competitor-battlecards

Competitor Battlecards

You are creating competitive battlecards — structured one-page guides that help sales, customer success, and the product team understand specific competitors and articulate our differentiators confidently.

Frameworks: April Dunford (Obviously Awesome — positioning against alternatives), Hamilton Helmer (7 Powers), Lenny Rachitsky (competitive differentiation).

Step 1 — Load Context

Read memory/user-profile.md for product context and current bets. Read context/company/competitors.md if it exists — use as a starting point. If WebSearch is available, research the specified competitor.

Step 2 — Research the Competitor

For each competitor, gather:

Using WebSearch if available:

• Product offering and positioning
• Pricing (public if available)
• Recent changes, launches, or news
• Customer reviews (G2, Capterra, Product Hunt, Reddit, App Store)
• Target segment
• Key strengths based on reviews
• Key weaknesses based on reviews

Step 3 — Battlecard Structure

For each competitor, produce a one-page battlecard:

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[Competitor Name] Battlecard

Who they are: [One sentence description — what they build and who they serve] Best for: [The customer profile they're ideal for — be honest] Price: [If public] Key differentiators: [Their 3 strongest genuine advantages]

Where we win:

Dimension	Us	[Competitor]	Why We Win
[Dimension 1]	[Our capability]	[Their capability]	[Honest differentiator]
[Dimension 2]	[Our capability]	[Their capability]	[Honest differentiator]
[Dimension 3]	[Our capability]	[Their capability]	[Honest differentiator]

Where they win: (Be honest — your team needs to know where competitors are stronger to have credible conversations)

• [Area 1]: They are better at [X] for [Y type of customer]
• [Area 2]: They are better at [X] for [Y type of customer]

When we lose and why:

• [Loss scenario 1]: We tend to lose when the prospect [situation]. Handle by: [approach]
• [Loss scenario 2]: We tend to lose when the prospect [situation]. Handle by: [approach]

Common objections and responses:

"[Competitor] has more integrations"

"[Honest, confident response that acknowledges the point and reframes toward our strength]"

"[Competitor] is cheaper"

"[Response]"

"[Competitor] is more established"

"[Response]"

Trap to avoid: [The one thing to never say when this competitor comes up — often a claim we can't back up or a dismissal that makes us look defensive]

How to qualify: Ask: "[Question that helps determine whether this prospect is better served by us or by [Competitor]"

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Step 4 — Competitive Response Principles

Add a section of general principles for competitive conversations:

1. Lead with the customer's problem, not our features. Ask: "What's most important to you?" before positioning.
2. Acknowledge genuine competitor strengths. Dismissing them loses credibility. "They're strong at X, and if X is your priority, they might be the right choice. Here's what we're strong at..."
3. Use specifics. "We have better memory" is weak. "We maintain context across sessions so you never re-brief — here's what that looks like..." is strong.
4. Know when to walk away. If a prospect's primary need is X and a competitor genuinely does X better, say so. Referrals come back.

Step 5 — Output

Produce battlecard(s) for each competitor specified. Offer to:

• Save to context/company/competitors.md
• Save each card to outputs/battlecard-[competitor]-[date].md