As a CFO and business owner, I cannot overstate the importance of knowing your competition. Most business owners (if not all of us) have competitors that we need to analyze and assess. Microsoft has Apple, DraftKings has FanDuel, Pepsi has Coke, and so on. Having this competition pushes these businesses (including yours) to be better and all of them know each other.  

One thing I always used to do is to go to trade shows, to seek out who my competitors are. Trade shows are great ways to stake out your competition, get information from their booths, and even speak to their representatives. Look at their advertisements. Discover the different ways they market and communicate to the marketplace. Most importantly: you need to figure out what separates your business from the competition. Two competitors may have the same product, but they may be trying to solve different problems. See if you can solve a different problem than your competitor who may have the same product. 

If you market regionally, like a brick and mortar retailer, you should develop relationships with businesses that do what you do who are not in your market. I can't overemphasize the abundance of information and ideas you'll get out of those relationships. I've had lifelong relationships with people who are in the same business as I was, but were in different markets, so they weren't competitors. This way, you learn about your competitors through the different ways that other companies do business strategizing against competitors.

As you can see, knowing your competition allows you to gain information that can help you stand out.