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Knowing your enemy is half the battle in hyper-competitive industries like tech, CPG, and media. That’s why over 60% of businesses use sales battlecards to arm their sales teams with insights from competitive intelligence teams. 

The problem is — sales battlecards can become a disadvantage if not kept up-to-date and accurate. Outdated information can lead to losses for your sales team. With over half of competitive intelligence teams managing 10+ battlecards, keeping them current is tough — no wonder only 34% can confidently say their cards are slaying the competition and boosting win rates.

Who has hours of extra time to research multiple competitors?

We built this free sales battlecard generator to provide instant competitive intel, including strategic talking points, SEO data, recent news, and reviews.

What is a sales battlecard?

Sales battlecards are concise, easy-to-digest, easy-to-share documents that provide key information about your competitor. It’s a key competitive intelligence tool that includes important information on the following: 
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• Competitive talking points: Insights into how your product or service uniquely stacks up against competitors.
• Positioning strategies: Guidance on how to effectively position your product in the face of competition.
• Competitor strengths and weaknesses: Detailed breakdown of what competitors are doing well and where they fall short.
• Pricing information: Up-to-date details on competitors’ pricing structures to help tailor your sales strategy.

Sales battlecards are usually created in a Google Doc, PowerPoint deck, or PDF so they can be shared easily with sales and marketing teams. 

But there’s a problem with this traditional approach — it leaves a lot of manual work for product managers, marketers, and sales reps. Considering these assets are highly time-sensitive, the more time you spend on development, the more outdated it becomes.

PLUS, sales teams often don't know these battle cards exist or know where to go to find them. So it does you no good to have written them if they aren't used.

That’s not a good way to prepare your sales team for the GTM launch. 

Ignition’s AI-generated Sales Battlecards kickstart the strategic process and decrease development time with the following features: 
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• AI-generated talking points summarizing competitor strengths and weaknesses
• A collection of recent and relevant news stories involving your competitor
• Current screenshots of your competitor’s site to track pricing and messaging
• High-level SEO data on organic traffic, ranked keywords, and PPC
• Customer reviews to assess customer sentiment and satisfaction

Why do I need a sales battle card?

By leveraging artificial intelligence and automation to gather competitive intelligence points, Ignition sales battlecards provide many benefits to product stakeholders:
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• PMs and PMMs spend less time researching competitiors and creating assets.
• Centralized battlecards facilitate easier collaboration among PMMs, sales, and stakeholders.
• Sales teams get more accurate competitive intelligence to use.

The right sales battlecards help your SDRs and Account Executives address customer objections, showcase their product's unique selling points, and orient teams toward a GTM launch that will win more deals. In an increasingly product-heavy marketplace, this is the edge you need.

Why are sales battlecards important?

Sales is a high-stakes game, and battlecards are your ace in the hole — provided you’ve built them right, of course. Here’s why every sales team worth its salt is arming itself with these power-packed tools:

They help you win better

‍Battlecards are packed with insights that level the playing field and tilt it in your favor. These cards give your team a precise game plan they can execute as soon as they enter the sales arena. The result? A significant improvement in win rates. 

In fact, industry experts find that sales battlecards, if done correctly, can boost competitive win rates by 50-60%. 

Currently, only one-third of teams even know whether their battlecards are impacting win rates at all. Thanks to Ignition’s all-in-one approach, you have all that win-loss data and other key insights right at your fingertips. 

They help you win bigger

‍It gets better: Ignition sales battlecards don’t just help you win more; they help you win bigger deals. 

How? Giving sales teams the ammo they need to upsell and cross-sell confidently. 

When your sales reps knows the competitor's offerings like the back of their hand, they can more easily highlight why your product isn’t just a better choice, but a bigger value — proving that value to your potential customers results in more money back to you.

They help you win faster

‍We all know that in sales, time is money. Well, competitor battlecards are like turbo boosters that speed up your sales cycle and free up time for tracking new leads. 

Equipping your team with ready-to-use competitive intelligence gives them compelling messaging to help cut down on the back-and-forth, the “maybe-laters,” and the “let-me-get-back-to-yous.” 

Quicker conversions, and shorter sales cycles – that's the magic of having a powerful competitive intelligence tool up your sleeve.

They help you stand out

‍Understanding your enemy is key to victory. Battle card templates offer a deep dive into your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, giving you the intel to position your product as the undisputed champion. 

It’s about turning generic statements like “We're good” into “We're the best for you because…”. This level of nuanced understanding lets you highlight your product’s unique value proposition in stark contrast to others. 

Don’t just downplay the competition — showcase why your product is in a league of its own.

Create a Battlecard

How competitor battlecards help you close deals

So, you know actionable sales intel helps improve your team’s win rates, deal size, and sales cycles. But how exactly do they do it? Let's talk about the deal-closing superpowers of battlecards:

1. Addressing objections in advance
Sales conversations are like an obstacle course, with objections popping up like unwelcome hurdles. Battlecards prepare your sales reps for as many of these as possible by turning each objection into an opportunity to put your brand and product at the top of the list. 

Ignition integrates with key sales platforms like Gong and Intercom, extracting insights from sales pitches to inform our AI with the exact voice of your customer. 

These insights from our competitive intelligence tool help your SDRs preemptively strike down concerns about features, pricing, and more with well-researched, compelling arguments directly from customers or other prospects. 

It's like having an answer before the question is even asked.

2. Showcasing unique selling points
Every product has its parade moment — sales battlecards ensure yours shines brighter than the competition. They help your team fine tune their sales pitch by highlighting what sets your product apart, putting its strengths front and center. 

You don’t need to throw shade at the competition (as fun as it is). Illuminating your product’s brightest features can be enough with the right messaging. Ensure that when a customer asks, "Why should I choose you?" your team delivers a show-stopping answer grounded in real customer opinions.

3. Guiding sales conversations 
Battlecards are the strategic compass guiding your maze of sales dialogues. Each card lays out a roadmap based on the common customer pain points and data from the successes and failures of previous sales calls. It gives your SDRs a pain-by-numbers approach to handle curveballs, pivot conversations, and lead discussions to that sweet spot – the successful close. 

Ignition gives you the competitive intel you need to guide your sales reps through the twists and turns of complex conversations so they’re not wandering in the dark — they’re marching towards a clear goal using the voice of the customer as a North Star. 

4. Building credibility 
Your sales team is likely the live contact customers have with your brand — successfully navigating that interaction goes a long way to building your company's credibility. 

Competitive intelligence allows your sales team to show deep market knowledge, gaining customers' trust. This approach proves your team is excelling in the market.

Battlecards provide a roadmap for sales reps to navigate complex sales conversations and steer them toward a successful outcome.

Common challenges with sales battlecards and competitive intelligence

From the struggle to deliver timely, relevant data to ensure the accuracy of intelligence amidst a sea of sources, actioning competitive intelligence is typically a challenging process that can make or break the effectiveness of your GTM launch. 

Here are some of the common hurdles teams face in developing competitor battlecards that are informative and actionable.

‍Timely Delivery: There’s no point in gathering competitive intelligence if it's outdated by the time you need to apply it. Unfortunately, gathering data on time is the biggest challenge for 49% of those developing sales battlecards.
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Intel Accuracy: Product and other teams must gather competitive intelligence from various sources to get the full picture. They have to walk the fine line between quickness and quality. In the race to maintain speedy delivery, it’s no surprise that accuracy is a growing challenge. 

‍Workflow Management: Like other aspects of the product lifecycle, successful battlecard development relies on cross-department input. However, according to a 2023 ProductPlan report, 17-32% of product teams feel isolated from the rest of the company. 

How are teams supposed to align quickly on sales enablement messaging if they can’t communicate effectively?

‍Buy-in and Ownership: With so many stakeholders involved, it’s easy for key assets like battlecards to suffer due to a lack of ownership. It’s even more difficult to achieve buy-in on the final messaging. While the alignment is up to you and your team, getting this done efficiently is more challenging when you have to accomplish it across several key differentiators of point solutions. 

These issues with maintaining accurate competitive intelligence and sale battel cards reflect a larger problem — the siloed, fractured approach to product development and GTM launch.

Who owns battlecard creation

Ideally, sales battlecards are created in a collaborative dance between Product, Marketing, Sales, and even other stakeholders like Customer Success. They're not static documents — a sales battlecard template should evolve, adapt, and grow sharper after each encounter with a lead or customer. Furthermore, if you join forces with sales forecast templates, you gain valuable insights and projections to further refine and optimize sales strategies.

But in terms of ownership over the asset, this often falls to product marketing managers and product managers. This means these key assets suffer from many issues plaguing the disjointed, fractured Product-GTM process.

In Ignition, sales battlecards are built and live in the same place as your roadmaps, launch documents, and metrics. This proximity helps you turn your GTM process into a competitive advantage.  

Relevant teams can easily collaborate to meticulously design and arm your sales team with razor-sharp insights, competitive counters, and unique selling propositions that make every pitch a winning one. They're the distillation of collective wisdom, shaped by real-world feedback and customer interactions, ensuring your team stays one step ahead. 

Beyond sales: using battlecards for Product and GTM

Battlecards are sales aids that are invaluable tools for Product and Go-to-Market (GTM) teams. These resources offer a wealth of benefits that extend across various facets of product development and marketing strategy.

‍1. Product launches: Your Market Compass

‍For Product and Marketing teams, battlecards are indispensable during product launches. They provide an in-depth understanding of the competitive environment, offering insights into common customer pain points for positioning your key features effectively. 

Using battlecards gives your team a detailed perspective on competitor strategies, strengths, and weaknesses. This knowledge is vital in crafting a unique and compelling market position for your product. 

‍2. GTM Team: Arming Your Troops

‍GTM teams also find immense value in battlecards. These tools are akin to comprehensive guides that equip your team with the sales collateral and market intelligence they need to win against key competitors. For every new product launch or campaign, your GTM team needs to be well-versed in differentiating your offerings from competitors and addressing potential customer objections. 

Battlecards offer this knowledge at their fingertips, enabling them to craft more effective strategies and communicate more confidently. 

They help you prepare to answer tough questions and position your product as the best solution.

Create a Battlecard

Ignition sales battlecards are built seamlessly into your Product-GTM workflow

Ignition’s battlecard creation is intricately woven into your larger product-to-market (GTM) workflow. As your product evolves from an idea to a market contender, Ignition’s platform is with you every step of the way. 

Our battlecards are living documents, evolving alongside your product and market. These cards are dynamically linked to your product development stages and GTM strategies, ensuring that all intelligence is up-to-date and relevant.

Step into the future of competitive intel with automated, AI-driven battlecards

At the heart of Ignition’s platform is a game-changing approach to building battlecards. Gone are the days of manually sifting through mountains of data. Our platform automates the tedious process, populating your battlecards with key competitor information. 

‍Firmographic data

‍A data enrichment platform that provides basic company information, such as employee size, market cap, funding, and social media profiles. Think of it like having a digital Sherlock Holmes at your disposal, deducing the nitty-gritty details about your competitors — from their funding rounds to employee count and even their latest marketing maneuvers.

AI-generated talking points 

Our AI gathers data and turns it into gold. We kickstart your product messaging by generating razor-sharp talking points that cut through the noise and resonate with your audience. 

Refine these talking points with your knowledge of the current market to highlight how your product gives customers the edge they need. It’s like having a strategic partner in your pocket, constantly brainstorming and feeding you messaging points to outsmart the competition.

News stories

No more subscribing to multiple RSS feeds from TechCrunch, PRNewswire, Forbes, WSJ, and other sources to manually track competitor news and press releases. Ignition automatically scrapes the latest developments from these leading sites and provides a central module for monitoring relevant news stories.

SEO data 

Ignition helps you prepare for dominance in the SERPs with a comprehensive overview of your competitors’s organic and paid performance. From organic web traffic to keyword ranking to the cost-per-click of their paid ads, our platform scrapes key SEO data to help you win your launch across all domains. 

Quickly monitor your niche's search real estate landscape and identify the valuable topics your GTM team should target. 

Customer reviews 

Analyze product ratings and reviews on platforms like G2 Crowd to identify the pros and cons of your competitors' offerings. Use this information to build your product strategy with verified talking points about their weaknesses and strengths. You can even use reviews to justify investment in potential new features.

Website screenshots

Our tool monitors your competitors' websites, capturing date-stamped screenshots to see how their messaging, pricing, and visual branding are evolving in real time. Use this information to identify when your competitors make a big move and plan a timely response accordingly.

By understanding your competitors' strengths and weaknesses, you can position your product effectively and equip your sales teams with the knowledge they need to succeed. Start leveraging the power of battlecards today and watch your sales soar.

Create a Battlecard