Competitor battle cards: Shot way to grow your sales person into a convincing thought leader

Author: Arun Pillai

There are two broad strategies followed by sales representatives (sales rep) when they are making a sales pitch. The first is to outline the varied features and the benefits of their products or services, and convince the prospect why these are good for him or her.

The second way is to draw up a comparison of their products and services against those of their competitors, and talk about not only why they are good, but how they are better. It seems to be a no-brainer that the second strategy is most likely to work (unless your brand enjoys a brute majority in the marketplace. But still, many sellers out there in the market tend to ignore the benefits of making a favourable impression in comparison to competitors.

How to make a competitor battle card

One of the best weapons in this strategy is a competitor battle card. A competitor battle card is a single sheet (or at most a couple) which contains all relevant product and usage information about your products and also the comparable products of your biggest competitors.

The biggest advantage of a competitor battle card is that it equips the salesperson with relevant information. There are horror stories aplenty about salespersons faltering while making a sales presentation just because they did not know all the information about their own products. This is where a battle card comes to rescue. It can act as a useful prop to help you ensure that you do not miss out any of your product’s most important features.

This ensures that what you are talking about is just not fluff and stories, but is driven by solid data. The battle card would contain specific product information about your products as well as that of your competitors, making your sales pitch more believable. Also, the fact that you are using hard data to back up your sales pitch will make deal closures much more likely.

Emerge as a thought leader

A big mistake that many salespersons do is to make the discussion only about closing of sales. A competitor battle card, on the other hand, allows you to speak about the products in the backdrop of the specific need of the customer. It can help you come across as a thought leader who can speak about the industry in general, and about the future trends in the industry. That would make a much better impression than a straight talk about your products.

The main reason why most people across the globe find it difficult to believe sales reps is because they keep on talking about their own company and its series of products.

On the contrary, a competitor battle card has been meticulously crafted and it allows you to provide a high-level view to your prospect which includes your line of products, your competitor’s products, and the industry in general. This helps you avoid a negative impression from the prospect’s point of view. Instead it gives the positive impression of being someone who knows about the industry and is not just here to close a deal.