sales battle cards

In my previous post about competition analysis, I was talking about a system to collect and disseminate information about the company's competitors.

Rather than piling up PDF brochures, Powerpoint presentations or scanned articles originated by the competitors, and have your sales people read through them in order to understand what they might be facing during a sales negotiation, you can collect all this intel in a unique, easy-to-update structure, under the name of Battle Cards.

opposable marketing

We were all taught manners in our commercial relationships; we should not speak badly about competition in front of our clients, but we should differentiate; we should not ransack for competition inside weaknesses, but we should monitor them and stay informed.

Competitive intelligence. Everybody does it, but only few talk about it.

Here's something nobody talks about: how to market substitute products. So I'll call it Opposable Marketing.

the silent victories

Legal Cartoon by Andertoons 

I was gonna wait and build more content before getting to the communication side of marketing, but today I figured out why some successes need to be silent.

I'm in the type of business where references help you sell: software. So I'm always looking to produce press releases announcing new clients, case studies, testimonials, clients' logos uploaded on our websites.

And there's often the opposition I encounter from the sales team: Don't say a word about this client yet. Do not mention this customer name anywhere.

leads, actually

This is a post on why I consider events to be one of the most lucrative methods to generate leads, on the condition that they are well chosen and the participation & involved staff are very well prepared and coherent with the overall brand image of your company.

the silver bullet

The competition analysis provides valuable information about the strengths and weaknesses of your company, ultimately helping you answer the client's question: Why should I work with you, rather than with your competition? 

Do you have in place a system to collect and disseminate information about your competitors? 

Or do you occasionally trip on articles or pieces of data you'd like to keep, but haven't quite found the right storage format?