Mystery Shopping and Competitor Teardowns
Mystery shopping means going through a competitor's sales process as a prospective buyer would, requesting demos and quotes, to learn what they actually say and charge. Praxia Insights runs mystery shopping and competitor teardowns for companies who need to know what happens behind the contact form.
When you look at a competitor's website, you're seeing what their marketing team decided to say, and that's about all you're seeing. You don't get to hear what their salesperson claims on a demo, or what number actually lands on a real quote, or how far they'll come down to close a deal, and you definitely don't hear what they say about you when a prospect brings up your name.
Any prospective buyer who goes through their sales process gets all of that, so none of it is really hidden. It's just not available to you, because your company name is on the form when you fill it out.
So we go through the process instead, and then we tell you what we found.
Discuss your competitor research
What This Turns Up
Real pricing: the number on an actual quote, which frequently differs from the published one, plus how much they'll come down when pushed.
The sales argument: what they lead with, what problems they claim to solve, and what they promise verbally that the website never states.
What they say about you: how your name gets handled when a prospect raises it, and which comparison points they reach for.
How they qualify: what they ask about before they'll give a price, which tells you who they're really built for.
Product reality: what the demo shows working today, compared with what the marketing implies is available.
Where the process breaks: how long they take to respond, how many steps to a quote, and how the experience feels to a buyer.
What's Included
Scoping and approach
Before any of it starts, we agree with you on which competitors are in scope, what buyer profile makes sense for us to present, and what questions each conversation needs to answer.
Product teardown
We'll document what each product actually does, based on what got demonstrated and what we could verify ourselves, and we put that next to what the marketing claims it does.
Demo requests and sales conversations
We'll go through each competitor's sales process, sit through the demos, and ask the questions a serious buyer would ask, including the uncomfortable ones about what the product can't do and what's actually on the roadmap.
Comparative analysis
We'll bring all of it together into one comparison across every competitor, so you can see where you're genuinely different and where you're exposed.
Quote collection
We'll request formal pricing and then follow the negotiation far enough to find out how low they'll actually go.
Recommendations
We'll tell you what to change in your positioning, your pricing, your objection handling, and your sales conversations, based on what your competitors are actually doing.
Beyond Software
Mystery shopping works anywhere a buyer has to go through a sales or service process. We've run it for technology companies checking out their competitors before a launch, and it works just as well for professional services, healthcare, education providers, and consumer retail.
You can also point it at your own company. Some clients ask us to go through their sales process as a prospective buyer, and what we find tends to be uncomfortable, because nobody inside a company ever experiences their own funnel the way a stranger does.
Project Examples
A NIH-funded study examining neuropsychological predictors of adaptation after trauma.
A five-year randomized control trial (RCT), funded by the U.S. Department of Ed, to study individualized math instruction.
Led a national survey study in partnership with Berklee BEATL & Adobe to study AI use in the music industry.
How We Work
1. Initial consultation and plan
We meet to discuss your specific needs and confirm this is the right approach for the decision you're facing.
2. Project scoping and budget
You receive a custom scope of work with tasks, due dates, and budget before any work begins. Fixed scope, no hourly surprises.
3. Project execution
You receive updates on progress throughout, including recruitment status and fielding milestones.
4. A true partnership approach
We share insights with you as they come up throughout the project, so your team can start acting on what we learn long before the final report is finished.
5. Project completion
We deliver final insights in the format your team will actually use, whether that's a written report, an executive presentation, or a working session.
Frequently Asked Questions
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It's going through a competitor's sales or service process the way a prospective buyer would, to learn what they actually say, charge, and deliver. In business-to-business research it usually means requesting demos and quotes. In consumer and service categories it can mean going through the purchase or service experience itself.
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Because your company name is on the form. Competitors screen inbound leads and a request from your domain gets a different response, if it gets one at all. An independent researcher going through the process as a genuine prospect gets the treatment a real buyer gets.
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Three to five is the usual range. Each one takes real time, since a sales process can run several weeks from first contact to a quote. If you have a longer list, we can screen it first and go deep on the ones that matter most.
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Four to eight weeks, driven mostly by how long each competitor's sales process takes. Companies that qualify heavily before showing a price take longer to reach a quote than companies that publish one.
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It depends on how many competitors are in scope, how involved each sales process is, and whether the work includes a full comparative analysis and recommendations. We provide a fixed-scope quote after an initial consultation.
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A written analysis covering each competitor's pricing, sales argument, product capability, and process, with a comparison across all of them and specific recommendations. Many clients also want a presentation version for leadership or the sales team.
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Usually. Published pricing is often a starting point that changes once a real quote is prepared, and discounting is rarely visible from outside. Going through the process is how you learn where the number actually lands.
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Yes, and it's worth doing. We go through your funnel as a prospective buyer and report what the experience is actually like, including response times, what your sales team says, and where prospects would reasonably lose interest.
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Yes. Any category with a sales or service process can be studied this way, including professional services, healthcare, education, and consumer retail. The methods change with the category and the principle doesn't.
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Yes, and it usually should be. Mystery shopping tells you what competitors do behind the form, and interviews with buyers who evaluated several vendors tell you how it landed. Together they give you a much fuller picture than either one alone.
Our Experience
More than 60 studies designed, including case study, quasi-experimental, RCT, and mixed-method designs
More than 100 focus groups and in-depth interviews conducted
More than $4 million in grant-funded research managed
Clients spanning Fortune 500 companies, startups, nonprofits, universities, and federally funded programs
Our researchers hold doctorates in educational neuroscience, psychology, and related fields
Want to know what your competitors actually say?
Tell us who you're up against and what you need to learn. We'll advise on scope and approach.