Enterprise Sales Battlecard

An enterprise battlecard is a visual aid that compares a company’s products, features and pricing to that of a competitor. Typically, one-page in format, a battle card is a fast way to provide an overview of competitors and see how you stack up against them in areas like performance and value.

When presented to prospects, an enterprise battle card may be more effective when used later in the sales process. This is because it can be very effective at identifying detailed or small differences that might swing a prospect and help close the deal. They’re also a good tool for newer salespeople because they provide in-depth detail on where your company is stronger (or weaker) than a competitor. Finally, an enterprise sales battle card can be utilized as a comparison to as many competitors as needed.

How to Create an Enterprise Sales Battlecard

Pick a template. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel. There are many templates specific to the enterprise sales cycle to choose from.
Select Competitors. Depending on where you are in the sales cycle, this number can vary. In early conversations, you may want to include more competitors and group them based on high level differences. Later in the sales cycle, you may want to include only the few that are left in consideration.
Identify Key Categories. The categories you choose can vary based on product and industry. For an industry that is highly price sensitive, you should include price. For a product where pricing is stable across competitors, focus on other categories of differentiation, such as customization or new features.
Build the Enterprise Battlecard. Make sure to research multiple resources (primary and secondary) to get the full picture and ensure your data is accurate.
Update the Enterprise Battlecard. In a market that is always changing, be sure to update your battlecard on regular intervals or before each meeting with the client.

How Do I Succeed in Enterprise Sales?

While enterprise sales battlecards are a good tool to have in your toolbelt, there are many factors to successful enterprise selling. The 4 principles are: know your customers, know your products, know your solutions and build long-term relationships.

Know your customers. You need to research the marketplace and your customer, of course. Even more importantly, you need to experience your customers’ products and services. All the reading and research in the world won’t match actually experiencing your customers’ products and services.
Know your products. This requires focus and effort. It’s imperative that you understand the features and functionality of the products you’re selling. This can be especially challenging as the product you’re selling may evolve over the course of the enterprise sales cycle. Don’t rely on others in your organization to explain the value of your product to your customer. You must have this knowledge and the ability to expertly explain the features, benefits, and unique advantages of your product.
Know how your products can become solutions to your customers’ needs. It’s not up to your customer to connect the dots for you. You need to be able to articulate how your product delivers solutions to real enterprise business problems. Often this means being able to provide relevant case studies and success stories at the right time and in the right words.
Ultimately, successful enterprise selling requires the building and nurturing of strong, long-term relationships.

Today’s successful enterprise salesperson must meet the needs of buyers who expect sophisticated, consultative, and technology-enabled salespeople. The stereotypical salesperson, who fights over leads, only works the phone, and takes clients to golf, is obsolete. Instead, a successful consultative seller needs to negotiate data deals, leverage relationship analytics, and attend industry events. Sales enablement also plays a large role in successful selling.

What is enterprise sales enablement?

In a nutshell, enterprise sales enablement means equipping sellers with the right resources to shorten the sales cycle, increase win rates, and sign bigger deals. Enterprise sales enablement, as a function, evolved in response to the evolution of the enterprise buyer. With a wealth of information available online, buyers are in more control of the buying process than ever before. In many cases, enterprise buyers can be more than halfway through their journey before they reach out to a seller.

What does this mean? It means that sellers must take the initiative to reach out to enterprise buyers, winning the buyers’ attention much earlier in their journey. This is a task typically associated with marketing. So, sellers need to think more like marketers, and marketers need to think more like sellers – about the day-to-day experiences of buying and selling.

Enterprise sales enablement is providing customer insights, content and coaching to your sales team throughout the enterprise selling process. Sales enablement is the process of providing your sales team with the resources they need to close more deals. These resources may include content, tools, knowledge, and information to effectively sell your product or service to customers.

Ultimately, the goal of sales enablement is to align the interdependent elements of sales, marketing, customer support, product management, brand management, legal, and human resources to boost seller productivity and improve the buyer experience. In a nutshell, a sales enablement strategy is to provide salespeople with what they need to successfully engage the buyer throughout the buying process.

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