Guide
Most battlecards are out of date within a quarter. What belongs on one, why every point needs a source, and how to keep it current without a dedicated team.
A battlecard is a short cheat sheet that helps your sales team handle a specific competitor: what they offer, what they charge, where they're strong, and what to say when a prospect brings them up. Most teams make one, feel good about it, and then never touch it again. Three months later the prices are wrong, a feature you listed as missing has launched, and the sales team has quietly stopped using it.
Quick answer
A useful battlecard is one page per competitor covering what they sell and charge today, what they've changed recently, where they're stronger than you, and a few short talking points for sales. Every point should link to the evidence behind it, such as their pricing page, a changelog entry or a job listing, so anyone can check it. Refresh it monthly from what's actually changed rather than rewriting it from memory.
One page is plenty. If it needs scrolling, nobody will read it on a call.
Because they're usually written once, from memory and a few hours of research, and nobody owns keeping them current. Competitors don't stand still: prices move, features launch, plans get renamed. Each change makes the card a little more wrong, and there's no moment where anyone notices.
Because trust in a battlecard is fragile. A salesperson who repeats a wrong price in front of a prospect, and gets corrected, will stop using the card, and probably tell colleagues to do the same. Give every point a source and a date: a link to their pricing page, the changelog entry, the job listing. It lets anyone check a claim in seconds, and makes it obvious when something is old.
It also keeps you honest about numbers. If a figure isn't written somewhere you can point to, like “they're 20% cheaper” worked out in your head, either show the working with its sources or leave it off.
Tie it to a monthly rhythm and to real changes. Once a month, look at what actually changed for each competitor (pricing, features, messaging, hiring) and update only what that touches. When something big lands, like a price change or a new plan, update the card straight away. The hard part isn't writing, it's knowing what changed, which is exactly what monitoring their website takes care of.
On paid plans, Rival Radar writes a monthly read on each competitor from what it actually recorded that month: page changes, confirmed price changes and movement on their job board. It covers what they appear to be doing, what you could do about it, talking points for sales and things to watch out for, and every line links to the change it's based on. Anything it can't tie to a recorded change is left out, and if too little happened to say anything useful, it tells you it was a quiet month instead of padding it out. That gives you a sourced starting point for your battlecard each month rather than a blank page.
Keep your battlecards in step with your competitors.
Track every change on their pricing, product and hiring, and get a sourced monthly read on paid plans. Start free for 3 competitors, no credit card required.
Start watching for freeWeighing up tools? See how Rival Radar compares: Rival Radar vs Crayon, Rival Radar vs Klue and Rival Radar vs Kompyte.