competitive-analysis

When to use

Trigger this skill when:

• A rep enters a deal where a specific competitor is incumbent or finalist (e.g. “they’re also evaluating Gong”).
• A CRO or PMM is refreshing the quarterly battlecard library.
• A new competitor enters the category and the field team needs positioning quickly.
• A deal is stalling and the rep suspects the competitor is winning on a specific angle.

Do not use this for market-level category analysis. This skill is adversarial and per-competitor. For a category landscape, use a market research tool.

Inputs

Required:

• competitor_name — e.g. “Gong”, “Outreach”, “Clari”.
• our_product_context — a sentence describing our product and category so the output contrasts meaningfully.

Optional:

• deal_context — the specific deal this battlecard is for (vertical, size, persona). Tightens the output.
• known_objections — objections the rep has already heard in this deal.
• internal_win_loss_notes — paste from CRM or Gong.

Outputs

A single Markdown battlecard with these sections:

1. Header — competitor name, category, one-sentence positioning in their words.
2. Target ICP — who they sell to best.
3. Pricing — public list prices if available, leaked/anecdotal if not, with source attribution.
4. Strengths — 3-5 bullets where they genuinely outperform us.
5. Weaknesses — 3-5 bullets, each backed by a review citation or public incident.
6. Differentiators (ours vs. theirs) — side-by-side, no puffery.
7. Objection handling — 3-5 common objections raised in deals against them, with recommended response patterns.
8. Landmines — questions we can ask in discovery that expose their weakness.
9. Win/loss patterns — when we tend to win, when we tend to lose.
10. Proof points — case studies, G2 stats, security certs to cite.

See references/battlecard-template.md for the full template.

Tool dependencies

• WebSearch / WebFetch — required. Need to pull competitor website, pricing pages, G2 and Capterra reviews, and recent news.
• Salesforce or HubSpot MCP — optional; pulls win/loss notes on deals tagged with this competitor.
• Notion MCP — optional; read the existing battlecard archive if one exists.

Procedure

1. Establish their positioning in their words. Pull the H1 from the competitor’s homepage and their “About” / “Why us” copy. Do not paraphrase — the battlecard should tell us what they tell the market.
2. Identify their ICP. Logos on their site, case studies, industries pages. Note both who they feature and who they don’t. If every case study is >1000 employees, they don’t sell to SMB even if their site says they do.
3. Find pricing.
   • Public pricing page: record list prices and tier structure.
   • If gated: search for “[competitor] pricing” on Reddit, community forums, Glassdoor sales-rep reviews. Note source quality.
   • Note contract terms: annual only? 3-year required? Auto-renew clauses?
4. Scrape G2 and Capterra reviews. Pull the 10 most recent reviews and the 10 lowest-starred reviews. Extract common themes. Quantify: “4 of last 10 reviews mention slow support.”
5. Scan recent news. Layoffs, leadership departures, outages, lawsuits, acquisitions, funding — all affect the narrative.
6. Identify 3-5 genuine strengths. Be honest. A battlecard that pretends the competitor has no strengths is worthless in a real deal.
7. Identify 3-5 weaknesses with evidence. Each weakness needs a citation: review quote, incident report, missing feature page.
8. Write objection handling. For each top objection (“they’re cheaper”, “they integrate with X”, “they have more logos”), write a short response that acknowledges, reframes, and redirects. No dismissive responses.
9. Build landmines. These are discovery questions the prospect can ask the competitor that will expose a weakness without us having to attack directly. Example: “What’s your median time to first value?” lands differently depending on the competitor.
10. Document win/loss patterns. When did we win? When did we lose? If no internal data is available, mark as “anecdotal.”

Examples

Example 1 — Battlecard vs. Gong (for a conversation intelligence company)

Output excerpt:

Positioning (their words): “The Revenue Intelligence Platform.”

Target ICP: Mid-market and enterprise B2B SaaS, 100+ reps. Most case studies feature companies >$100M ARR.

Pricing: No public list. Community reports $1,600/user/year floor for mid-market, three-year term standard. Source: Reddit r/sales thread, 2025-11-12.

Strengths:

• Brand recognition; often the default “safe” choice for a VP Sales.
• Robust call-recording infrastructure and transcript search.
• Large library of integrations, especially Salesforce.

Weaknesses:

• Implementation quoted at 8-12 weeks in 6 of 10 reviewed G2 reviews in Q1 2026.
• Weak coaching workflow; users report exporting to spreadsheets (G2, 2026-02-08).
• Three-year term is a common deal-breaker for PE-owned accounts with annual budget cycles.

Landmines:

1. “What is your minimum contract term?”
2. “Can we get a ramp-down clause if reps leave?”
3. “What is the median implementation time for our segment?”

Example 2 — Battlecard vs. Notion (for a sales knowledge-base startup)

Output flags Notion’s breadth as both strength and weakness: strength (“already in their stack”), weakness (“not purpose-built for sales content; permissions model breaks at scale”). Objection handling addresses “we already have Notion” with a reframe around revenue-weighted content freshness rather than features.

Constraints

• Every weakness must cite a source: a review, an incident, a missing page. No “we heard they’re bad at X.”
• Pricing must be tagged public, leaked, or anecdotal. Never present anecdotal pricing as fact.
• Strengths section is non-optional. If you cannot find three, you have not researched enough.
• Objection responses must not contain “actually” or “that’s not true.” Reframe, do not contradict.
• Under 800 words total.
• Do not invent product features. If you do not know whether they have SSO, say so.

Quality checks

Before returning:

• Positioning is a direct quote from the competitor’s own site.
• Pricing tagged with source and source quality.
• At least 3 strengths and 3 weaknesses, each with evidence.
• Objection handling covers the rep’s supplied known_objections if provided.
• Landmines are real discovery questions, not thinly disguised attacks.
• Win/loss pattern section names conditions, not verdicts (“we win when the prospect values X”, not “we’re better”).
• No hyperbole: remove “best”, “industry-leading”, “unmatched” from our column.