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OCT 28-30, 2024
Sales battlecards have become an essential weapon for reps facing tough competition and savvy buyers.
In our experience, the right battlecard, leveraged at the right moment, can make the difference between winning and losing a deal.
But here’s the catch: creating battlecards that sales teams actually use is where organizations stumble. It’s not enough to have battlecards; they need to be effective, up-to-date, and genuinely useful in the heat of a sales conversation.
To address this challenge, we’ve created this guide, which offers a research-backed approach to building better battlecards.
We’re not here to rehash generic advice. Instead, we’re sharing the specific methods we employ at Klue when building our very own competitive battlecards.
Let’s dive in.
Oh – and if you’re short on time, we have six fillable battlecard templates you can download now for free. Grab them here.
A sales battlecard is a concise, strategic document that equips sales reps with key information about their competitors’ products and services. They are used to boost the effectiveness of your sales team by providing reps with instant access to critical information so they can respond quickly and knowledgeably to customer questions.
Sales battlecards typically include:
When implemented correctly, battlecards can significantly improve win rates and optimize the sales process.
Battlecards serve as the bridge between market/competitor intelligence and sales execution. Because of this, they are one of the most potent tools you can leverage in your product marketing, competitive intelligence, and sales enablement strategies.
By transforming complex competitive dynamics into digestible insights, battlecards help your sales reps to:
Why is this so important?
Without effective battlecards, sales teams may struggle to articulate your product’s unique value proposition or counter your competitor’s strengths. This can lead to lost deals, longer sales cycles, and frustrated reps.
There are dozens of battlecard templates out there, each of which serves a unique purpose. (We’ve compiled a list of 15 examples at the bottom of this blog for your reference.) However, if you’re looking for more strategic focus, you can consolidate these into four primary battlecard ‘types.’
Discovery-focused, these battlecards help reps understand core consumer needs and swat away competitors early in the deal. They typically include probing questions to facilitate discussions around common prospect pain points. Additionally, they’re used to construct an ‘us vs them’ framework, highlighting your winning features and key differentiators from the outset.
Card Examples: Why We Win, Why We Lose
These are tactically focused on depositioning competitors late in the sales cycle. They arm reps with specific talking points, objection-handling techniques, and competitive advantages to leverage in late-stage conversations.
Card Examples: Quick Dismiss, Trap Setting Questions, Objection Handling
These battlecards dive deep into product feature sets and future road maps. They help reps articulate your product’s unique value proposition, technical specifications, and upcoming innovations.
Card Examples: Feature Comparison, Pricing
These provide a high-level snapshot of the competitor, including their strengths, weaknesses, and recent developments. They’re perfect for quick reference in executive-level discussions.
Card Examples: Company Overview, Approach to Market
In practice, sales teams leverage battlecards in various ways depending on their experience level and the specific sales scenario. Newer reps often rely on battlecards as a real-time reference during calls, quickly pulling up competitor information or objection handling tips when needed.
More seasoned pros tend to use battlecards as a periodic refresher, checking them before important calls or when they encounter a competitor they haven’t faced in a while. This group particularly values battlecards that are up to date with the latest intel.
This can vary widely. Some teams still use traditional methods, such as spreadsheets or PowerPoint decks stored on shared drives.
Others have adopted more sophisticated competitive intelligence software like Klue 😉, which speeds up and consolidates the process of creating, updating, and accessing battlecards
The way you present information on your battle cards is just as important as the information itself. Here are three must-haves for creating top-tier battlecard content.
Don’t just state facts about a competitor in isolation; always provide the “so what?” for your offering.
Example: Instead of simply stating “Competitor X offers next-day shipping,” say “While Competitor X offers next-day shipping, our same-day delivery service ensures customers receive their products even faster, improving their experience and satisfaction.”
Avoid neutral language. Give your content a positive or negative charge to guide your sales team’s positioning. Instead of just listing a feature, describe how it “expedites” a process or “eliminates” a common pain point.
Example: Instead of “We offer automated reporting,” say “Our automated reporting feature slashes administrative overhead, freeing up your team to focus on strategic initiatives.”
Vague statements don’t win deals. Be as specific as possible in your comparisons and claims.
Example: Instead of saying “We have better performance,” provide concrete metrics: “Our solution processes transactions 50% faster than Competitor Y, reducing wait times from 10 seconds to under 5 seconds.”
Theory is great, but now it’s time to get practical. What does an effective battlecard look like in the real world?
To illustrate, we’ve created two hypothetical examples featuring Pied Piper competing against Stripe. These examples will show you how to structure your battlecards for maximum impact.
The “Why We Win” battlecard showcases your key competitive advantages against a specific competitor. It provides sales reps with clear, credible talking points for competitive situations.
As you can see in the example below, we’ve structured this card into three categories.
This is what we call the Fact, Impact, Act Framework (FIA) – we highly recommend using this structure (or the COMP-ACT Framework) when building out your cards. Both frameworks add structure, consistency, and actionability to your intel, making it easier to consume and leverage.
Tip: When it comes to sourcing content for a ‘Why We Win’ battlecard:
The Objection Handling battlecard equips sales reps with strategies to address common competitor-specific objections.
As you can see in the example below, we’re still using the Fact, Impact, Act Framework (FIA). But we’ve adapted the content to fit the specific needs of objection handling.
In this example, the fact is introduced in the title of the card itself. Then the impact section explains why this objection commonly arises so that your reps can prepare accordingly.
Finally, the act section of this battlecard is where you choose how to arm your sales rep. For this section, we recommend that you include two things:
Building your first sales battlecard can feel daunting.
But fear not, in the first episode of our Competitive Battlecards Mini Course, David Washer, Director of Data Operations at Klue, shared a few critical steps to get you started. Let’s review!
First and foremost, identify who you’re creating battlecards for. Ultimately, the content you include will be determined by the needs of your primary stakeholders, whether they’re SDRs, CS managers, or account executives. For example, a veteran seller working on a longer deal may need more in-depth competitive analysis and strategic positioning insights than an SDR.
Talk to your sales team and ask them what they truly need to win a deal! Use these insights to identify gaps and quick wins your battlecards can address. Before a full launch, ask a small pilot group of reps to review and provide feedback on your initial battlecards.
If you have no competitive content whatsoever, start by exploring the sources of competitive intelligence already at your disposal. This means uncovering ‘tribal knowledge’ among various internal stakeholders and digging into your organization’s existing win-loss information.
A list of bullet points isn’t going to cut it when your sales rep is handling an objection on a call or preparing to differentiate in an upcoming demo. Instead, re-frame your battlecards to tell a story that reps will remember. We use the FIA Framework to help with this.
In the impassioned words of Mr. Washer, “Keeping your content up to date is the most, most, most, MOST important thing to do!”. The moment a seller finds something out-of-date or incorrect in your battlecard, all trust is out the window. Even if intel from a year ago remains relevant, let your team know you’ve verified that it is still true today.
Finally, we’ve put together a comprehensive library of battlecard examples for you to explore. This library consists of various card types, from commonly used formats to more specialized, niche options.
You can check them out by following the links below.
News
Klue, the leading competitive enablement platform, is pleased to announce it has ranked No. 100 on the 2024 Report on Business magazine's ranking of Canada's Top Growing Companies. Canada’s Top Growing Companies ranks Canadian businesses on three-year revenue growth. Klue earned its place with a 403% growth over the past three years.
Learn three key tactics from Klue's own win-loss program to improve how you deliver insights to your executive team.
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