We’re all looking for the competitive edge. That little nugget of information that could help you secure an appointment with the decision maker or possibly even win the prospects trust, and then their business.  The issue is not the lack of information available today; in fact the opposite is true. There is so much available at our fingertips at an instant that it can sometimes be overwhelming and can make it difficult to swim through the sea of web sites, newsletters, books and magazines.  At the same time our daily to-do lists and schedules have only increased which makes it difficult to squeeze in this additional task which we know is vitally important to our success, but often gets placed on the back burner due to other pressing needs.

Here are some web sites I have found to be very valuable in gaining the business intelligence or competitive edge that we are all looking for:

http://www.zibb.com/   The Global business search engine- you can search by industry or specific company and includes the latest business to business news.

http://seekingalpha.com/  Although this is an investor site, it allows you to read companies earnings transcripts which often contain very valuable information as to their corporate objectives and new initiatives.

http://multichannelmerchant.com/  Provides targeted compelling content for multichannel merchants. Provides valuable information on latest happening is the catalog, ecommerce, BTB, Retail and Social Media channels.

http://socialmention.com/  A great search engine for social media content.  Give you the ability to find out if the person or company you are interested in is active in the social media environment.

http://www.google.com/alerts?hl=en  You can set up emails alerts where you will receive emails anytime the company or person you are following is mentioned in the media or has a press release.

http://www.linkedin.com  This is much more than just a business connecting site.  This site gives you the ability to follow a company which will give you company updates as well as tell you when there are changes with personnel.  Linkedin is also a very valuable tool in obtaining information about the person you are trying to get a meeting with. It will not only tell who they are connected to but where they use to work which can be just the edge you are looking for.

Obviously this is not an exhaustive list but hopefully you will find one or more of these useful in gaining the competitive edge you are looking for.