My wife and I bought a house a few weeks ago. It’s an exciting time of course but it also came with a to-do list, and I needed help. So I did what anyone does. I Googled, I clicked, I called.
Over the course of an afternoon I had left nearly a dozen voicemails for local radon mitigation companies. Half of those mailboxes were full and only one contractor answered. I got exactly zero callbacks.
The frustrating part wasn't the runaround. It was how easy it was for one company to win, literally just by picking up the phone. That one contractor didn't have a better website, a bigger ad budget, or a more compelling offer. They just needed to answer their phone.
This experience was competitive intelligence. It was free, it took minutes, and it was immediately actionable. Most business owners never think to do it on purpose.
Competitive Research Has a Reputation Problem
When most business owners hear "competitive research," they picture a process that's expensive, slow, and delivers a 40-page report full of recommendations that are hard to act on. That reputation isn't entirely wrong. Formal competitive audits can be all of those things.
But some of the most useful competitive intelligence doesn't work that way. It's what we'd call micro research: small, repeatable actions that take minutes rather than months and produce insights you can use right now. No consultant required. No budget line needed.
The phone is one of the best micro research tools available and almost nobody is using it intentionally.
What One Phone Call Can Tell You
Here’s the challenge: call three to five competitors this week as a prospective customer. Ask a simple question — something a real customer would actually ask about pricing, availability, or process. Then pay attention to everything that happens next.
Do they answer at all? You might be surprised how often the answer is no. Voicemail is common. As I learned, full voicemail, a clear signal to a customer that nobody will ever call back, were far more common than I thought. Did I briefly consider getting into the radon business? Maybe.
How long does a callback take? Research from HubSpot consistently shows that the odds of converting a lead drop dramatically with every passing hour. If your competitors are calling back two days later, or not at all, that's an opening you can own – today.
What's the quality of the conversation? When someone does pick up, listen closely. Are they prepared? Do they know their own offer? Do they capture your name and number? Do they suggest any kind of next step, or do they just answer the question and wait for you to hang up? These things reveal whether a competitor has a sales process or is just hoping good things happen.
One call gives you a surprising amount to work with, entirely actionable as soon as your phone hits your desk.
How to Run a Simple Competitor Call Audit
This doesn't need to be complicated. Here's a framework you can run in under 30 minutes a month:
- Build your list. Google the search terms your customers would use to find you. The businesses that show up — in the ads, in the map pack, in the organic results — are your competitors. Pick a few to work with.
- Create a simple scorecard. Track five things per call: Did they answer? How fast was the callback? How professional was the interaction? Could they clearly explain their offer? Did they attempt any kind of follow-up or next step?
- Call as a prospect. Use your cell phone or a Google Voice number. Ask a genuine question. Let the conversation unfold naturally.
- Document right away. Notes in your phone work fine. A simple spreadsheet is even better.
- Look for patterns. Do it monthly and you'll start to see things: maybe nobody in your category follows up, or everyone's voicemail greeting sounds like it was recorded in 2009, or the one company with a real intake process is winning disproportionately.
Turning What You Hear Into Action
If most competitors are going to voicemail, make "we answer" a genuine operational commitment, then say so explicitly on your website, in your ads, anywhere a customer might be deciding. If callbacks are slow across the board, a 15-minute callback guarantee becomes a meaningful differentiator. If the calls you're hearing feel unorganized and informal, a simple call script for your team, even a one-pager, immediately separates the experience you deliver from everyone else.
None of this requires a strategy engagement. It requires listening and a willingness to tighten things up.
And when you find a real edge, it shouldn't just live in your operations. It should show up in your SEO content and organic presence, in your paid ad headlines and landing pages, and across your website's messaging, because the gap your competitors are leaving open is most valuable when customers can see, before they even call, that you're different.
This Is Research. It Just Doesn't Feel Like It.
The idea that competitive intelligence has to be formal to be valuable is one worth letting go of. The insights that come from a few phone calls over time compound. You start to notice when a competitor tightens up their process. You catch when a new player enters the market and is doing something interesting. You see seasonal patterns in how quickly people respond.
That's a real market awareness, built a few minutes at a time, for the cost of your time. And it feeds everything: smarter messaging, better positioning, more relevant marketing. If you ever work with a marketing partner on research and strategy, you'll come to the table with context that makes every conversation more productive.
The contractor who answered my call probably didn't think of himself as a marketing success story. He just picked up the phone. But in a market where nobody else did, that habit was his entire competitive advantage. Yours might be just as close.
Ready to Turn Competitive Gaps Into Growth?
At High10, we help small and mid-sized businesses find the edges their competitors are leaving open and build marketing strategies that make the most of them. From sharper messaging to campaigns that convert, we turn insight into results.