Empowering a B2B sales team

A competitor kept winning. Sales needed better objection handling.

A fast-growing B2B SaaS company was losing important opportunities to one direct competitor, particularly in financial services. The product marketing team believed its product was stronger, but salespeople lacked the evidence to explain why. Competitor pricing was anecdotal, feature comparisons were incomplete and most knowledge of the competitor’s sales pitch came from unreliable word of mouth.

The challenge

Competitive deals were being handled with too much guesswork. Salespeople knew the competitor’s familiar claims, but they could not always challenge them with confidence. They had no dependable view of how the competitor packaged and priced its software, which features mattered in different sales situations or how customers experienced the product after signing.

The problem extended beyond battlecards. The client also needed to understand where the competitor was concentrating its effort. Its sales organization, engineering resources, customer base and target sectors could all affect which accounts the client should pursue and how those accounts should be approached.

Product marketing needed firmer evidence for its positioning. A feature comparison built from public product pages would have repeated the competitor’s own marketing. It would not show whether features worked as promised, whether implementation was difficult or whether customers valued the areas highlighted during the sales process.

The client wanted practical answers that salespeople could use during live opportunities. That meant finding evidence, testing it across several sources and turning it into clear guidance. A long competitor profile would have been of little use during a sales call.

What we did

We began by examining the competitor’s organization and go-to-market focus. Secondary research and interviews helped us understand the structure of its sales operation, the market segments it targeted and the resources committed to engineering, support and account management.

We then analyzed the competitor’s customer base by industry, company size and region. This showed where the competitor had gained traction and helped the client identify the sales opportunities where its own proposition had the strongest chance of success.

The next part of the work focused on the competitor’s sales pitch. We looked at the claims made during sales conversations, the product strengths it emphasized and the weaknesses it attributed to our client. This gave product marketing a better view of the narrative salespeople were facing and the objections they needed to anticipate.

We spoke with prospects who had encountered the competitor during a buying process and customers who had used its software after purchase. Their feedback allowed us to compare the promises made before the sale with the experience after implementation. We could see which claims carried weight, which product strengths customers genuinely valued and where delivery fell short of the pitch.

We also researched product features and pricing. The findings were brought together in detailed feature comparisons, pricing intelligence and sales guidance. We highlighted the differences most likely to affect a buying decision.

The client used the research in battlecards and other sales support materials. The recommendations covered positioning, responses to competitor claims, product proof points and the accounts or sectors where the client could compete most effectively.

Results

Salespeople entered competitive opportunities with a clearer understanding of the competitor’s offer and how customers perceived it. They could explain product differences with evidence, challenge competitor claims more precisely and adapt their pitch to the priorities of each prospect.

The work also gave product marketing a stronger basis for messaging. The team could build sales content around verified product strengths, known customer concerns and the areas where the competitor’s promises were least convincing.

Sales leaders considered the first project useful enough to commission similar research on several additional competitors. Competitive intelligence became a broader sales support program.

The findings also informed marketing, product and customer experience teams. Each function had access to the same evidence on competitor strengths, weaknesses and market focus, reducing conflicting internal views of the competitive landscape.

The main value came from making competitive information usable. Sales received direct guidance for deals, while product marketing gained the evidence needed to improve positioning, battlecards and competitive messaging.