Using knowledge of the competitive environment and specifically about a competitor’s strategic priorities, go-to-market tactics, and messaging – and even customer perspectives about their strengths and weaknesses – it is possible to help sales teams anticipate what they are up against and position themselves more strongly within an account.
As Diane said: “My experience is that if you arm salespeople with good insights and options, they will embrace them readily and use them very effectively. And an interesting benefit that can come from this is that sales force can become a very meaningful and reliable reporter of competitive activity. They see who else is calling on an account, they may hear the customer relay impressions or share offers that have been made, new services they are launching, new partners they have engaged. Often sales teams hear and observe these things but don’t know who in their organization should be told or to respond.”
However, a crucial point to note here is that the insight must be packaged in a way that is most useful to sales teams.
Battlecards that outline the features, functions, strengths, and weaknesses of competitors and their offers are a good start, especially if they are short and easily digestible. But the best way is to ask sales teams how they would like the insight presented, and what format is most likely to see the insight work consumed and used by the team.
Listen to the full session here.