Well-crafted sales battlecards are a powerful way to get an edge over competitors. Battlecards can include all kinds of information, but which will pass the utility test during sales conversations and prove the most useful to your sales reps? Our advice: try these 5 key sales battlecards.
The Big Picture
First of all, it’s important to understand what a sales battlecard is and what it should accomplish. Battlecards should keep sales conversations brimming with relevant, accurate, and updated narratives and data points. Battlecards should also answer key questions in concise terms. Here are a few to keep in mind: What knowledge on the market will sales reps need during sales conversations? How can you identify your competition, and how can you best distinguish your organization from a counterpart with very similar product offerings during the sales process? What are the most effective defensive and offensive strategies?
If you’re thinking, that’s a lot of information, you’re right! But the trick to making great battlecards is being able to distill the complexity of the answers to these questions in bite-sized pieces. Otherwise, your sales battlecards may grow disorganized and bogged down by excessive detail, making it difficult for sales reps to derive their full value during live calls. So to reap the full benefits of sales battlecards, you’re going to have to achieve a balance between specificity and broad-strokes ideas. Categorize battlecards by clear themes, and frame salient evidence in the context of your big-picture strategy. Here are the top five sales battlecards we promised.
Sales Battlecard 1: Key questions
The key questions battlecard is intended to help sales reps gather important information during sales conversations with prospects on everything from insights on the competition to the buyer’s needs. Questions should ideally be framed in such a way as to skillfully coax preferences and sensitive information from prospects, especially since certain details would be difficult to obtain from a more direct approach. For example, posing indirect questions on what features your buyer values could lead to fruitful discussions about how your company’s offerings uniquely align with their needs. Strong questions will forge a closer connection with prospects, while intrusive ones will alienate them. So it’s essential that the questions on this battlecard are carefully curated and tested to ensure nuance, subtlety, and professionalism during calls. Finally, it may also be useful to indicate on the battlecard which questions are most relevant to different stages of the call and how they relate to the overall sales process. You don’t want junior reps asking the right questions at the wrong time! It takes time to train sales reps to do this successfully, but solutions like Attention can help ramp up junior reps in a matter of weeks rather than months thanks to AI technology.
Sales Battlecard 2: How to identify the competition in a deal
A natural continuation of battlecard 1, the “how to identify the competition” sales battlecard should include questions specifically tailored to determining who the competition is for a particular deal. Do you know if your prospect is already in the process of closing a deal with another organization? Prospect responses may hold a clue or two. Sales reps, be sure to watch for language cues in the prospect’s answers that mirror competitor rhetoric. Identifying the competition for a deal will be very useful in conversations about why your organization is the better fit later on.
Sales Battlecard 3: What is the competitor’s usual strategy?
Why bother with a battlecard that focuses on the competition’s market strategy? Shouldn’t sales reps just focus on their own strategy? Well, having specific information on your competitor’s usual sales approach and deal strategy will definitely help sales reps be ready to shoot down alternative offers in conversations with buyers. While it doesn’t have to be particularly detailed, this sales battlecard should give sales reps relevant market context. For example, what last minute tricks or price cuts has the competition used to capture buyers in the past? What are some lessons that can be drawn from these instances? Once your sales reps have a clear understanding of what the competition is up to, it will be a lot easier to beat them at their own game.
Sales Battlecard 4: Why we’re different
Making decisions can be hard for buyers, especially between options that seem to have a lot of overlap. Make it simple for prospects to understand why your organization stands out from the rest with the “why we’re different” sales battlecard. The point of this battlecard is to help sales reps differentiate their company’s offerings and problem-solving approach from the competition’s. The content for this one will depend on your organization’s product or service and company culture, but be sure to clarify how each difference translates into a concrete benefit for the buyer. You don’t just want to explain how you differ, but why you’re evidently the better choice for their needs. This sales battlecard should not only include your company’s unique strengths, but should also list weaknesses so that sales reps are prepared to address known shortcomings. Proper framing will be key to helping reps spin weaknesses in a positive direction and win more deals.
Sales Battlecard 5: Addressing buyer objections
Arguably saving the most important battlecard for last, it’s highly advisable to include battlecards specifically dedicated to addressing frequently mentioned buyer objections. While well-trained junior reps will have little trouble with the pitch portion of calls, being able to think on their feet and effectively address buyer objections will require building sales reflexes through experience on actual calls. This doesn’t mean they have to enter the arena alone; equipped with well-research buyer objection battlecards, even junior sales reps can skillfully navigate the difficult task of responding to buyer hesitation on the spot. Attention is one technological solution that will help your sales organization address both the challenge of sales training and that of implementing your sales enablement strategy. With features like performance tracking and live feedback for sales reps, Attention is the perfect addition to your organization’s sales training toolkit. But how does it help with the implementation of your sales battlecard strategy? Well, Attention seamlessly integrates with your communication platforms to bring up relevant sales battlecards on sales reps’ screens using voice-activated cues, solving the old problem of how to access specific information during heated back-and-forth. Be sure to try Attention for a more seamless sales battlecard user experience today.
