KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Law 2 named the five core data points. This article gives you the full operational set: 23 data points across review, permit, web, hiring, and pricing intelligence.
- The full discipline takes 90 minutes the first run, 60 minutes weekly thereafter. All sources are free and public.
- A reusable spreadsheet structure with one row per competitor and 23 columns. Build it once, refresh it weekly, and three months in it becomes a real intelligence document.
- The most useful data points are not the obvious ones. Hiring posts, GBP photo upload cadence, and review-response rate reveal more about a competitor’s trajectory than total review count.
- Every data point you collect must produce a decision within seven days. The one-week rule prevents the discipline from becoming the trap.
ARTICLE NAVIGATION
- Why You Are Doing This
- Setup: The Spreadsheet Structure
- Review Intelligence (6 data points)
- Permit Intelligence (4 data points)
- Web Intelligence (5 data points)
- Hiring Intelligence (4 data points)
- Pricing Intelligence (4 data points)
- The Weekly Refresh Cadence
- Common Mistakes
- What to Do Monday Morning
- Frequently Asked Questions
This is the tactical companion to Law 2: Count What Your Competitors Will Not. Law 2 named the five core data points. This article gives you the full operational set: 23 data points organized into five categories, with sources, refresh cadence, and the spreadsheet structure that holds it all together. If you have not read Law 2, read it first.
Why You Are Doing This
Law 2 made the case for systematic competitor intelligence and named the five most important data points. That is enough to start. It is not enough to run the discipline at full strength.
The full operational set is 23 data points across five categories. Some refresh weekly. Some refresh monthly. Some refresh quarterly. The cadence matters because intelligence has a shelf life, and tracking everything weekly is wasted work for data that does not move that fast.
The spreadsheet you build today will hold this work for the next three years if you maintain it. By month six the patterns become visible. By month twelve the patterns become predictive. By month twenty-four you will know more about your three largest competitors than they know about themselves.
Setup: The Spreadsheet Structure
Time required: 30 to 45 minutes for the first build, 15 to 25 minutes weekly to maintain.
Tools required: Google Sheets or Excel, free.
Open Google Sheets or Excel. Create a new spreadsheet titled Competitor Intelligence – 2026 or similar. Build it with one row per competitor and 23 columns plus three header columns. Three competitors is the recommended starting count. More than five becomes unmanageable. Less than three does not give you enough comparative data to spot patterns.
The three header columns are: Competitor Name, Website URL, Date Last Updated. The 23 data columns split into five categories, organized in the order I will walk through below.
Format the date column as a date. Format any percentage columns as percentages. Use color coding sparingly. Green for “trending up,” red for “trending down,” yellow for “no movement.” The visual signal helps you scan the sheet during the weekly refresh and immediately see what changed.
Save the spreadsheet somewhere you can find it from any device. Google Sheets is recommended over Excel for this reason: you can pull it up from your phone in the field if you need to check a competitor’s status mid-bid.
Review Intelligence (6 Data Points)
Source: Google Maps and Google Business Profile (free).
Refresh cadence: Weekly for the count and velocity points, monthly for the response and content points.
1. Total Google review count
The headline number. Pull it directly from each competitor’s Google Business Profile. Record the integer.
2. Reviews added this month
The growth rate. The single most important data point in this entire article. A competitor adding 10 reviews per month is gaining ground three times faster than one adding 3 per month, regardless of which has more total reviews. Calculate by subtracting last month’s total from this month’s total. Track in its own column.
3. Average star rating
The aggregate rating Google displays. Pull the number to one decimal point.
4. Star rating drift over recent reviews
Compare the average rating of the most recent 20 reviews against the all-time average. A 4.7-star competitor whose recent 20 reviews average 4.2 is in trouble. A 4.4-star competitor whose recent 20 reviews average 4.8 is on the rise. The drift reveals the trend the headline number hides.
5. Review response rate
What percentage of reviews has the competitor responded to? Look at the most recent 20 reviews. Count how many have an owner response visible. Divide. A competitor responding to 90% of reviews is investing in their reputation. A competitor responding to 10% is not.
6. Common complaint themes
Read the most recent 10 reviews that scored 1, 2, or 3 stars. Note the patterns. Are customers complaining about pricing? Communication? Quality? Scheduling? The pattern in their negative reviews tells you exactly where their operation is weakest, which is exactly the ground you can take from them.
Permit Intelligence (4 Data Points)
Source: Your county’s permit search portal (free, public).
Refresh cadence: Monthly is enough. Quarterly is acceptable.
Most U.S. counties make residential and commercial permit filings publicly searchable online. Search “[your county] permit search” or “[your county] inspections” in Google. The portal is almost always run by the county building or planning department. If your county does not have a public search portal, the data is still available through a public records request, but the online portal is the easier path.
7. Permits filed last 30 days
Search by contractor name. Count permits filed in the last 30 days. This is the most current view of competitor activity available.
8. Permits filed last 90 days
Same search, broader window. Quarterly volume smooths out the weekly noise of permit timing and gives you a cleaner read on actual contract flow.
9. Permit value totals
Most permit databases include a job value or estimated cost field. Sum the values of permits in the 90-day window. A competitor with 30 permits totaling $400K is a different operator than a competitor with 30 permits totaling $1.2M. Average ticket size matters.
10. Permit zip code distribution
Where are their permits clustering? Cross-reference this with your own terrain map from Law 1. If a competitor is concentrating permits in your top three zip codes, that is a direct competitive threat. If they are concentrating in zips you are abandoning, that is useful information about market division.
Web Intelligence (5 Data Points)
Source: Competitor’s website plus Google search results (free).
Refresh cadence: Monthly for the website points, quarterly for the SEO position points.
11. Last website update
Look for a “last updated” date in their site footer, blog post dates, or visible content changes. A competitor whose website has not changed in 18 months is not actively investing in their digital position. A competitor publishing content monthly is. The gap between the two compounds over years.
12. Number of service-specific pages
Count the pages on their site dedicated to specific services or service areas. A competitor with 4 pages (home, about, services, contact) is operating a brochure site. A competitor with 30 pages including dedicated landing pages for each service in each major zip code is operating a fortified web position. Same trade, completely different web strategy.
13. Google Business Profile last post date
Check their GBP and look at the most recent post. A competitor who has not posted in 14 months is signaling neglect to Google. A competitor posting weekly is investing in local search positioning. This is one of the highest-value, lowest-effort data points to track.
14. GBP photo upload cadence
Most GBPs show a photo upload activity feed. Note the date of the most recent photo and the rough frequency. Active competitors upload weekly or biweekly. Dormant competitors uploaded their last photo eight months ago.
15. Top organic search rankings
Search Google for the 5 most important keywords in your trade and service area. Note where your top 3 competitors rank. A competitor ranking in the top 3 for “[trade] [city]” is taking organic traffic that you could be capturing. A competitor not ranking in the top 10 is leaving the position open.
If 23 data points across 5 categories is more discipline than you have time to maintain, the Echelon Intelligence Report ($197) compiles all of this data on your top competitors plus your own market position into a single classified-style document. The report exists for the owner who agrees the work matters but knows he will not run the spreadsheet weekly. Link is at the bottom of this article. Keep reading.
Hiring Intelligence (4 Data Points)
Source: Indeed, ZipRecruiter, the competitor’s careers page if they have one (free).
Refresh cadence: Monthly.
Hiring data is one of the cleanest leading indicators in residential contracting. A competitor running three installer ads on Indeed for 30 days is a competitor who landed three contracts and needs to staff them. A competitor running zero hiring ads for six straight months is not growing. Most contractors never check this. The signal is loud, free, and ignored.
16. Open hiring posts
Search Indeed for the competitor’s name. Count open job listings. Note the roles. Three installer roles plus a sales role plus an office manager is a different competitor than three installer roles plus nothing else.
17. Hiring frequency over the last 6 months
Most Indeed listings show how long they have been posted. Note posts that are older than 30 days, which suggests difficulty filling. A competitor with 4 installer ads that have been live 60+ days is signaling growth combined with hiring difficulty, which usually means stretched operations and degraded delivery.
18. Salary or wage transparency in posts
Some posts show pay ranges. Note them. A competitor offering $28-$32/hour for installers in your market is setting the wage floor that your own hiring will compete against. This is operational intelligence you cannot get any other way without making 50 phone calls.
19. Benefits mentioned in posts
What benefits do the postings advertise? Health insurance, retirement, vehicle allowance, training reimbursement, performance bonuses. Compare to what you offer. The competitor offering benefits you do not is taking your future hires before you ever meet them.
Pricing Intelligence (4 Data Points)
Source: Mystery quote requests, marketing materials, social media posts (free, requires effort).
Refresh cadence: Quarterly.
Pricing intelligence is the one category that requires real work. The other 19 data points sit on the public internet waiting to be counted. Pricing data has to be solicited or extracted. The investment is worth it because price is the single number that most directly reflects positioning, margin discipline, and confidence.
20. Mystery quote on a representative job
Once a quarter, request a quote from each top competitor for a representative job in your trade. Use a friend or family member’s house if you can. Be honest in the request, just do not identify yourself as a competitor. The quote tells you exactly where they are pricing relative to you. Some owners feel uncomfortable doing this. The discomfort is misplaced. Mystery shopping is standard practice in retail and hospitality. It is unusual in contracting only because contractors do not do it, not because there is anything wrong with it.
21. Promotional pricing or discount frequency
Note any “specials” or “limited time offers” the competitor advertises through social media, email, or paid ads. A competitor running constant 15% off promotions is signaling either margin pressure or aggressive market positioning. Track the frequency.
22. Financing options offered
What financing partnerships does the competitor advertise? GreenSky, Synchrony, Service Finance, in-house financing, or none? Financing options drive close rates on premium-tier work. A competitor offering 0% for 18 months is closing jobs you might be losing on the price discussion alone.
23. Average ticket size estimate
Cross-reference permit values divided by permit count to estimate average ticket size. Compare to your own. A competitor whose average ticket is $18K when yours is $11K is operating in a different segment of the market, even if you both call yourselves the same trade. The ticket size tells you what positioning they are actually executing on.
The Weekly Refresh Cadence
Not all 23 data points refresh at the same rate. The discipline only works if you match the cadence to the data.
Weekly (15 to 25 minutes): Total review count, reviews added this month, average rating, review response rate, GBP last post date.
Monthly (30 to 45 minutes): Star rating drift, common complaint themes, permits filed last 30 days, last website update, GBP photo upload cadence, open hiring posts, hiring frequency.
Quarterly (60 to 90 minutes): Permits filed last 90 days, permit value totals, permit zip code distribution, number of service-specific pages, top organic search rankings, salary transparency, benefits mentioned, mystery quote, promotional pricing frequency, financing options, average ticket size estimate.
Block the time on your calendar. Friday morning before the workday is the most common slot. The weekly 25 minutes plus the monthly 45 minutes plus the quarterly 90 minutes adds up to roughly 4 hours per quarter, or 16 hours per year. That is the entire investment to operate at the level Walton operated at. Not 16 hours a week. 16 hours a year.
Common Mistakes
Tracking too many competitors. Three is the right number. Five is the maximum. Tracking ten dilutes the signal and turns the work into noise. The three biggest competitors in your service area are the ones whose decisions affect your business. Smaller players come and go.
Refreshing everything weekly. Permit data does not change weekly. Salary postings do not change weekly. Refreshing data that has not moved is wasted time and creates the illusion of work without the substance. Match the cadence to the data.
Collecting data without writing notes. The numbers themselves are not the intelligence. Your interpretation is the intelligence. Add a notes column to your spreadsheet and write a sentence each week summarizing what changed and why it matters. Without the interpretation column, you have a database. With it, you have a living document.
Failing to act within seven days. The one-week rule from Law 2. Any data point that signals a decision needs to produce that decision inside one week. If you notice a competitor’s review velocity tripled and you do not respond by launching your own review campaign within seven days, the intelligence was wasted.
Comparing yourself to the wrong competitor. Your top three competitors are the ones taking the customers you want, not necessarily the ones at your revenue tier. A $500K shop with great review velocity in your three target zips is more relevant to your strategy than a $5M shop in a different segment. Pick the right three.
What to Do Monday Morning
You have the structure. Three actions for the first week:
Build the spreadsheet today. 30 to 45 minutes. Three competitors, 23 data columns plus three header columns, formatted with date columns and color coding. Save it where you can pull it up from any device. The structure is more important than the initial data fill. You can complete the data over the next week as you go.
Block 60 minutes on your calendar this Friday for the first full refresh. Mark it as a recurring weekly event titled “Competitor Intelligence.” Friday morning before the workday is the most reliable slot. Some owners run it Sunday evening. The day matters less than the consistency. Schedule the next 12 weeks at minimum.
Identify one decision you will make based on the first week’s data. The one-week rule applies on the first week too. Before you finish the first refresh, decide what kind of finding would trigger what kind of action. If a competitor’s review velocity is 3x yours, you launch a review campaign. If a competitor stopped posting on GBP, you increase your own GBP cadence. If a competitor is hiring 3 installers, you accelerate your own hiring. Decide the rules in advance so the data has somewhere to land.
That is the entire setup. Three actions, maybe 90 minutes total Monday morning. The compound effect over the next 12 months separates owners who run this discipline from owners who do not.
Next in the Series
Thursday, May 7: Law 3, “Own One Category Before You Claim Another.” Andrew Carnegie at the Curry Commercial College in 1885: “Put all your eggs in one basket, and watch that basket.” The Positioning domain opens.
Tuesday, May 12: The tactical companion to Law 3. The four contractor positions worth claiming and how to choose between them.
The Laws of the Contractor’s Campaign index page tracks every Law and tactical companion as it publishes.
Three Ways to Apply the Laws
Echelon Intelligence Reports ($197). Your market mapped the way Walton and Rockefeller mapped theirs. Terrain, competitors, review velocity, permit activity, SEO position. The application of Law 1 and Law 2 delivered as a single classified-style document.
Competitor Intelligence Reports ($297). One competitor, taken apart in the detail Rockefeller kept in his black notebook.
Managed Contractor Websites ($149 to $698 per month, build $997 to $4,994). Constructed terrain. Fortified ground. Built the way Caesar built at Alesia.
The map was always there. This is just the first man drawing it for you.
FTC Disclosure: Kore Komfort Solutions is an educational publisher. Some links on our site are affiliate links through which we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. Our recommendations are based on 30 years of trades experience and independent analysis.
Frequently Asked Questions
What competitor data should contractors track?
Twenty-three data points across five categories: review intelligence (6 points covering count, velocity, rating, drift, response rate, complaint themes), permit intelligence (4 points covering recent filings, value, and zip distribution), web intelligence (5 points covering site update activity and search ranking), hiring intelligence (4 points covering open posts, frequency, salary, and benefits), and pricing intelligence (4 points covering mystery quotes, promotions, financing, and ticket size).
How often should contractors update competitor intelligence?
Cadence varies by data type. Review counts and velocity refresh weekly. Most web and hiring data refresh monthly. Permit volumes, mystery quotes, and pricing data refresh quarterly. Total time investment is roughly 4 hours per quarter, or 16 hours per year.
How many competitors should a contractor track?
Three is the recommended starting count. Five is the maximum. Tracking more than five dilutes the signal and turns the work into noise. The three biggest competitors in your service area are the ones whose decisions affect your business directly.
Is mystery shopping competitors ethical?
Mystery shopping is standard practice in retail, hospitality, and most service industries. It is legal and accepted. Requesting a quote without identifying yourself as a competitor is reasonable competitive research, not deception. The discomfort some contractors feel about it is misplaced.
What is the most important competitor data point?
Review velocity (reviews added this month). Total review count is a snapshot. Velocity is the trend. A competitor adding 10 reviews per month is gaining ground three times faster than one adding 3 per month, regardless of which has more total reviews. Velocity reveals what direction the competitive landscape is moving.
Where do contractors find permit data on competitors?
Most U.S. counties make residential and commercial permit filings publicly searchable online. Search “[your county] permit search” or “[your county] inspections” in Google. The portal is usually run by the county building or planning department. Search by contractor name to find permits filed by specific competitors.