The Anatomy of a Battlecard: An Essential Sales Enablement Tool

Marketing isn’t easy. Neither is sales. But, it’s marketing’s job to support, train and enable their sales team to ensure the company is successful – by giving them exactly what they need, when they need it.

Oftentimes marketers may find themselves cranking out slick, external-facing pieces of customer collateral. It’s critical, however, to create the internal documents that sales needs in order to: make an effective sales pitch, stay ahead of the competition and prepare for common objections.

Enter: the battlecard.

A battlecard is an internal document that arms your sales team with intel to ‘go to battle’ against the competition and successfully sell your product or solution. It’s typically only one or two pages – offering a quick and easy-to-read snapshot of the more important information about how you measure up against (and beat out) competitors.

Every company will have its own battlecard template, but there are some common types of information your sales team needs to make the sale. Here’s a breakdown of the anatomy of a typical sales battlecard:

Battlecard – Part A | Product Information

Most battlecards will start out by describing (at a high-level) what product or solution the company is selling. This may also extend into explaining the problem it solves, and which key product features support or enable the resolution of customer pain points.

Battlecard – Part B | Competitive Intel

A critical component of every battlecard is information about who you’re selling against. Often, battlecards will visually show how you stack up to others in this space – possibly through a table (like the one pictured below) that lists key areas or needs and then rates your offering or performance against the rest.

An at-a-glance chart like this easily shows your true differentiators so that sales know what to focus on – and what to avoid.

If your sales team needs more prescriptive content, you could also list out your competitors’ top strengths and weaknesses (or claims against you). Then map specific talking point responses, to explain how you’re different or help the prospect uncover a competitor’s weakness for themselves.

Battlecard – Part C | Sales Target

Another helpful part of the battlecard is to understand your ideal customer (or persona). This might include listing out specific job titles, as well as which verticals/sectors or applications are most relevant for your product or solution.

The document should also take this one step further to list the likely pain points or challenges the industry is facing – and what may trigger the customer to seek a different solution.

Battlecard – Part D | Conversation Starters

Sometimes just knowing where or how to start the conversation can be the most challenging. One trend in battlecards is to list out a few ‘starter questions’ to get the conversation going. These questions are carefully and thoughtfully written to feel natural, while also helping a salesperson expose vulnerabilities or challenges that you can help solve.

Battlecard – Part E | Success Stories

A prospective customer is likely going to ask who you’re already working with, and what outcomes you’re seeing. A battlecard can be a great place to include a few logos of current, big-name customers and to reference some specific metrics or KPIs you’ve been able to achieve together. It’s OK if these stats are ‘blinded’ – oftentimes just being able to share them confidentially helps sell your credibility in the space.

Depending on your sales team’s needs – you could also reprioritize and make room for other elements like:

• Links to other internal (or external/sharable) resources
• Pricing information
• Answers to common objections

So, while a battlecard may not seem exciting – it’s a crucial piece in a salesperson’s toolbox, and absolutely a piece of collateral your marketing team should be developing to enable the sales team to do their job effectively. You can also play around with the design and visual aspects to help make the battlecard an eye-catching and easy-to-read piece!

Still looking for ways to equip your sales team to successfully sell your product or solution? Standing Partnership has helped organizations realign sales enablement strategies and create more effective sales collateral. To learn more about the benefits of sales enablement, download the free resource below.