Overview
What It Is
The Competitor Dissatisfaction Swipe monitors public review sites and social media for negative sentiment about your competitors. When someone posts a 2-star review about a competitor's 'terrible customer support' or tweets about their 'constant downtime,' this playbook captures that signal and enables timely, empathetic outreach that positions your solution as the answer to their frustration.
Why It Matters
People who publicly complain about a vendor are in active buying mode—they're either looking for alternatives or building a case for switching. These are the warmest 'cold' leads you'll ever find. The timing window is narrow though: frustration fades, workarounds get built, and renewal cycles lock them in. This playbook ensures you reach them while the pain is still fresh.
Who It's For
- B2B companies competing in markets with established review cultures (SaaS, Martech, etc.)
- SDR teams looking for high-intent outbound signals
- Marketing teams building competitive intelligence programs
- Companies with clear competitive differentiation to leverage
Preconditions
Required Tools
- G2, Capterra, or TrustRadius accounts (for review monitoring)
- PhantomBuster or similar (for social media scraping)
- Clay (for enrichment and workflow)
- Slack (for real-time alerts)
- CRM (HubSpot/Salesforce) for lead creation
Required Fields/Properties
- Competitor List (company names to monitor)
- Negative Sentiment Keywords ('disappointed', 'switching', 'terrible', 'looking for alternative')
- Review platform URLs to monitor
- Response templates by complaint category
Definitions Required
- Which competitors to prioritize monitoring
- Minimum review rating to trigger (recommend: 3 stars or below)
- Which complaint themes align with your strengths
- Outreach tone guidelines (empathetic, not salesy)
Step-by-Step Workflow
Map Competitors & Complaint Themes
Goal: Identify which competitors to monitor and which complaint types represent your best opportunities.
Actions:
- List top 5-10 competitors by market overlap
- Review their G2/Capterra pages for common complaint themes
- Categorize complaints: support, reliability, pricing, features, UX
- Map each complaint category to your differentiator
- Prioritize: focus on complaints where you demonstrably excel
Implementation Notes: Don't try to capitalize on every complaint. If someone complains about pricing and you're more expensive, that's not your lead. Focus on themes where you have a genuine advantage.
Set Up Review Site Monitoring
Goal: Configure automated monitoring of competitor review pages.
Actions:
- Identify review page URLs for each competitor on G2, Capterra, TrustRadius
- Set up PhantomBuster or custom scraper to check for new reviews daily
- Configure filters: rating <= 3 stars, keywords match complaint themes
- Extract: reviewer name, company, review text, rating, date
- Push matching reviews to Clay for enrichment
Implementation Notes: G2 and Capterra have APIs for partners, but scraping works for monitoring purposes. Respect rate limits and review site ToS.
Automation Logic:
PhantomBuster Config:
- Phantom: G2 Review Scraper
- Input: Competitor review page URLs
- Schedule: Daily at 6 AM
- Filters:
- rating <= 3
- text CONTAINS ['disappointed', 'switching', 'terrible', 'frustrating', 'looking for']
- Output: CSV to Clay webhook
Add Social Media Monitoring
Goal: Extend monitoring to Twitter/X and LinkedIn for real-time complaint signals.
Actions:
- Set up Twitter/X search monitoring for competitor mentions + negative keywords
- Configure LinkedIn monitoring for posts mentioning competitor pain
- Filter for: individual posters (not brands), decision-maker titles, recent activity
- Push matching posts to same Clay table
- Tag source (G2, Twitter, LinkedIn) for template selection
Implementation Notes: Social monitoring catches complaints before they become reviews. Twitter is more real-time; LinkedIn posts are more considered but often from more senior people.
Automation Logic:
Twitter Search Query:
("@CompetitorX" OR "CompetitorX") AND ("frustrated" OR "terrible" OR "switching" OR "anyone recommend" OR "alternative to")
LinkedIn Search:
- Keywords: "[Competitor] + problem/issue/frustrating/switching"
- Filter: Posted in last 7 days
- Filter: Title contains VP, Director, Head, Manager
Enrich & Qualify Leads
Goal: Turn anonymous reviewers into qualified, contactable leads.
Actions:
- Use Clay to enrich reviewer by name + company
- Pull LinkedIn profile, email, title, company size
- Apply ICP filters: company size, industry, geo
- Score by: complaint severity, title seniority, company fit
- Disqualify: competitors, non-ICP, existing customers/pipeline
Implementation Notes: Not every reviewer is identifiable. Anonymous reviews still have value for competitive intelligence, but focus outreach on those you can identify and contact.
Build Empathetic Response Templates
Goal: Create outreach that acknowledges frustration without being opportunistic.
Actions:
- Write templates for each complaint category (support, reliability, etc.)
- Lead with empathy: acknowledge the specific pain, don't bash competitor
- Offer value first: share a resource, case study, or framework
- Soft CTA: 'Happy to share how others handled this' vs. 'Book a demo'
- Include merge fields: first name, company, specific complaint quote
Implementation Notes: Tone is everything. 'I saw you're frustrated with X—we're better!' will get you blocked. 'I noticed your post about [specific issue]. We've helped others in similar situations...' opens conversations.
Configure Alerts & Workflow
Goal: Wire up real-time notifications and CRM integration.
Actions:
- Set up Slack channel for competitor dissatisfaction signals
- Configure instant alerts for high-priority signals (senior title + severe complaint)
- Create CRM lead/contact on signal detection
- Assign to SDR based on territory/round-robin
- Set SLA: outreach within 48 hours of signal
Implementation Notes: Speed matters but so does thoughtfulness. A 24-hour delay to craft the right message beats a 1-hour blast of generic copy.
Automation Logic:
{
"slack_alert": {
"channel": "#competitor-signals",
"message": "🔥 Competitor Dissatisfaction Detected\n\n*Source:* {{source}}\n*Competitor:* {{competitor}}\n*Person:* {{name}} ({{title}}) at {{company}}\n*Complaint:* \"{{review_excerpt}}\"\n*Rating:* {{rating}} stars\n\n<{{crm_link}}|View Lead>"
}
}
Templates
Email Template: Support Complaint
Subject: Saw your {{competitor}} experience—thought this might help
Hi {{first_name}},
I came across your recent review mentioning {{competitor}}'s support challenges. That sounds incredibly frustrating, especially when you're depending on a tool to run critical workflows.
We've worked with a few teams who made similar transitions, and one thing that helped was [specific resource/framework]. Happy to share it if useful—no strings attached.
If you're exploring alternatives, I'm also happy to walk through how we approach [specific pain point] differently. But genuinely, even if you stay with {{competitor}}, the resource above should help.
Best,
{{sender_name}}
Email Template: Reliability/Downtime Complaint
Subject: Re: downtime frustrations
Hi {{first_name}},
I noticed your post about {{competitor}}'s reliability issues. When your [workflow/process] depends on a tool being up, every outage is a fire drill.
We've been obsessive about uptime—99.99% over the last 12 months, with a public status page and proactive incident comms. Not saying we're perfect, but reliability is something we've invested heavily in.
If you're evaluating options, I'd be happy to share how a few similar teams made the switch without disrupting their operations. Or if you just want to vent, I get it—happy to listen.
Best,
{{sender_name}}
Twitter/X Reply Template
Ugh, that's frustrating. We've heard similar things from folks who've switched over. Happy to share what worked for them if helpful—no pitch, just context. DM open if you want to chat.
Complaint Category Mapping
| Complaint Theme | Keywords | Your Differentiator | Template | Priority | |-----------------|----------|---------------------|----------|----------| | Poor Support | 'support', 'response time', 'help desk', 'ticket' | 24/7 support, dedicated CSM | support-complaint | High | | Reliability | 'downtime', 'outage', 'crashed', 'unreliable' | 99.99% uptime, redundancy | reliability-complaint | High | | Pricing | 'expensive', 'overpriced', 'cost', 'pricing' | Transparent pricing, value-based | pricing-complaint | Medium | | Missing Features | 'missing', 'doesn't have', 'wish it could' | Feature parity + roadmap | feature-complaint | Medium | | Poor UX | 'clunky', 'confusing', 'hard to use', 'complicated' | Modern UI, ease of use | ux-complaint | Medium |
Slack Alert Format
🔥 *Competitor Dissatisfaction Signal*
*Source:* G2 Review
*Competitor:* {{competitor_name}}
*Rating:* ⭐⭐ (2/5)
*Reviewer:*
• Name: {{reviewer_name}}
• Title: {{title}}
• Company: {{company}} ({{employee_count}} employees)
• LinkedIn: {{linkedin_url}}
*Complaint Excerpt:*
> "{{review_excerpt}}"
*Complaint Category:* {{category}}
*Recommended Template:* {{template_name}}
⏰ *SLA:* Outreach within 48 hours
👤 *Assigned:* {{sdr_name}}
<{{crm_lead_url}}|View Lead in CRM>
QA + Edge Cases
Test Cases Checklist
- New 2-star G2 review detected → lead created in CRM
- Reviewer enriched with LinkedIn profile and email
- Complaint category correctly identified → correct template selected
- Non-ICP reviewer (wrong company size) → filtered out
- Twitter complaint from decision-maker → Slack alert sent
- Existing customer posts complaint → routed to CS, not sales
- Anonymous reviewer → logged for intel but no outreach created
Common Failure Modes
- Tone-deaf outreach: Coming across as opportunistic or salesy when someone is frustrated. Always lead with empathy and offer value before pitching.
- Stale signals: Reaching out about a complaint from 6 months ago. Filter for recency (last 30 days max) and reference the timing in your outreach.
- Wrong enrichment match: Clay might match the wrong person if the name is common. Always include LinkedIn URL for SDR verification before sending.
- Competitor employee replies: Accidentally reaching out to someone who works at the competitor. Add domain exclusion filters for competitor domains.
Troubleshooting Tips
- If no signals appearing: Check scraper schedule, verify URLs are correct, review keyword filters
- If enrichment failing: Try multiple enrichment sources (Clay + Clearbit), check for typos in company names
- If reply rates low: Review tone—are you being too salesy? Test more empathetic approaches
- If getting blocked/reported: You're being too aggressive. Dial back frequency and soften CTAs
KPIs and Reporting
KPIs to Track
- Signals Detected: 10-20 qualified signals per week per monitored competitor
- Enrichment Rate: >60% of reviewers successfully identified and enriched
- Reply Rate: >20% (these are warm leads with active pain)
- Meeting Book Rate: >8% of signals result in booked meeting
- Time-to-Outreach: <48 hours from signal to first touch
Suggested Dashboard Widgets
- Signals by Competitor: Bar chart showing volume of complaints detected per competitor
- Signals by Complaint Category: Pie chart showing distribution of complaint themes (support, reliability, etc.)
- Conversion Funnel: Funnel: Signals → Enriched → Contacted → Replied → Meeting Booked
- Reply Rate by Template: Table comparing reply rates across complaint-specific templates