[Simple] Competitive Battlecard

Format by Andrew McCotter-Bicknell.

<aside> 💡 Product Marketing Tip: figure out what their pain points are and better understand what the prospects care about. Then you can find out if there’s a competitive battle at all.

All text is filler content and fake data. Adjust the info to your product and company’s situation to build talking points that win deals.
Use a conversational tone
Use simple, concise, and targeted language
Always reference sources and link to proof points as much as possible! </aside>

[Competitor name] - Battlecard 🌟

The Skinny - What sets ‘[Your product]’ apart?	Landmines to lay 💣 Questions that sow seeds of doubt concerning your competitor
1. Ease to use, modern platform for collaborative hiring

See immediate value, without having to build out an entire careers site
Feedback loops tell you exactly what steps in your hiring funnel need to improve, no guessing needed
Easily integrated into your tech stack | Future-oriented- question. How will you handle when (insert problem you solve) comes up?

Stability - Are you okay with periodic network outages? Stability is a ‘must have’ for everyone. ACME B has a surprising amount of outages compare to other top-tier players.

[Theme 2] - How important is reporting to your business? ACME B data quality is sporadic. Their data becomes inconsistent when building customized hiring reports. |

| The Deets Where we win 😁
Your key differentiators. Top reasons why you win deals against this competitor. Steer the conversation towards these. | Where we lose 😒 Your key weaknesses. Top reasons why you lose deals against this competitor. Reinforce your value statements to pivot the conversation. Elevate the conversation to refocus back to core strengths. | Quick dismiss - ACME vs Competitor X Bring the focus back to your solution | | --- | --- | --- | | Weakness: automation is key and ACME B is weak in this area.

**Example: our customers have told us that automating key actions is key. ACME B does not offer what clients in our industry are looking for.W | • Necessary details for sales to know. Make sure they don’t run into this call blind.

Competitor strength: if user requires advanced feature set for inclusive hiring.

Counter: our platform provides the most extensive marketplace. Greenhouse may provide too many features, that will confuse the team. | 1. Not ideal for Enterprise customers. Reporting and analytics poor. [URL to external review] 2. Lacking features to mitigate unconscious bias throughout the hiring process. [URL to external review] Acknowledge and praise competitor: “[Competitor is great if you’re looking for a comprehensive [relevant benefit].” — State their limitations: “Unfortunately, a lot of customers have said they have struggled to implement [Competitor], often taking over 90 days to launch. A customer that switched from [Competitor] said it required 10+ hours of their time per week.” — Highlight your value: “Unlike [Competitor] we offer starting templates and a 90-days kick-off plan, with a dedicated services team. How important is for you to get up and running efficiently?”. |

Scope out the competitive landscape

Explained	Talk Track
What’s their current state? Try to understand how familiar they are with products/ services you are providing.	ACME: “Have you worked with other HR providers previously?” Prospect: “We’ve worked with others in the past!”
Who else are they looking at? See if they are also chatting with competitors. If so, we should find out who!	ACME: “What’s that experience been like?” Prospect: ”Some have been hit or miss, but we’ve heard good things about you and ACME, which is why we responded to your outreach.”
What do you care about in those solutions? Asking this gives you the opportunity to educate the prospect on what matters and expands their criteria.	ACME: ”That’s great - I’m glad our customers have been evangelists for us! I’m curious, as you’re evaluating providers, what are the top few things that are most important to you?”

Laying landmines

Don’t make this overly complicated. Just 3-4 landmines to be housed in your battlecards for easy access.

1️⃣ Pick a sentence structure

“How important is your strength/ competitor’s weakness to your evaluation?”

“How would you work around competitor’s weakness?”

2️⃣ Select your strength/ their weakness

Price	Quality	Security	Training
Features	Quantity	Location	User satisfaction
Support	Depth	Flexibility	Integrations
Privacy	Breadth	Performance	Stability

3️⃣ Lay your landmine & leave-behind

“How important is pricing to your evalution?”
“Our pricing is more approachable to competitor. We’ll meet you where you’re at
- and will work with you if you’re struggling to come up with budget.”

☝🏾 Leave-behinds explain why/ how their weakness is your strength.