Battlecards: a necessary sales resource
Salespeople are always looking for the easy solution to compete against their market rivals. One thing that sales professionals do not want is to spent time on extensive research to discover a competitor’s strengths and weaknesses. After all, your company pays salespeople to interface with buyers and not to do background research on the competition.
Marketing or product development are the usually the departments that research and build competitive battlecards, and they use them for product enhancement or general marketing strategy. Done the right way, competitive battlecards can be a vital part of a sales professional’s arsenal in winning more deals.
The question is, how do you build a battlecard that works for sales? Here are some key steps to create sales-focused battlecards.
Consider the source of the data for your battlecards.
The adage of “garbage in, garbage out” is applicable for any competitive intelligence, and that includes battlecards. If you don’t gather the right information from the right sources, your battlecards won’t be effective.
Although third-party sources are helpful, the best source for b2b-based competitive battlecards is your buyers. After all, they are the ones who make the decisions to select vendors.
Ongoing win loss and customer experience analysis programs consistently gather the voice of your buyers so that you consistently gather your buyer feedback so you learn directly what works and what doesn’t in selling to them. One benefit in gathering information in this way is that you also gather information on your competitors at the same time.
If you maintain a consistent voice of the buyer program, your competitor information remains dynamic and fresh as new information comes in.
Avoid feature comparisons.
Feature grids are definitely beneficial, but remember that a sales battlecard should focus on what makes you win or lose. A competitor’s feature set may or may not be the reason a buyer makes the decision to go with your competitor. Finding the true win loss reasons will help you better prepare your reps to win more deals.
Sales battlecards should focus on the criteria that are most important to the buyer. This should include elements like:
- The competitors strengths and weaknesses.
- Buyers’ root causes for making a purchase decision.
- Best practices that are proven to create a competitive advantage.
- Pricing comparisons by wins and losses.
Keep it simple.
Let’s be honest, most people do not want to read a full, long-form report. In fact, most people reading this article probably stopped at the numbered list at the beginning. Congratulations to you for getting this far!
Everyone wants the bullet-points on how to do the job, especially salespeople. They should be able to digest the most important points in a quick scan. You will definitely want supporting data to be available for those that want to delve into the details, but the easier it is for a salesperson to consume the information and put it into use, the better.
Make your battlecards readily available.
This may sound obvious, but do you know where your company’s battlecards are currently located? Many times, they end up in a document repository that ends up stale and forgotten. These battlecards should be front-and-center for the sales team, and any updates should be broadcast to them immediately.
Having a software-based battlecard is helpful because there is no document maintenance necessary to keep the data fresh. Any competitive feedback that flows into the system will automatically update the battlecards to always give you the most current information.
Primary Intelligence
Primary Intelligence is the leading sales intelligence provider with tools that assist sales in winning more deals. Our clients have realized up to 72% improvement in their win rates. Our software platform, TruVoice, gives you real-time, dynamic data on your sales practices—including dynamic battlecards on each of your competitors whenever they appear in real sales engagements.
Schedule an appointment for more information on how our battlecards can help your team win more deals and dramatically improve top-line revenue for your company.
