Tips For Nailing SaaS Sales Battlecards

If a sales team fails to yield their sales battlecards to the best of their ability, then they are like warriors going into battle with no armor or game plan. You might luck out and spring ahead of the competition initially, but without a strategy you are ultimately doomed to failure.

A sales battlecard is an essential tool needed in your arsenal. They help your sales team remain consistent so they can create a compelling message that paves the way towards an effective deal closure.

Battlecards give you a realistic view of your organization’s potential shortcomings. You might think that you are in the lead spot against the competition with optimum customer service, ambitious pricing, and innovative features.

However, if you have ever attended a horse race then you know that the horse that breaks out of the gate in first place isn’t necessarily the pony who will cross the finish line to win the Garland of Roses. It takes a lot to make a sale and clinch the deal. Sales battlecards are not a luxury but a necessity.

A study carried out by Crayon found that 71% of organizations that use sales battlecards elevated their win rates substantially.

Despite the necessity of sales battlecards, they are not easy to create.

Short Summary

• Sales battlecards are essential tools that help sales teams create compelling messages and deal-closing strategies.
• They reveal potential weaknesses in your organization's offerings and help maintain consistency in sales approaches.
• Sales reps use battlecards to create effective pitches, ensuring they have the necessary information at their fingertips.
• Battlecards help sales reps stay updated on organizational changes, industry developments, and competition.          
  
  
  

What are Sales Battlecards?

A sales battlecard is like a blueprint that outlines a concise summary of your market, products, customers, and competition.

It’s almost like a cheat sheet that kids create in school in an effort to ace a test. It gives your sales team the tools needed to respond to critical questions, address objections and meet the needs of potential prospects. They help ensure that your sales team and reps supply accurate information on a consistent basis.

Battlecards contain figures, statistics, data, and information that will prove beneficial during the sales process. Sales reps need to lay the groundwork needed to ‘win.’ This means that they have to have the details and know everything about their competitors so they can better meet their customer’s expectations.

Sales battlecards help create a winning sales strategy by acting as a visual aid. Your sales team can quickly compare your organization's services, products, features, and pricing to that of your competition. An effective battlecard is straightforward and gives the perfect overview of the competitors so you see how you compare in crucial factors such as value and performance.

Many in the sales world consider battlecards an ace in the hole or a magical weapon that helps them effectively outsmart the competition. Yes, creating sales battlecards does take extra work but the rewards are golden. They are like hitting pay dirt.

How Do Sales Teams Use Battlecards?

So, at this point, you are probably wondering exactly what your sales reps and sales team can do with a battlecard? With a precise and effective battlecard, your sales reps are locked and loaded - ready to do battle and compete to their fullest potential. Here is why and how they need to use battlecards to win the fight!

Create an Effective Pitch

Your sales team will have the tools needed to deliver a compelling and effective pitch. There is no reason to scramble at the last minute for data and information via folders, websites, SharePoint, or other sources. A well-designed sales battlecard is all they need to hit the ground running and overtake the competition.

Sales reps are busy, and they don’t want to spend an excessive amount of time on other things such as researching company updates from the competition or new products they might be launching. Instead, they want to focus on selling.

Regularly updating battlecards with information about the competition, their products, and services will let your sales reps see how their offerings stack up against the competition.

Battlecards prevent your team from being blindsided when dealing with a customer who throws out the competitor’s benefits and value proposition to push you off the rails. Instead, you can quickly respond and rebound so you leap ahead.

Confidence and knowledge in a sales rep are very appealing qualities that can help close the deal. With the information at their fingertips on a battlecard they can quickly change gears and re-customize their approach to create an effective, winning pitch.

Take the Lead Over the Competition

Sales reps are constantly busy. Many are traveling, on the computer with customers, or taking customer calls. Often, they simply don’t have the time to take advantage of learning about the company’s new features, products, and offerings.

A sales battlecard keeps them informed about everything that is happening with the organization, within the industry and with the competition. The battlecard can quickly outline any changes in regulations or other important last-minute information.

Maybe the competition has recently debuted a new product, but your company already has a similar item. On the sales battlecard, you’ll want to outline why your product takes the lead over the competition and its many benefits, so your sales rep has the trump card needed to win.

Prepare for Situational Pitches

If you live in an area that often experiences tropical storms or hurricanes, then you know that you always have days to plan for the onslaught.

How well your property and physical self will weather the storm depends on your preparation. You know ahead of the storm that it's time to batten down the hatches. Sales battlecards act like that crystal ball into the future. They give your sales rep the advantage they need to ready themselves for situational pitches.

Create actual situations to educate your sales team on how to navigate the choppy waters that can arise during a customer meeting. Make up scenarios and then explain how a sales rep should handle the situation.

Below are a few examples of how sales battlecards can help your team come out swinging with the punch they need to meet any situational pitches head on. Remember, knowledge is power, and you are giving your sales rep the knowledge needed to address any problems or obstacles and close the deal.

Present existing challenges that a customer might encounter. Analyze the contributing factors to better develop the pitch. Perhaps there is a downturn in employee productivity. Counter with the fact that the geographic location has experienced a reduction in sales due to increased customer attrition rates.

Outline information on the product the customer uses and whether it is nearing a license expiration.

Have your customers recently inquired about new features? If so, then you’ll need to include information on those features in the sales battlecard. Outline both the good and the bad and then break it down further to answer any concerns the customer may have so your sales rep can quickly alleviate the problem with a solution.

If your organization is offering discounts and is embarking on a sales promotion, then include all of the information on the battlecard.

Track the Competition in a Controlled Manner

It’s no secret that if you track the competition too closely then you might end up being paranoid, which isn’t healthy for sales. Instead, you’ll want to pay close attention to the competition in a very controlled manner.

Monitor the activity of your competitors and include all of the essential information in the sales battlecards. Competitor battlecards are concise and contain the important data needed to arm your sales reps.

You’ll want to carry out the following reconnaissance against your competitors:

• Monitor the company’s social media posts
• Visit their website
• Examine their campaigns
• Look at any new client wins
• Pay attention to geographic expansions

Outline all of the essential information to include in the sales battlecards. However, do not flood it with information. Remember to keep things short and sweet by presenting nothing but the bare facts.

What a Sales Battlecard Is and Is Not

• Concise and to the point so your sales rep can skim the information quickly during any conversation with a prospect.
• Provide rapid fire responses to customer objections.
• Include a focused frequently asked questions section.
• Provide impactful value propositions
• Outline facts and statistics so your sales team can effectively back up claims without sounding boastful.

• Excessively long
• Opinions with no facts
• Set in stone (they should always be fluid and change when needed)
• Used infrequently (your sales team should always use effective sales battlecards)

When creating sales battlecards, remember that they are not long-winded essays. You are not authoring a book report, eBook, or whitepaper. Never go into excessive details or make the battle card too expansive or the sales rep reading it will just get lost in all the wording.

When a sales rep is dealing with a customer, they want to provide confident, rapid-fire answers with accuracy. If they are reading a novel and trying to swim through the many paragraphs, then they are going to be slow at answering and might not even find the correct information to make the sale.

The name ‘sales battlecard’ is a bit of a misnomer. You are not using the battlecard as a ruthless weapon to destroy the competition. Remember, most customers are immediately put off when a sales rep starts to trash talk the competition.

Sales battlecards are tools in your sales team's arsenal that makes their case stronger. When yielded correctly, the information provided on each battlecard gives your sales rep the competitive edge by showcasing their knowledge and shining a positive light on your services and products.

Yes, a sales battlecard does list your competition's weaknesses but a sales rep knows how to effectively use those to give them the upper hand without necessarily throwing the competition under the bus.

Instead, you use the information to create a position of power and knowledge. By correctly positioning a competitor's weaknesses, you come out ahead by showcasing exactly how the products or services offered are different and better..

8 Sales Battlecard Examples and Types

Sales are complicated no matter what product or service you are trying to sell. An example is the SaaS world. Competition is stiff and many are trying to push products that share many similarities.

An effective and well-written SaaS battlecard will arm your sales reps with awfully specific industry information that truly shows how you stand out.

With a tailored battlecard, your sales team can meet any buyer objections head on with sound advice and facts that will often turn the tide of a sale in your favor because your business will automatically stand apart.

If you research sales battlecards you’ll discover a variety of battlecard template samples that you can use to build from. Battlecard template free examples that you can download are also available.

Sales battlecards can differ. Many are used internally as reference for your sales team members and others function as a comparison sheet. Below we will examine several types and categories of battlecards.

1. Product Battlecards

A product battlecard outlines pertinent information about the product your sales team will sell. You can list the challenges faced by potential customers, outline the value, and list the industries that the product best fits. Product battlecards are educational in nature. They give your sales reps the facts they need to launch an effective sales pitch.

Either focus on a solitary product or use the battlecard to compare a variety of products while providing use examples. A sales rep will use a product battlecard to play up the product, emphasize the benefits, address the pain points, show value, and ultimately detail the features that will help resolve any challenges.

Sales battlecards for products often compare the most products and their point of sales systems. By outlining the different parameters of the competition such as any fees they charge, equipment they use, and the user’s experience, the card will then end with an assessment so your sales reps can effectively compare the competition’s products to your organizations.

Some marketers also use an infographic to further depict necessary information in a concise manner. The infographics on the battlecard lets a sales rep quickly evaluate the products side by side with a combination of texts, pictures, etc.

2. Competitive Battlecards

Your sales team will have a window into your competition with a competitor battlecard which holds an abundance of brief details about your competition. A sales rep can quickly scan the battlecard to determine the competitor’s market value, customer profile, annual run rate, and solution overview. A sales rep can rapidly examine vital information and then launch a winning pitch.

A competitive battlecard lists the need-to-know information on the competitor needed to make an effective sales pitch such as:

• Pricing
• Solutions
• Services
• Run rate
• Market value
• Customer profile

Most prospects want to know how your product or services stand up against other companies. A competitive battlecard lets your sales rep address any questions, concerns, or objections that a prospect might voice.

A competitor battlecard arms your sales reps with the answers and actionable facts they need if a prospect asks about the competition. Knowledge of the competition is always a power that can quickly put your sales team in the forefront and that much closer to closing the deal.

3. Marketing Battlecards

Battlecard marketing takes a hard look at your competitor’s marketing strategy to lay a framework for your sales reps to spring ahead and win. The battlecard lets the sales rep know exactly who your competitors are selling to and how they are closing the deals.
Some competitors might try to position themselves as being cost-effective and your sales rep will need to position your product as higher quality which is why you have a higher price point. Your sales reps will then effectively market to buyers who are willing to pay more for a superior product or service.

Effective marketing battlecards include information such as marketing channels, partners, and industry verticals.

4. Detailed Comprehensive Battlecards

As the old saying goes, ‘the devil is in the details,’ and a comprehensive battlecard will give your sales team the information they need to effectively sell your product or service. A comprehensive battlecard gives a greater scope on the competition. It will often tackle the facts and even cover popular myths so your sales team can disprove any misconceptions and defuse any reservations to finalize the deal.

5. The FAQ: Question-Based Battlecards

A question-based battlecard is like an FAQ. It will list any possible questions that a customer might ask. The sales rep can quickly rely on the card to answer the questions quickly and completely. List questions/answers about products, services, or the brand that potential customers might ask.

A sales rep can effectively build off the answers to the questions to develop repertoire with the client and open the door of friendly conversation. Building a relationship always helps to finalize the sale.

6. Company Partnership Battlecards

With partnership battlecards, you can effectively outline the company’s partnership. List challenges, key differentiators, questions, and the sweet spot that sets everything apart.

7. Value Proposition-Based Battlecards

List key information about target customers, outline and define value proposition, questions, processes, and the reason why customers should choose your product or services. Basically, a value proposition-based battlecard lists all the benefits that a customer will get using the product or taking advantage of the service offered.

8. Case-Based Battlecards

A case-based battlecard contains information related to particular cases that depict how a product might fit a customer’s needs. With a case-based battlecard, you are delving deeper into addressing how the product or service best meets the customer’s particular needs, wants, and desires. It usually also includes qualifying questions. Typically, the sales battlecard that is case-based will have a network diagram that your sales team uses when carrying out conversations with the customer.

Using Battlecard Templates

Use a battlecard template that provides distinct sections to effectively declutter all of the information for easier deciphering. You want the reader’s eyes to immediately focus on the important key points that give a detailed competitor overview.

Templates list categories and headings, but you have the option of customizing them further to meet your sales team’s needs. A basic template acts as a guide to form a battlecard. Many sites, such as HubSpot, offer customizable templates.

Common template or battle card template PowerPoint option examples are as follows:

Side-by-side Comparison Battlecard: Whether you have a sales representative meeting with a potential customer or you are carrying out an internal meeting where you want your sales reps to examine the competition, the side-by-side comparison battlecard comes in handy.

You can display the competition’s weaknesses, and strengths then round everything down to the development of a winning strategy.

Finally, list solutions coupled with key features. With a side-by-side comparison battlecard on-hand, your sales reps can quickly show why one solution is better than another and why it might also prove a better fit for the client.

Multi-Competitor Battlecard:

This is a great battlecard for either internal or external use. Use it to compare your competitors features and benefits using an easy-to-read chart.
Competitor Battlecard: Explore your competitors’ weaknesses and strengths develop and fine-tune a winning strategy. The templates will usually feature an area for customer references and case studies. Once developed, the battlecard will help your sales team ultimately win the sale.

What Do You Put in a Battlecard?

Are you ready to create a battlecard but wondering what you should put in the design?

Your team probably regularly conducts exercises to hone their skills. The content used to draft a battlecard is similar to what you probably already use and discuss in your sales team powwows.

At your sales team meetings, you probably talk about market research, competitive analysis, buyer personas, and customer profiles which are all put in a battlecard design, however there are differences.

Tips for Creating an Effective Sales Battlecard

Effective sales battlecards outline information in a noticeably clear and concise way. The goal is always to persuade the customer and make the sale. It not only covers buyer personas and shared questions, but it also tells sales reps exactly how to utilize the information about your services or products to inspire the customer and, ultimately, close the deal.

Below are a few tips on how to create sales enablement battle cards:

Include Stakeholders and Welcome Feedback

When you start to draft a battlecard, always remember it's not a solo task. Instead, you’ll want to collaborate closely with your sales teams and others in your organization such as executives and your marketing and product teams.

Let the key stakeholders provide feedback that you are going to use to build your sales battlecards. Every individual who works in your company can provide valuable insight due to their particular skill sets, product knowledge and opinions of the competition. Utilizing all of the skillsets of your teams and their vast experience helps create a strong framework for the sales process.


The product team has deep knowledge about the products that business sells and their features.

The customer success team knows the pain points of your sales team and customers.

The marketing team knows how to best position your products and services in the marketplace.

Develop a Company Overview

Now it’s time to take a hard look at the data and state such as the estimated demand for a product, market size, and market information. You want to use the crucial details to establish your sales team as industry leaders. The goal is to empower your sales reps so they stay ahead of trends and can truly make the products stand out.

Create an Ideal Customer Profile

Develop a section that outlines the ideal customer profile. List the buyer persona and customer pain points. Now examine exactly how your company’s product or service will meet the customer’s needs and solve their problems. At this juncture, you’ll want to include important information on how exactly to identify opportunities to better upsell and cross sell.

List Product Features

This is the section of a sales battlecard that focuses on whether you’ll highlight the product features. Weigh the vital details about the product and then think about what the prospect wants and needs to know.

At this point, you’ll want to collaborate closely with your teams to create a list that includes the following information about the products and services:

• Most popular
• Desirable features
• Frequently used
• Features customers might not use or really care about
• Underrated features

Provide a Competitor Analysis

Sales battlecards do not simply compare company differences. Instead, they must go beyond by effectively analyzing the information and then breaking it down further so the sales team can address specific advantages that stand out over the competition. The information is then used to create an effective pitch.

Have your team carry out in-depth research on the competition by conducting simple tasks such as examining review sites to learn about customer complaints or praise. Good sites to examine for the information include Google reviews, Yelp, Amazon, Clutch, Glassdoor and more. You want to pay particular attention to their consistency and make note of any customer issues that are detailed.

Mining reviews is a goldmine of information on your competitors if you carry out the research properly.

Here are a few ways to gather insight that you can use to build your sales battlecards:

Gather a large sample of reviews. One or two reviews is not helpful. You want a large sampling so you can try to hone in on common complaints and themes.

 
Angry reviews are usually spurred by a quick emotional response and may not provide a clear picture of the incident so you might not want to pay close attention to anything that is too aggressive.

• Examine only recent reviews. If a review is five years or older than the problem has probably been fixed and is no longer relevant.
• Pay attention to employee reviews, especially current ones.
• Avoid reviews that clearly exaggerate or are unreasonable because they are typically not the norm.

When looking for helpful reviews and customer feedback about the competition focus on the following problems:

• Unresponsive or poor customer service
• Frustration or annoyance over customer response
• Lack of improvements
• Few updates.

You can highlight the above problem on the sales battlecards and then display how your organization fosters a better user experience and improved customer service. If your business offers 24/7 customer support but your competition is only available during a limited time frame, then you can be sure to have your sales reps promote your customer service.

List how often your products undergo updates and highlight the entire development cycle. Be sure that your sales team knows when improvements will occur, or new products hit the market.

Do not throw your competition under the bus but instead use actionable insights to have your sales team show how your products or services far surpass the competition.

Now take things a step further by examining your own customers. Use your CRM to look at customer data. Also ask your sales team about their notes or client profiles they created. Determine the key reasons that customers gave for working with you. Also, investigate why some customers opted to not buy from you and it became a lost opportunity.

The competitor analysis you develop for your sales battlecards is like a two-sided sword. You want to look at the good and bad of your competitors and then you need to flip the coin and look at your organization's own customer relationships and review to create a balanced scorecard and picture of everything that you’ll need to effectively develop any sales battlecard.

How to Create Sales Battlecards

Sales battlecards give your team the edge. Referred to as ‘competitive intelligence,’ it enables your sales team to more competitively identify challenges and advantages that form the groundwork for a competitive differentiation.

• When will your sales reps use the battlecards?
• What information should you include?
• How will the reps use the battlecards?

• How do I identify the competitor?
• How does our product or service differ from the competitor?
• What is the best way to launch an attack with offensive strategies?
• How can I defend?
• What are the best ways to approach the market?

8 Starting Points for Your Battlecard

Below are a few battlecard starting points.

1. Spotting a Competitor Battlecard

A battlecard that focuses on spotting a competitor lets your sales rep know and understand exactly who the competition is in any deal. You can include specific questions that your prospects might have about the competition and how to answer them.

2. Quick Dismiss

The quick dismiss battlecard is all about unseating your competition so you can rise above them in the eyes of a prospect during conversation. The battlecard will contain statements focused on the competition that will help the prospect gain a clear picture of both you and the competition. Ultimately, you want to come out ahead of the competition in the prospects' eyes.

The quick dismiss battlecard should focus on showing how your company stands out and takes different approaches. Make support statements with key points that outline how your organization differs from the competition. Keep things broad and avoid getting weighed down in the specifics or tedious details.

Summarize all of the information with a high-impact statement. A quick dismiss approach is always effective due to its simplicity and it provides high value to the prospect of letting them know exactly how your product or service stands out. It provides you with a platform to toot your own horn and showcase why you might be the best choice over the competition without being overbearing.

3. Questions to Ask

Gather information to better de-position your competition. You can offer information that your prospect might have never thought of with the goal of raising questions that show your competitors weaknesses.

Asking questions will help you get a better handle on what is important to prospects while giving you the opportunity to provide more detail about your products or services to show exactly why you stand out from the competition.

Using questions effectively gives you the chance to provide a treasure trove of information to better guide your prospect’s decision and help your sales rep close the deal.

4. Using Landmines

With landmines, you can raise doubt in the minds of your customer about choosing the competition over your product or service. You’ll ask specific questions and then throw out key points that let your prospect know your solution and how it's the best one without seeming like you are bragging.

5. Handling Objections

Providing a list of objections lets your salespeople know how to respond to any objections that a prospect might present. It provides talking points but does not exactly say what to say. It just basically points you in the right direction.

6. Why We Win

Give your sales reps the leverage they need by outlining your brand’s biggest strengths in order to shine brighter than the competition. This is kind of like taking an offensive approach to give your sales team an edge and prevent the competition from springing ahead.

7. What Makes Us Lose?

The reason we lose information is the opposite of why we win. Instead, it focuses on your organization's weakness and how your competition has a stronger position on certain key factors. You want your sales reps to meet the challenge by having the answers about why your company might fall slightly short of the competition and then be able to switch things back to your strongest areas.

8. Go-to-Market Strategy

Outline your competitor’s go-to-market strategy. Do they frequently offer discount prices? Are they constantly undercutting your product? Having the answers to those two questions will help you create a strategy with your prospect. Simply focus on two or three tactics of your competition that have caused challenges for your sales team. Knowing such information will ultimately make your sales reps stronger and more self-assured.

Steps for Creating a Sales Battlecard

Let’s examine how to create sales battlecards with the following five steps:

1. Pick a Template

It’s hard to start creating a sales battlecard from scratch. Instead, use a battlecard template. With a template, all you have to do is fill out the details. The battlecard template saves you time but also offers consistency so that all of your different cards that focus on various competitors have similarities for ease of use.

Pick a template to create a profile battle card of your competitor, choose a side-by-side comparison that compares your product or services to the competition, and also develop a multi-competitor analysis battlecard.

2. Choose Categories

• Features
• Value to consumer/ROI
• Cost to consumer
• Customization
• Customer service

An effective battlecard is persuasive and honest. If your competitor excels in an area where you lack, then admit it and then offer an explanation. Your prospects will be reassured with honesty and will also develop realistic expectations if they decide to go with the deal you are offering.

Never list too many negatives when creating sales battlecards. All battlecards are sales collateral devices so you’ll want to focus on being truthful while focusing on the positives in the entire sales cycle.

When making a one-on-one battlecard do not waste space and time listing areas that do not significantly differ between you and the competition, such as price. If your competition's price is comparable to yours then don’t list price because it’s not worth it to mention. However, if your price is affordable then you’ll definitely want to list it if it’s a strong selling point on the battlecard.

Always provide helpful details for your sales reps to use both internally and externally. Include useful fast facts, and quick references. Things like annual revenue, case studies and pricing models are all beneficial.

3. Choose Which Competitors to Include

Familiarize yourself with your top competitors and make a list of them. You’ll want to outline the stages of the buyer’s journey. Think about whether or not each competitor needs a dedicated battlecard or if you should just create a single multi-competitor comparison card.

Start with the competitor that poses the greatest threat. You’ll want to include all crucial details and devise a one-on-one battle card for them. Competitors that do not pose as serious of a threat can be placed on a multi-competitor battlecard.

4. Take the Time to Research

You want to cross all of your ‘t’s’ and dot all of your ‘i’s’ when carrying out research and creating sales battlecards. Never include erroneous information that your prospect might call you out on.

When developing sales battlecards, it should be a team effort. Your sales team is already familiar with the biggest competitors and your marketing team has a handle on all of the assorted brands. The marketing team monitors the competition's online presence, reviews, and brands.

Your customer success team also knows exactly why or if you have been losing prospects to the competition. Everyone has to work together across the board to develop the best and most effective sales battlecards. Once you bring your teams together, you’ll achieve the greatest impact and truly have the opportunity to make strong sales battlecards.

• Customer success
• Marketing
• Sales
• Competitive Intelligence
• Sales enablement

If you have decided to bypass making the creation of your sales battlecards a team effort and opted to fly solo, then you’ll still want to take the time to sit down with your co-workers to discuss the competition.

• Examine the website of the competitors for facts and details you should know.
• Read reviews and then categorize them based on usability and value
• Look for any mention of your competitors on social media or in the news
• Look at past accounts and then reach out to see why would-be prospects picked your competitor over your services.

If you take the time to carry out detailed research, then you’ll end up with a library of details that your sales team can definitely use. The sales battlecards you create will impress prospects and also streamline all processes for your sales reps, so they feel prepared and ready to close the deal. Use the information that you gather to create effective battlecards.

5. Don’t Fall Behind

You don’t want to rely on the same old sales battlecards. Things change and you’ll fall behind if you don’t update the battlecard’s content regularly.

Creating effective sales battlecards is not a one-time task but an ongoing project that you have to stay on top of or you’ll lose ground and maybe end up losing sales. You have to remain up to date to stay at least a step ahead of the competition.

When updating your sales battlecards, you’ll want to revisit all of the information in this guide to make sure you are presenting all of the facts. Always eliminate any outdated information. You never want your sales reps to provide prospects with inaccurate, misleading, or old information or you risk looking foolish and like you have fallen behind the times.

Regularly refreshing your sales teams battlecards also gives you an opportunity to watch your competition. You’ll have the chance to make note of any updates that you might want to pass on to your product team for future roadmap usage.

Tips on Refining Your Battlecards

Now that you have an idea of how to start making sales battlecards, let's look at some tips that might help you master the process and end up with winning battlecards at your disposal.

Examine Your Sales Challenges

Sit down with your sales team to get a clear idea of the challenges that your sales reps face and then you can find ways to better address them.
Below is a list of the few most shared challenges reported by sales teams.

New salespeople require guidance to truly gain an understanding of your organization’s competitive advantage and better understand your value propositions. Make sure they are receiving the support and assistance they need to become cutting edge and successful.

Talk to sales reps who have stated they are having a hard time selling against certain competitors. They might need more information on their sales battlecards to achieve success.

Determine if your prospect truly understands the value of your integrations and partnerships.

Talk about whether your sales are struggling if you are breaking into a new market.

Often sales reps’ won’t come right out and tell you their challenges. Instead, you’ll need to go on a fishing expedition to find out how they feel and what they think.

Define a Goal

Sales battlecards help your sales team close deals. You’ll want to set your goals and then determine the monetization behind the battlecard’s performance. What are your sales goals?

• Do you want to increase contract value? If so, by what? 5%, 10%?
• Do you wish to achieve greater upsell success for your services and products? Determine a percentage - 10%, 15%?
• How many new customers do you hope to bring in every quarter for each specific vertical?
• What is the goal for losing fewer deals to a competitor? Do you want to reduce your lost sales by 10%, 20%, or more?
  
  

Gather the Details

Let different members of your teams handle various sales battlecards. Ideally, the task of defining sales battlecards should not be handled by a single person but more a collaborative effort or carried out by individuals from your various teams.

• A sales rep brings valuable insight on questions frequently asked by prospects.
• A member of the product team will provide fantastic product information on the item’s capabilities.
• A marketing team member will provide insightful value propositions.

• Personal details
• Customer profiles
• Wow factor
• Features
• Greater offerings
• Product overview
• Service outline
• Top pain points
• Pain point solutions
• The ‘aha’ prospect moment
• Main objections outlined by prospects
• Pricing outline and details
• Unique value propositions
• Case studies and details
• Potential drawbacks (weaknesses)
• Competitor specific points to discuss

Creating Messaging

• Bullet Points: The use of bullet points lets your sales reps quickly scan the pertinent details they need quickly and effortlessly.

• Phrases: Avoid long headers and instead stick to important phrases like ‘pricing,’ ‘top features,’ and ‘customer stats.

• Remain conversational: Use your brand’s voice, style, and tone so that your sales reps can easily read directly off the battlecard when working with a prospect.

• Focus on persona needs: You might not have a crystal ball to know exactly what a persona will say or ask but you can use your expertise to develop expectations to address the situation.
• Base messaging: Focus on using terms that have force and impact.
• Facts and evidence: List customer quotes, performance metrics and case studies to make your argument and sales pitch more effective and reinforce your value proposition.

Consistency in Layout

Whether you use a template or you design your own layout, remain consistent when creating your sales battlecards. Consistency actually helps foster the adoption of the tools by your sales reps. In time, they know exactly what to expect and how to find the valuable information because they become familiar with the consistent layout of each battlecard.

Always keep your details in the same places such as listing pricing details at the top left-hand corner. Your sales reps will know where to look to quickly find what they need to know so they can keep on rolling without encountering roadblocks when presenting a pitch and working to close the deal with a prospect.

• A single page: You do not want your sales rep scrolling through or clicking the pages of a document while they are trying to carry out a conversation with a customer. Instead, keep all sales battlecards to a single page for fast and effortless access of all information by your rep.
• Delineate sections and use headers: You want your sales rep to quickly find what they are seeking in the sales battlecard so they can rapidly answer the customer’s questions. Grouping things into categories with headers helps substantially. Your sales rep can effortlessly find the answers they seek.
• Brand the battlecard: Use your brand’s colors and fonts to showcase the importance of the battlecard. It makes it feel more official and important so your team will quickly pay close attention to the information displayed.

Storing Battlecards

Always ensure that your sales battlecards are storable and easy to retrieve from a common database. Use Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, or Box. Categorize the battlecards by using tags and purposes so they are easily searchable and discoverable.

How to Distribute Battlecards

Distribute the sales battlecards to all of your teams so they are familiar with each one. Notify everyone every time you create a new battlecard or update an existing one.

Elements of Sales Battlecards

•  Include information about your products, services, and organization. Your sales team acts as ambassadors and they should be well-versed in your company’s products and history.
• Profile your target audience by outlining the traits of the perfect buyers and any problems they might want to resolve.

Outline all unique selling points of your services and products. What makes things distinctive?
Use cases to describe business problems and solutions.
Provide benefits to your customers.
Stay up to date with industry trends.
Provide differentiating factors that show why your solution is better than your competitors. Ideally, provide at least three differentiating factors that show why your service or product is better.
Share real life success stories.
Address potential pitfalls.
Provide answers to counter questions about products or services.

Battlecards marketing success hinges always on the facts, information, and design of each of the sales battlecards.

Why Do People Win With Battlecards? The Takeaway

A battlecard gives your sales rep a winning hand to better close the deal. Your customers win with battlecards because they provide a sales rep with the facts that a customer needs to make a decision.

• Deliver an effective and compelling pitch.
• Provides the information needed quickly and effortlessly.
• Helps to prepare an effective sales pitch.
• Keeps you one step ahead of your competitors.
• Outlines challenges and solutions to prepare for situational pitches.
• Displays pain points and solutions.

 

Once you have created your sales battlecards you are ready to distribute them to your sales reps so they can hit the ground running. A well-designed battlecard will work effectively for your team. Remember, all sales battlecards are living documents that require frequent updating to remain relevant and effective. Regularly meet with your teams to go over what is and isn't’ working so you can continually improve the sales battlecards to give your sales team the tools they need to close more deals.

Frequently Asked Questions 

What is a SaaS Sales Battlecard?

A SaaS Sales Battlecard is a concise document that equips sales teams with essential information about the product, competition, and market, helping them close deals effectively.

Why are SaaS Sales Battlecards important?

SaaS Sales Battlecards provide sales reps with the knowledge and strategies they need to effectively address customer objections, showcase product strengths, and outperform competitors.

How can I create an effective SaaS Sales Battlecard?

To create an effective SaaS Sales Battlecard, focus on key product benefits, competitive analysis, objection handling, and situational pitch scenarios.

How often should SaaS Sales Battlecards be updated?

SaaS Sales Battlecards should be updated regularly to reflect changes in the product, market, and competition, ensuring that sales reps have the latest information.

What should be included in a competitive analysis section of a SaaS Sales Battlecard?

The competitive analysis section should include competitor pricing, solutions, services, market share, and customer profiles for effective objection handling.

How do SaaS Sales Battlecards impact sales team performance?

SaaS Sales Battlecards boost sales team confidence, streamline the sales process, and empower reps to deliver compelling pitches, ultimately improving win rates and revenue.