Competitive Battlecards 101: Approach-to-Market

Katie Berg

This article is a part of our Competitive Battlecard 101 series. This week we’re featuring the Approach-to-Market battlecard. To view all of our battlecard you can find a running log of the series here.

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Competitive Battlecard #1: Approach-to-Market Card

The Approach-to-Market card explores your competitors’ go-to-market strategy. It looks at the verticals and departments they serve and how they sell. Understand how the sales reps you face-off against are selling, and you’ll make better decisions about your own sales strategy.

For example, if your competitor is quick to lower its prices, that strategy might affect which prospects to target and how you price competitively.

Another example concerns a competitor’s marketing approach. Say they tend to push proof of concepts. If you know that your prospect will likely be given a proof of concept during the sales cycle, you’ll know that proving ROI could be key to closing the deal against that competitor.

This card shouldn’t include all aspects of your competitor’s go-to-market strategy. That’s because certain topics — such as product positioning — might be worthy of its own card (don’t worry, we’ll cover this in a future post). Keep it succinct to give your sales reps a quick understanding of how this competitor approaches customers and who they target.

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Why should you use the Approach-to-Market card?

Knowing what to expect from your competitors helps you make better decisions in terms of who to approach, how to approach them, and how to effectively compete against them in the sales cycle. You’ll know where to expect this competitor to pop-up and be able to plan your approach into accounts accordingly.

How do you build the Approach-to-Market battlecard?

This card should contain details on a general approach to your market, key clients, verticals served, departments served and channel partners.

To build your Approach-to-Market card, look at the resources available on your competitor’s website:

• Content (webinars, blog posts, EBooks, etc.) will give you an indication of who they’re targeting, as well as what value propositions and use cases they focus on.
• Case studies and their client list will add to your understanding of their target verticals and departments served.
• Look at who is being quoted in their case studies to see who they might be courting with sales and marketing efforts.
• Some companies will directly list their partners on their websites; if not this might require further research.

Do a general web search to find additional marketing and sales collateral to flesh out your insights on their strategy. Has senior leadership presented at a professional conference recently? Have they conducted webinars for shareholders?

Learn more quick tips on tracking your competitors from this article.

Next up in Competitive Battlecards 101

The Approach-to-Market card is part of our Overview Battlecard Template (click the image below to expand), which is a set of eight of the most commonly used cards we’ve seen across hundreds of battlecards. We’ll cover these cards one by one before moving on to the next full battlecard template.

Ready for more? Next up in our series will be the “Company Overview” card.

If you’ve come this far and you’re still looking for more on battlecards, download our Competitive Sales Battlecards 101 Ebook.

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