In today's fast-paced business environment, every sales team is looking for ways to gain a competitive edge. One proven tactic for boosting sales team performance is the use of sales battle card templates.
This document serves as a quick reference guide for sales teams, containing key information about the company's products or services, customer pain points, and competitive landscape. It can help your team increase customer engagement, win more deals, and ultimately drive revenue growth.
In this blog post, we'll provide a step-by-step guide to creating a sales battle card template that's customized for your team's needs.
Let’s dive in.
What is a Sales Battle Card?
A sales battle card is one of the most powerful sales enablement tools designed to help sales teams win more deals by providing them with quick, easy-to-digest information about their products, services, and competitors.
It's essentially a cheat sheet that sales reps can refer to when engaging with potential customers, allowing them to quickly and confidently answer any questions that may arise during the sales process.
Sales battle cards can include a wide range of information, from key product features to understanding your competitors' strengths and benefits to competitive differentiators and objection-handling techniques.
Arming your sales team with key insights at the right time, a well-crafted sales battle card can help your team close deals faster, more often, and with greater success.
Why are Battle Cards Important for Customer-Facing Teams?
Battle cards are critical for customer-facing teams as they provide a consistent and accurate source of information, helping teams quickly answer any questions or concerns that a prospect may have.
Here are three key reasons why battle cards are important for customer-facing teams:
1. Improved Market Knowledge and Confidence
Battlecards provide comprehensive product and service information, helping sales reps to be knowledgeable and confident in their sales pitch. The battle card should include all essential information about the product/service, including key features and benefits, as well as answers to frequently asked questions.
This ensures that sales reps have all the information they need to provide a convincing sales pitch, answer any objections, and ultimately close the deal.
2. Increased Sales Effectiveness
Battlecards help sales reps to be more effective in their sales efforts by providing them with the right information at the right time. For instance, during the sales call, sales reps can quickly reference the battle card to provide relevant information that resonates with the customer.
This helps sales reps to be more persuasive and close deals more quickly and with greater success.
3. Competitive Advantage
Battlecards provide information about key differentiators and competitive advantages, enabling sales reps to more effectively position their products and services against those of their competitors. The battle card should include details about what makes the product or service unique, such as features, quality, and pricing.
By highlighting these advantages, sales reps can differentiate their product/service from competitors and win more deals.
By providing consistent and accurate information, helping sales reps to be more effective, and enabling them to be more competitive, battle cards can drive success for your team and business.
Types of Sales Battlecards to Crush your Competition
Sales battle cards can serve as a comparison tool for one or multiple competitors, or they can be utilized for internal reference by sales reps or as prospect-facing collateral.
When deciding which type of battle card to work on, it's always better to prepare first. Creating different types of battle cards can help sales reps to be more effective in their sales pitch.
One-to-one battle cards are more useful when prospects have narrowed down their options and need in-depth information about how your solution differs from a specific competitor.
This type of battle card can also provide sales reps with more detailed information about why your company is better or worse than a particular competitor.
On the other hand, multi-competitor battle cards are more commonly used in the research phase, where potential buyers need more information in a distilled format.
Overall, creating multiple types of battle cards can help your sales team to be more prepared and effective, whether they're engaging with prospects in the researching phase or further down the pipeline.
There are three other main types of battle cards that companies can use to help their sales teams close deals; these include competitive battle cards, product battle cards, and marketing battle cards.
Here's a closer look at each type and when to use them:
1. Competitive Battlecards
Competitive battle cards provide detailed information about your competitors and a feature comparison of your product/service with theirs. They include information such as pricing, product features, and key selling points.
Competitive battle cards are best used when a prospect has already expressed interest in a competitor's product or service. They can be used to explain how your product is better or different, helping to overcome objections and win the deal.
2. Product Battlecards
Product battle cards provide detailed information about your products or services, including features, key benefits, and use cases. They are used by sales reps to help them understand your products and services better and to answer prospect questions about them.
Product battle cards are best used during the sales process to help educate prospects and close deals.
3. Marketing Battlecards
Marketing battle cards provide information about your marketing and sales strategies, including key selling points, unique value propositions, and targeted customer segments. They help sales reps to understand your overall marketing strategy and to communicate it to prospects.
Marketing battle cards are best used when your company has a specific marketing or sales strategy that sets you apart from your competitors.
By using the right type of battle card for each scenario, you can equip your sales team with the information they need to close deals more effectively. According to a study by Corporate Visions, companies that use battle cards see a 22% increase in win rates compared to those that don't.
Additionally, a study by HubSpot found that 69% of high-performing companies use competitive battle cards, and 44% of them use product battle cards. Increase sales effectiveness and aid your sales team with the right tool and help them close more deals.
Creating a Sales Battlecard Template for your Sales Team
A strong sales battle card includes all the information that is succinct to help your sales teams win more deals. Here's how you can create a sales battle card template for your sales team -
#1 Recognize Key Stakeholders
Creating a sales battle card is not a task that can be accomplished alone.
It requires a collaborative effort across various teams within an organization. Identifying key stakeholders such as sales, marketing, and product teams, as well as executives, is crucial for gathering feedback and ensuring that the battle card meets the needs of the business.
Each team has unique skills, insights, and perspectives on the competition and product, which can help improve the sales process.
For instance, the product team can provide in-depth knowledge about the product's features, while the customer success team can identify common customer issues that the Sales team can address up front.
Additionally, marketing can provide insights into how competitors are positioning their products in the marketplace. By leveraging the expertise of different teams, the battle card can be optimized to meet the needs of the business and its customers.
#2 Define your Value Proposition
Clearly define the unique benefit your product or service provides to your customers and how it is better than the competition.
#3 Include Market Data
To understand where your product stands among your competitors and how your product fits the market, add stats on the market size by leveraging reports and studies, estimated demand, market trends, and other useful information about your market. This helps the salesperson to understand the market on a deeper level.
These details equip the salesperson with the knowledge required to discuss the industry, including the latest trends, and how your product fits and stands out in that particular environment.
Including comprehensive and up-to-date market insights helps sales representatives better understand and articulate the value of your product to potential customers.
#4 Gather Competitive Intelligence
To effectively strategize your sales approach, start by listing your competitors and analyzing how often they are mentioned at different stages of the buyer's journey. Based on this, you can decide whether a competitor deserves its own battle card or can be included in a multi-competitor comparison.
If a specific competitor is a major threat in the final stages of the sales process, create a dedicated battle card to address their strengths and weaknesses.
However, if other competitors are mainly mentioned in earlier stages and don't pose as much of a threat towards the end, it's better to include them in a multi-competitor battle card. This approach allows you to be well-prepared for any potential challenges that may arise in the sales process.
Collect competitive intelligence from multiple sources, including competitor websites, market research reports, and review sites like Yelp, Clutch, and Glassdoor.
Look for consistent themes and customer issues to identify areas where you can differentiate your product from the competition.
#5 Analyze the Information
When it comes to analyzing the information at hand, don’t just write down the obvious differences, but break them down into sections that can be actionable and easily understandable by sales reps and provide an advantage and reasoning over your competitors. Pitch your product as the better solution with your competitors being in the quadrant, and use the information at hand to specifically differentiate the how, why, and what.
Highlight themes like unresponsive customer service, frustrating customer support, and infrequent product updates, and showcase how your business addresses these issues.
#6 Use Actionable Insights from Reviews
Leverage reviews to find actionable insights that can be incorporated into your battle card.
Use a sample, avoid negative reviews and search for the reviews left by current employees. Highlight themes that emerge from the reviews to showcase how your product solves those problems.
#7 Update the Content Regularly
Updating sales battle cards regularly is crucial because the competitive landscape is constantly evolving. Your competitors are likely making changes to their products, marketing strategies, and sales tactics, which means that your sales team needs to be equipped with the latest information to stay competitive.
Overall, updating sales battle cards regularly is crucial for staying competitive in a dynamic market. It ensures that your sales team is equipped with the most up-to-date information and helps you identify opportunities for improvement in your strategy.
Propel your Win Rates to the Next Level!
In conclusion, a well-designed sales battle card is an indispensable tool that can help your sales team close deals more efficiently and effectively!
By identifying your competitors, gathering valuable insights, and compiling them into a concise, easy-to-read format, you can provide your reps with the knowledge and confidence they need to succeed.
If you want to learn more about how Salesken can help your team achieve better results, book a demo today.
