Map the competitive landscape

By the end of this task, you will be able to compare market alternatives, identify buying drivers, and produce a fact-based competitive narrative that holds up in front of a procurement team.

Your situation

Lidia Holloway has asked for a competitive benchmark in each of the last two pricing cycles and has not received one. Her words on the January call: "I need something I can put beside two other quotes without having to build it myself."

Meanwhile Isaiah Langer already has a Northline Courier trial running on Western volume. The comparison is happening whether you write it or not.

Files you'll use

How to read the prompts

Each prompt below is one block you can copy whole. The # lines are labels, not instructions — they mark where the prompt stops setting the goal and starts giving the context, the sources, and the expectations. Copying them along with the prompt does no harm.

Those four moves, in that order, are what makes a prompt work. Use the same shape when you write your own.

Steps

1. Open Copilot Chat and attach the four files above.

2. Ask for the comparison, framed around this customer rather than the market in general.

   goal

   Build a competitive comparison covering Canada Post and the three alternative carriers in the attached landscape file.

   context

   The customer is Tailwind Traders, who run five distribution centres across Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, British Columbia, and New Brunswick. Their procurement manager wants something she can put beside two other quotes, and one of these carriers is already trialling their Western volume.

   sources

   Use only the attached files.

   expectations

   Give me a comparison table with one row per dimension that matters to a five-site national distributor, then a short paragraph per carrier on where they would beat us with this specific customer. Do not soften our weaknesses.

3. Now anchor the comparison to what the customer actually said they care about — not what we would prefer they cared about.

   goal

   Rank the buying drivers for this deal using only what the customer has actually said.

   context

   It is easy to rank on what we are good at, but I need the ranking the customer would recognize.

   sources

   Use the discovery call notes and the account files, and quote them.

   expectations

   Give me a ranked list where each driver carries the quote or note it comes from and how Canada Post currently performs against it. If we perform badly on a top driver, say so plainly.

4. Test the position. If the argument only works when you pick the ground, it will not survive the review.

   goal

   Argue the other side.

   context

   Isaiah Langer wants to move Western volume to Northline Courier and will make his case at the March review.

   sources

   Use the attached files.

   expectations

   Write his three strongest arguments, using our own performance data against us, and then the most honest response Canada Post can give to each - not the most flattering one. Mark any response that depends on something we have not yet confirmed.

5. Ask Copilot to assemble the brief.

   goal

   Turn this into a competitive brief I can attach to the March proposal.

   context

   The audience is Tailwind’s procurement manager, who is procedural rather than hostile and will check what she can.

   sources

   Use everything in this conversation.

   expectations

   Structure it as a one-paragraph summary, the comparison table, the ranked buying drivers, where we are strong, where we are not, and what remains unverified. Under two pages, with no marketing language.

6. Save the brief to Word. Task 7 uses it directly.

Check your work

• The comparison table covers coverage, reliability, reporting, returns, and pricing structure.
• Every buying driver traces to something the customer actually said.
• The brief states where Canada Post is weak, in plain language.
• Competitor figures are labelled as published or reported, not verified.
• Nothing in it would embarrass you if the customer read it.

Stretch prompts

Starting out:

Compare Canada Post with the three carriers in the attached
file across coverage, reliability, and pricing. Put it in a
table and keep it to one page.

Comfortable:

Using the attached files, identify the one dimension where
Canada Post is clearly the only viable option for a five-site
national distributor, and the one dimension where we are
clearly behind. Support both with specifics.

Confident:

Build the competitive brief, then write the two-sentence
answer I give if Lidia asks: "Why should I not just split
this - Northline in the West, you everywhere else?" Make the
answer honest rather than defensive, and tell me what it
costs us to concede the point.