The role that competitive and market intelligence teams play in sales is clear; to arm sales teams to close deals. To this end, sales support materials are developed 鈥� crafted through meticulous collection and curation of intel 鈥� to develop outputs including the sales battlecard.

However, when it comes to the usability and impact of these materials, many miss the mark.

Take for example, this stat聽(which we spotted , originally from聽聽on the聽聽): 鈥�40% of marketing content goes unused by salespeople because they don鈥檛 know where to find it, or feel overwhelmed by the deluge.鈥�

That鈥檚 not a very good indication that the content you鈥檙e making is being put to good use.

So, what鈥檚 the real crux of the issue and how does this relate to your sales battlecards? The problem isn鈥檛 that there鈥檚 not enough data. In fact, by the previous statistic you could argue 40% of it is superfluous. The real issue is that this content has not been designed to facilitate actual sales conversations. What battlecards too often get wrong is that they throw in data without including context or creating useful insights; failing to equip salespeople for solution-oriented conversations.

Sales Battlecards Are Often Created by Product Teams, About Products.

In tech, the market intelligence function (whether a standalone intelligence team, or via product marketing) typically works closely with product management. By virtue of working on teams concerned with everything 鈥減roduct鈥�, a product-centric view is reinforced.

Sales battlecards, developed in response to incoming requests, often times focus heavily on product features, product competitors and product markets. While valid, this content doesn鈥檛 necessarily equip a salesperson for specific selling activities like booking a demo, nor does it make the connections between buckets of pricing, feature or market data to engage buyers in effective solutions conversations.

Battlecards Should Engage Customers in Solutions Conversations

As we鈥檝e said before, battlecards should support salespeople in talking with their customers about solutions, not just features.

Customers want to be shown value in their meetings. They want salespeople to understand not just the problems they face in their role, but salespeople who understand their business, their culture and what it will take to realize an end result.

To put the consequences of failing at this into perspective for a moment, consider this (yes, yet another stat): Only 15% of salespeople provide value during introductory meetings, resulting in follow-up meetings only 7% of the time.

This is missing the mark on sales. Giving a good demo isn鈥檛 getting a follow-up meeting, understanding your customer鈥檚 business issue and articulating how to solve it is.

Engage in the Hard Part: Use Battlecards to Build Connective Tissue

Salespeople have limited time and limited capacity to intake new content. This is why it鈥檚 critical that your sales materials float up only critical insights. Rather than forcing salespeople to build the strategic bridges between your data sets, build the connective tissue for them by building battlecards that connect business solutions to business problems, supported by objective facts and rooted in customer understanding.

It鈥檚 easier to regurgitate facts or product features, and in many cases it鈥檚 all that鈥檚 expected. The hardest part, and arguably the only criteria of building a successful sales battlecard is that it鈥檚 successful in enabling sales conversations, and ultimately, in closing more deals.