Power-Up your Sales Arsenal with Competitor Battle Card

Author: Arun Pillai

How do battle cards help you position your product better?

The only way to ensure your product(s) or service sees the customer end of the market is to ensure it is well defined and promoted to create the required awareness amongst your customers. For that to happen, you will need to have a powerful and comprehensive sales strategy in hand.

Enter, Competitor Battle Cards.

Competitor battle card is defined as that tool which provides a very comprehensive view of a company’s product (or service offering) vis-à-vis its competitors within the same industry making for an easy-to-use-and-understand snapshot of where the product (or service offering) stands. It is a tool to help your product come across as the winner and thereby, induces customers to opt for it.

How do battle cards help better position your product?

Let’s understand a few ways the battle cards help you battle it out against the competition, shall we?

Provides valuable information

One thing that can really put off your potential customers and render your sales team ‘’weak’’ is the lack knowledge on competition. It has been observed that the inability of a sales team to provide a snapshot of the market and competition vis-à-vis its own product can be disastrous.

Battle cards come to the rescue here. They help the sales team with valuable information such that the sales team can put forth their presentation in a very convincing manner.

A survey by search engine giant Google in collaboration with CEB’s Marketing Leadership Council found that only 14% of B2B customers see any real difference between different vendors (and their products) and the value they create. This shows the need for a powerful sales tool that will provide a comprehensive yet comparative view of competition versus company. And here, competition battle card fits the bill.

Provide strategic analysis

If you thought that competitor battle card is a mere information tool, you will be pleasantly surprised to know that the function of the battle card goes beyond just providing you with valuable information.

Battle cards provide an overview and analysis of the market and how trends shape the market and competition. They can provide analysis that helps highlight the advantages your customers have if they chose to go with your product. This actually arms customers with enough knowledge and insights to go with your product instead of going with competition.

Advantage, customer!

What ultimately helps customers is that the battle card can provide a clear view of what they stand to gain when they opt for your product. Along with pricing, unique selling proposition (USP), end-user benefits, application methods, and past customer testimonials, battle cards also provide an overview of the ROI or return-on-investment.

Imagine the impact of the presentation when you present to your customers what is it and how much will they gain by using your product vis-à-vis the competition.

A classic example is that of a medical equipment supplier whose pricing was higher than that of the competitor but whose ‘’silver bullet’’ or USP was – absolute quality. The supplier was able to show the customer that though initially the customer will have to shell out additional money, over a five-year period, the customer will save about 21% in total costs. Now, that is business intelligence and long-term strategic view – and battle cards can do that!

A normal sales pitch will be so cliched that you might end up having more disadvantages than advantages. But armed with a competitor battle card, you will stand to gain a lot more than just customers’ approval – you will gain their respect and who knows, maybe even their loyalty over a period of time.