback for January or February — right when they’re starting to think about renewal.

Even approximate dates help. “Sometime in Q1” is better than no information at all.

Competitor reporting deep dive

Overall competitive landscape

Start with the big picture:

How many deals did you lose to competitors (vs. other reasons)?
Who are your top 3-5 competitors by deal count?
Who are your top 3-5 competitors by revenue lost?

These might be different lists. Losing many small deals to Competitor A might matter less than losing a few huge deals to Competitor B.

Trends over time

Use date filters to compare periods:

Are you losing more or fewer deals to competitors this year vs. last?
Is any particular competitor gaining or losing ground?
Are there seasonal patterns?

Trends reveal whether your competitive position is improving or declining.

Product-level analysis

Filter by your products to see matchup-specific data:

Which of your products face the most competition?
Which competitors target which products?
Where are you strongest and weakest competitively?

This might reveal that your enterprise product wins against Competitor A while your SMB product loses. That’s actionable information for positioning and sales training.

Owner-level analysis

Filter by sales rep to see individual patterns:

Do certain reps lose to certain competitors more than others?
Are there coaching opportunities based on competitive gaps?
Do some reps have competitive advantages to share with the team?

Be thoughtful here — different reps might work different territories or deal sizes, which affects competitive dynamics.

Win-back success by competitor

Cross-reference competitor data with recycling success:

Which competitors have the best win-back rates?
Are certain competitors easier to unseat than others?
What’s the typical time to win-back for each competitor?

This helps prioritize. If you historically win back 20% of deals lost to Competitor A but only 5% from Competitor B, focus your re-engagement effort on Competitor A losses.

Competitors and missing features

Competitor tracking connects to missing feature tracking in an important way.

Sometimes you lose to a competitor because they have a feature you don’t. When recycling:

Record the competitor information (who won)
Also record the missing feature (what they have that you don’t)

This creates a complete picture: “We lost to Competitor X because they have Feature Y.”

When Feature Y ships, those deals become ready for callback. You can reach out with a message that addresses both: “We’ve built [Feature Y] — I know that was why you went with [Competitor X]. Worth another conversation?”

Common questions

What if I don’t know which competitor won?

If you know it was a competitor but don’t know which one, you can still record “Switched to: Competitor” and leave the specific competitor blank. This captures that it was a competitive loss even without the detail.

What if the competitor isn’t in my list?

You can add competitors on the fly during recycling. When selecting a competitor, click + Add new to create one. You can fill in product details later.

Should I track every competitor or just major ones?

Track competitors you encounter regularly. If you lose one deal to a tiny competitor you’ve never heard of, you might skip adding them. If they come up again, add them.

The goal is useful data, not an exhaustive database. Focus on competitors that matter to your business.

How do I know if satisfaction data is accurate?

Satisfaction is inherently subjective. It’s based on what you’ve observed or heard. The prospect might seem unhappy during the sales process but turn out to be perfectly satisfied later, or vice versa.

Use satisfaction as one signal among many, not a definitive measure. If a prospect explicitly told you they have concerns about the competitor, that’s more reliable than your impression.

How far back does competitor data go?

Competitor data goes back as far as your recycled deals do. If you recycled deals from two years ago and recorded competitor information, it’s in the report.

Historical data from before you started using Rizer won’t have competitor information unless you go back and add it to already-recycled deals.

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