Sharing Literature Through the Competitors Screen

Salespeople find it useful to view their competitors’ literature or to view literature that your company has prepared that compares your products with your competitors. If you associate literature with a competitor, then users can view this literature when they view the competitor record in the Competitors screen.

To share literature through the Competitors screen, you must associate it with a competitor. You must also decide whether to select the Internal flag, which determines whether it appears in the Comparative Literature List or the Competitive Literature list of the Competitors screen:

  • If you select the Internal flag, then the literature appears in the Comparative Literature list, and it is not available as an enclosure in the Correspondence screen.

  • If you do not select the Internal flag, then the literature appears in the Competitive Literature list, and it is available as an enclosure in the Correspondence screen.

Whether you select Internal depends on the type of literature:

  • Competitors’ literature. Your salespeople might want to use literature produced by competitors, such as sales brochures, to help them compare your products with the products of competitors. However, you do not want to distribute this literature outside your company. Select Internal, so the literature is not available in the Enclosures list of the Correspondence screen, but it appears in the Comparative Literature in the Competitors screen.

  • Comparative literature for internal use. You might develop comparative literature internally, such as competitive intelligence, that is meant for use by your salespeople and that you do not want to distribute outside your company. Select Internal, so the literature is not available in the Enclosures list of the Correspondence screen, but it appears in Comparative Literature in the Competitors screen.

  • Comparative literature for external use. You might develop comparative literature internally that is aimed at your customers, or you might have third party comparative reports that you want to distribute to your customers. Do not select Internal, so the literature is available in the Enclosures list of the Correspondence screen, and it also appears in Competitive Literature in the Competitors screen.

To share literature through the Competitors screen

  1. Navigate to the Administration - Document screen, then the Literature view.

  2. In the Literature list, select a literature record, or create a new literature record.

  3. In the More Info form, select the competitors in the Competitors field.

    When users display this competitor record in the Competitors screen, they are able to see the literature in the Comparative Literature list if you select the Internal field in the More Info form or in the Competitive Literature list if you do not select this field.