Battlecards are a critical part of your competitive intelligence strategy. They take the information you’ve gathered in your research and turn it into tools that help your sales team. Once you have figured out what goes on sales battlecards, here are three essential uses for them:
1) Train new salespeople.
A sales battlecard that is well structured and links to backup information is incredibly useful when you bring on new salespeople. Each new member of your team needs to understand not only your company and your product, but each of your competitors, as well. That means who your competitors are, how they differ from each other, and what features or products they have.
A good battlecard can act as a crib sheet so your new sales reps can quickly learn about your competition, and even help them identify the players they are up against in a deal. It is also the best way to bring them up to speed on your value proposition and counter-arguments.
Use your battlecards to quiz your new sales folks and you will bring them up to speed fast!
2) Keep sales team on the same page.
Salespeople are independent folk. They have their own systems and like to do “what’s always worked.” This means it can be hard to keep everybody on the same page with regard to counter-arguments, handling objections, and steering prospect conversations. Battlecards can help by giving everybody a heads-up on what arguments they are likely to hear and what is the best way to address them.
Even better, battlecards give your sales team a chance to shine. If they have had success using a particular argument or have discovered a question that disarms a specific competitor, it can be added to the battlecards and shared with the entire team.
3) Make sure everyone on your sales team can find the latest updates on competitors.
One thing I hear all the time from marketing and sales teams is how to make sure everyone can find the latest information. Well, battlecards provide an easy way to do this. Just update your battlecards as new and crucial information comes in about your competitors.
I’ll even give you a trick to keep your battlecards up-to-date: Every quarter, ask your sales team to write down the questions and counter-arguments that were the most successful for them. Then add that to the battlecards so everyone on your team can benefit!
Strengthen Your Sales Team
Sales battlecards strengthen your team by improving training, keeping everyone on the same page, and making new information accessible. Use them to create a replicable method of closing sales for your company.
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