# Competitive Battlecard Template

Maintain one battlecard per major competitor. Audience: sales, content strategy, and marketing leadership. Review quarterly, and immediately after pricing, feature, funding, review-trend, or win/loss changes.

## Copy-Start Battlecard

```markdown
# Competitive Battlecard: [Competitor Name]

**Last updated**: [date]
**Owner**: [name/team]
**Confidence**: [High/Medium/Low]

## 1. Competitor Overview
| Field | Details |
|-------|---------|
| Company / website | [name] / [URL] |
| Founded / size | [year] / [employees] |
| Funding / revenue | [known data + source] |
| Target customer | [SMB/mid-market/enterprise/persona] |
| Pricing | [model + range + source date] |
| Summary | [Competitor] helps [audience] achieve [benefit] through [mechanism]. |

## 2. Their Pitch
**Tagline**: "[exact tagline]"

| Claimed differentiator | Evidence | Counterpoint |
|------------------------|----------|--------------|
| [claim] | [source/demo/review] | [where your position is stronger] |

**Reverse-engineered positioning**: For [audience], [product] is the [category] that [benefit] because [reason].

## 3. Strengths and Weaknesses
| Type | Item | Evidence | Deal impact / exploit path |
|------|------|----------|----------------------------|
| Strength | [strength] | [review/demo/customer quote] | [how it affects deals] |
| Weakness | [weakness] | [G2/Capterra/support thread/date] | [talking point or demo moment] |

**Common complaint quote**: "[short exact quote]" - [source, date]

## 4. Your Differentiators
| Differentiator | Your advantage | Proof point | How to demo |
|----------------|----------------|-------------|-------------|
| [diff] | [what you do better] | [data/testimonial] | [demo step] |

## 5. Feature and Pricing Comparison
| Area | You | [Competitor] | Advantage / caveat |
|------|-----|--------------|--------------------|
| Core feature | [Yes/No/Partial] | [Yes/No/Partial] | [context] |
| Entry tier | [price + included] | [price + included] | [who wins] |
| Mid-market | [price + included] | [price + included] | [who wins] |
| Enterprise | [price + included] | [price + included] | [who wins] |

**Hidden costs to validate**: [extra seats, add-ons, usage limits, implementation, support, migration].

## 6. Objection Handling and Landmines
| Scenario | Response or question | Evidence / exposed advantage |
|----------|----------------------|------------------------------|
| "[Competitor] has more features" | [focus on outcome and adoption] | [case study/data] |
| "[Competitor] is cheaper" | [TCO/ROI frame] | [pricing comparison] |
| "We already use [Competitor]" | [migration ease] | [migration proof] |
| Landmine: "How important is [your capability]?" | [exposes need] | [your capability] |

## 7. Win/Loss and Market Intelligence
| Theme | Win reasons | Loss reasons | Action |
|-------|-------------|--------------|--------|
| Product | [features that won] | [gaps that lost] | [roadmap/sales enablement] |
| Pricing | [advantage] | [disadvantage] | [packaging response] |
| Relationship | [support/sales quality] | [incumbency] | [proof or nurture] |

## 8. SEO/GEO Intelligence
| Dimension | [Competitor] | Your position | Action |
|-----------|--------------|---------------|--------|
| Domain authority | [score + source/date] | [score + source/date] | [gap response] |
| Organic traffic | [monthly + source/date] | [monthly + source/date] | [content priority] |
| Keywords in top 10 | [count + source/date] | [count + source/date] | [keyword gap] |
| Content publishing | [posts/month + source/date] | [posts/month + source/date] | [cadence response] |
| AI citation frequency | [High/Med/Low + source/date] | [High/Med/Low + source/date] | [GEO response] |
```

## Maintenance Checklist

- [ ] Pricing, packages, and hidden costs verified with source dates.
- [ ] New feature launches reflected in comparison and objections.
- [ ] Latest G2/Capterra/review trends checked.
- [ ] Win/loss notes updated with recent sales feedback.
- [ ] SEO/GEO metrics refreshed with source and date.
- [ ] Differentiators and landmine questions tested with sales.
- [ ] Confidence level adjusted if evidence is stale or incomplete.