Tactical sales brilliance is a wonderful thing, but solid preparation is the key to taking luck out of the equation. Good poker players make the best of the cards in their hands, but chess masters map out the future before it even happens. Battlecards are the manifestation of looking several steps ahead, knowing what a customer is likely to say in advance and having the right response ready before they do. High-quality battlecards follow these simple rules:
Don’t just report—anticipate the argument. While good battlecards must be well-informed, they aren’t designed to be 100% objective. They are, in large part, your sales teams’ side of an argument, helping them get inside the castle walls, blunt customer objections, and zero in on competitor weaknesses.
Go on the offense and defense at the same time. A first-rate battlecard must allow the sales team to guide the conversation to the path of best advantage, helping them talk about your product’s strengths and the competitor’s weaknesses simultaneously.
Get inside the heads of everyone involved. Your battlecard must be able to anticipate what customers are likely to be concerned about, how competitors are positioning both your weaknesses and strengths, and how your sales teams will need to respond.
By Sean Campbell
By Scott Swigart