Glossary
By the Glue Team
A competitive battlecard is a sales and product tool that summarizes how your product compares to a specific competitor. It highlights your strengths, competitor weaknesses, and effective sales talking points. Battlecards help sales teams win deals by providing clear, concise competitive positioning.
A battlecard is typically a one-page document (or slide) for each major competitor. It includes:
Faster Sales Cycles: Sales teams don't need to research competitors. Battlecard gives quick answers. "What's our advantage vs. Competitor X?" is answered in seconds.
Consistent Messaging: All sales reps use same talking points. Message consistency builds brand. Without battlecards, reps make up different arguments, confusing customers.
Win Rate Improvement: Well-crafted battlecards help win more deals. Reps know how to position your product. They know how to address competitor advantages.
Objection Handling: "Competitor X is cheaper" or "They have feature Y." Battlecard shows how to respond. Maybe you're more expensive but better. Maybe you have a roadmap item. Battlecard helps reps handle objections.
Market Intelligence: Creating battlecards forces competitive analysis. You learn what competitors are doing. You identify gaps. This informs product strategy.
Product Feedback: Sales hears from customers what competitors are strong in. Battlecards capture this. Product teams use it for prioritization.
Most effective battlecards follow this structure:
Header: Competitor name, logo, key info (founded, funding, headquarters)
At a Glance: One sentence comparison. "We focus on simplicity; they focus on features."
Strengths vs. Them:
Weaknesses vs. Them:
Key Talking Points:
Win-Back Strategy:
Feature Comparison Table (optional):
Questions to Ask Their Prospects:
Do Market Research: Don't guess. Try competitor product. Read their documentation. Watch demos. Talk to their customers.
Get Sales Input: Your sales team hears directly from prospects. What do competitors claim? What do prospects like about them? Input sales perspective into battlecards.
Be Honest About Weaknesses: Acknowledge where competitors beat you. Customers find out anyway. Honest battlecards build credibility.
Focus on Value, Not Features: Customers don't care about features abstractly. They care about value. "They have X, we have Y" is less compelling than "They focus on breadth, we focus on depth and reliability."
Update Regularly: Competitors change. Your product changes. Battlecards become obsolete. Review quarterly.
One Page Per Competitor: Concise battlecards get read and used. Ten-page competitive analysis sits unused. Constraint breeds clarity.
Test with Sales: Share with sales team. Do they find it useful? Are talking points resonating? Iterate based on feedback.
Too Long: Ten-page battlecards are weapons of procrastination, not sales. Sales doesn't read them. Keep to one page.
Overstating Strengths: "We're better in every way" isn't credible. Honest battlecards are more effective.
Ignoring Weaknesses: If you don't acknowledge what competitors do well, sales doesn't know how to handle customer questions about it. Weaknesses should be there with mitigation.
Outdated Information: Battlecard from two years ago is misleading. Update them or retire them.
Missing Why: "They have feature X" is information. "They have feature X but it requires manual configuration; ours is automatic" is insight. Why matters.
Generic Positioning: "We're better quality" is vague. "We have 99.99% uptime vs. their 99.9%, which matters for financial institutions" is specific.
Battlecards inform product direction:
Gap Identification: Which competitor strengths appear repeatedly in battlecards? Maybe you should build similar capability.
Differentiation Validation: Do battlecards align with intended differentiation? If not, maybe position needs refinement.
Messaging Feedback: What talking points resonate with sales? Use that to refine go-to-market.
Roadmap Prioritization: Sales hearing customers ask about competitor features? Add to roadmap.
Competitive battlecards are outputs of competitive gap analysis. Glue enables deeper gap analysis by making your codebase intelligence available. Understand not just what features competitors claim, but what they've actually built. This enables more credible, specific battlecards.
"Battlecards are just feature comparisons." False. Feature comparison is small part. Battlecards are about positioning, messaging, and sales strategy.
"We need one battlecard." False. Create one per major competitor. Each competitor is different. Different battlecard for each.
"Battlecards replace product strategy." False. Battlecards are tactical tool for sales. Strategy is separate. Battlecards should reflect strategy.
"Competitors don't need battlecards." False. Every competitive threat needs a battlecard. Prioritize by win/loss rate impact.
Competitive Gap Analysis: The research process. Battlecard is the output.
Competitive Positioning: How you position against competitors. Battlecards operationalize positioning.
Sales Enablement: Battlecards are sales enablement tool.
Win/Loss Analysis: Understanding why you win and lose deals. Informs battlecard content.
Q: How often should battlecards be updated? A: Quarterly minimum. More frequently (monthly) for competitors changing fast. When you ship major feature that changes competitive positioning, update immediately.
Q: Should battlecards be customer-facing? A: No. They're internal sales tools. Customer-facing content should be about your product value, not competitor criticism. Though messaging should be battlecard-informed.
Q: How many competitors need battlecards? A: Top 3-5 competitors causing the most win/loss friction. Don't create battlecards for every possible competitor. Focus on ones impacting your business.
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