Competitor monitoring that catches buyers when they start looking
updated 17 October 2026
Most competitor monitoring tells marketing what a competitor shipped or changed on its pricing page. Sales needs something else: the moment a competitor's customer says in public that they're looking around. HearBuyers watches X and Reddit for people asking for an alternative to the competitors you name, saying they're switching from one, or complaining about one. It scores how ready each person is and drafts a reply your team can approve.
The signals worth watching
| Signal | Sample phrasing | What it usually means |
|---|---|---|
| Asking for an alternative | "Anyone moved off Tool A? Looking at options" | Actively shopping |
| Switching | "We're migrating from Tool A next month" | Decision made, choosing where to go |
| Price complaints | "Tool A just raised prices again" | Open to switching at renewal |
| Outage frustration | "Tool A down for the third time this week" | Short-term anger, sometimes a real switch |
| Feature gaps | "Does Tool A really not do X?" | Early doubt |
"Tool A" stands in for any competitor. You set the real names in HearBuyers.
How to set it up by hand
Run the switching-from search and the alternative search on X with each competitor's name, and the same phrases in Reddit search. Check them every day. It works, but it takes time, and most of what comes back is other vendors pitching.
How HearBuyers does it
When you paste your website, HearBuyers suggests the competitors your buyers compare you with. Every scan runs an "alternative to / switching from" search for each one. Each post gets a score from 0 to 100, and the strong ones land in Slack with a drafted reply.
Reply without trashing the competitor
People asking for an alternative are often still customers, and they read every reply. Replies that get a response do three things:
- Answer the question they asked, even when the answer isn't you.
- Say plainly who you are.
- Name a concrete difference instead of criticising the other product.
Sample reply: "We see this a lot from teams your size. If the main issue is the per-seat price, it's worth checking whether Tool A's annual plan changes the math. Disclosure, I work on a tool in this space and happy to compare notes if useful."
The simplest manual setup is one saved search per competitor name, combined with words like "alternative", "switching from" or "cancel", read once a day. Our X search builder and Reddit search builder write those searches for you.
Frequently asked questions
What is competitor monitoring?
It means tracking what competitors do and what people say about them. For sales, the most useful part is finding people who are unhappy with a competitor and want to change.
Is it okay to reply to someone asking for an alternative to a competitor?
Yes, if the community allows it and you answer honestly. Check the rules first with the subreddit rules lookup.
See who is asking for what you sell
Paste your website. Your first scored matches from X and Reddit arrive within minutes, each with a drafted reply. Free for 14 days, no card.