In high-stakes sales conversations, your reps need more than just confidence — they need the right tools to handle objections, outshine competitors, and win over prospects. That’s where sales battlecards come in.
Battlecards equip sales teams with quick, go-to insights that help them navigate tricky conversations with ease. But for a battlecard to be effective, it must be clear, concise, and easy for your team to use in real time.
In this guide, we’ll break down the best practices we’ve developed for writing, designing, and structuring effective battlecards that your sales reps will actually use and that will boost their performance.
Remember Pokémon battlecards? You’d size up your opponent, pick your strongest card, and use its special attacks to win the match. Sales battlecards work the same way—except instead of Pikachu’s Thunderbolt, your reps have competitor insights, objection-handling scripts, and winning differentiators to close the deal. (Bonus: No rare holographic cards required.)
These are concise guides that help your sales team succeed in competitive situations. They serve as a cheat sheet, summarizing key information about your competitors, product strengths, and how to address common objections. Think of them as the secret weapon your team can reach for in the heat of a sales pitch.
For one of our e-commerce clients, we created a two-sided battlecard that explains how their brand fares in a specific product category over their top competitors in that space. The card highlighted key differentiators and listed the specific ways their brand wins over the competition. These concise, impactful talking points enabled their reps to confidently address objections and win over prospects, all in real-time during real-life conversations.
Another one of our clients — in the event marketing industry — was gearing up their go-to-market strategy to enter a completely new market. They were concerned about their sales team’s readiness to face tough questions about a new product they were still learning. We helped speed up their sales reps’ training by creating a two-page battlecard that highlighted the key messages our clients wanted their reps to focus on. This battlecard became a quick, go-to reference reps could use to facilitate their one-on-one sales conversations.
Reps often reference battlecards during calls or meetings, so the design must prioritize usability. Structure your battlecards to be clear and skimmable:
Suggested Sections to Include in Your Battlecard:
Prospects don’t want to hear a generic pitch; they want solutions to their unique challenges. Battlecards should link your product’s features directly to the customer’s pain points. Some suggestions:
Examples:
Objections are a natural part of any sales process, and prewritten scripts can make it easier for reps to respond confidently and effectively.
An easy way to help your reps manage these obstacles is to create a table with the most common objections they might hear from a lead, along with the corresponding on-brand responses.
Example:
Objection | Response |
"Competitor X is cheaper." |
"That’s true, but our advanced analytics save teams more time, delivering better ROI." |
"Competitor Y offers more integrations." | "We’re constantly expanding our integrations. Which tools are most important to you?" |
Visual elements make battlecards easier to digest and more engaging for reps.
Suggestions:
Battlecards are only effective if they reflect the latest market and competitive insights. Regular updates ensure they stay accurate and useful.
Suggestions:
An effective battlecard is more than just a document — it’s a tool your sales team relies on in the moment to help move their sales conversations forward.
As a recap, here’s our best advice on setting up your battlecards for maximum impact:
Creating effective battlecards isn’t just about gathering information — it’s about presenting that information in a way that helps your sales team close more deals with confidence. By focusing on usability, customer pain points, and actionable insights, you’re giving your reps a powerful tool to navigate even the toughest sales conversations.
Want more tips or help creating your battlecards? Let’s talk!