Competitive Battlecard Template
A Copy-Ready, One-Screen Template With a Filled-In Example
Short answer
A battlecard template is a fixed set of fields you fill in once per competitor. Use eight: header with owner and verified date, their pitch in their words, where they win, where they lose, objections with responses, landmine questions, a dated pricing snapshot, and recent changes. Keep the filled card to one screen.
1. What fields does a battlecard template need?
Eight fields: a header, their pitch, where they win, where they lose, objections with responses, landmine questions, a pricing snapshot and recent changes. Each field has a word budget so the filled card still fits one screen.
- Battlecard template
- A reusable set of fields, word limits and source rules that produces one comparable, one-screen competitor brief each time it is filled in.
- Also known as: Competitive battlecard template, Sales battlecard template
The reasoning behind each block, and how to run the research, is covered in the guide on how to write a battlecard. This page is the artifact itself: the fields, the limits and a filled example you can copy. If you are starting from zero, read that guide once, then work from this template every time after.
For the pitch field, copy live ad claims from the public ad archives rather than from memory: the Meta Ad Library covers Facebook and Instagram [s1], and the Google Ads Transparency Center covers Google surfaces [s2].
| Field | What you write | Word budget | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Header | Competitor, segment the card covers, owner, date last verified | 15 | You |
| 2. Their pitch | Their homepage headline and sharpest ad claim, quoted exactly | 40 | Their homepage, live ads |
| 3. Where they win | Two or three real strengths and the buyer they suit | 50 | Reviews, lost deals |
| 4. Where they lose | Two or three weaknesses, each with a named source | 60 | Their reviews, your demos |
| 5. Objections | Three to five objections in buyer words, one or two sentence response each | 150 | Calls, emails, chat logs |
| 6. Landmine questions | Two or three questions a buyer can ask them directly | 45 | Your weakness list |
| 7. Pricing snapshot | Their entry and main tier against yours, with the date checked | 30 | Their pricing page |
| 8. Recent changes | Up to three dated changes from the last 60 days | 45 | Your monitoring |
2. What does the blank template look like?
Copy the fill-in structure below into a doc or wiki page, one page per competitor. Replace every bracket, delete any prompt you cannot answer with evidence, and never leave a field padded with a guess.
Paste this structure as-is. Brackets are the prompts; the text outside them is the fixed wording.
- HEADER: [Competitor name] battlecard. Covers: [segment, e.g. teams under 10 people]. Owner: [one person]. Last verified: [date].
- THEIR PITCH: Homepage headline: "[exact quote]". Sharpest live ad claim: "[exact quote]". What the buyer hears: [one sentence in plain words].
- WHERE THEY WIN: [Strength 1] (they suit [buyer type]). [Strength 2]. [Strength 3, optional]. Walk away when: [situation where they are the right choice].
- WHERE THEY LOSE: [Weakness 1] (source: [review pattern, demo, lost deal]). [Weakness 2] (source: [ ]). [Weakness 3, optional] (source: [ ]).
- OBJECTIONS: "[Objection in the buyer's words]" Response: [one or two sentences]. Proof: [link, number or customer]. Repeat for three to five objections.
- LANDMINES: Ask them: "[question that exposes weakness 1]". Ask them: "[question that exposes weakness 2]".
- PRICING: Them: [entry tier, main tier, billing terms]. Us: [same]. Checked: [date] on [their pricing page URL].
- RECENT CHANGES: [Date]: [what changed and where]. [Date]: [ ]. [Date]: [ ].
3. What does a filled-in battlecard look like?
Below is the template filled for an invented example: your company, a booking tool for clinics and salons, writing its card on competitor Veltrix. Every line is short, sourced and specific to one segment.
The companies are invented, and so are the facts about them. What matters is the shape: quoted claims, strengths the competitor would recognize, weaknesses with a source next to them, and responses short enough to say out loud.
| Field | Filled in |
|---|---|
| Header | Veltrix battlecard. Covers: clinics and salons with 3 to 15 staff. Owner: Dana (marketing). Last verified: 2026-09-22. |
| Their pitch | Homepage: "The booking system more businesses trust." Live Meta ad: "Now $33 a month, down from $39." Buyer hears: the safe, well-known choice, and now cheaper. |
| Where they win | Best-known name in the category. Widest feature list and integration library. Walk away when: the buyer wants the best-known name and will stay on the entry plan. |
| Where they lose | Text reminders and extra staff seats are paid add-ons (source: their pricing page). Recurring complaints about the bill jumping past the entry plan (source: their public reviews, several this quarter). |
| Objections | "Veltrix is cheaper." Response: at five staff with text reminders, compare the full bill, not the $33 entry plan. Proof: side-by-side quote. "Our clients already know Veltrix." Response: on every one of our plans clients book without creating an account, so there is nothing new for them to learn. |
| Landmines | Ask them: "What do text reminders cost for five staff?" Ask them: "How long does it take to give a part-time stylist access to their own calendar only?" |
| Pricing | Them: entry plan $33 a month (cut from $39), extra seats and text reminders cost more. Us: one price per location, reminders included. Checked: 2026-09-22 on their pricing page. |
| Recent changes | 2026-09-10: started price-led Meta ads on the new entry price. 2026-08-28: cut the entry plan from $39 to $33 a month. |
4. What rules keep each field usable?
Quote their claims exactly, pair every weakness with a source, phrase objections as a buyer said them, keep responses to two sentences, and date anything that can change: pricing, claims and the card itself.
- Their pitch: paste, never paraphrase. The buyer read the exact line, so the response has to answer the exact line.
- Where they win: if nobody on your side can name a strength, the card is not ready. Two real strengths buy credibility for every weakness below them.
- Where they lose: one angry review is not a weakness. A pattern across reviews, a limitation on their own pricing page, or a gap you can demonstrate live is.
- Objections: write the sentence the buyer used, including the awkward grammar. That wording is what the reader will recognize mid-conversation.
- Responses: two sentences, then a proof. If the response needs a paragraph, the answer belongs in a longer brief or on your comparison page.
- Landmines: questions, not accusations. A buyer who asks the competitor and gets a hesitant answer persuades themselves.
- Pricing: the date goes next to the figure, not in a footer. Stale pricing discovered on a call does more damage than no pricing at all.
Should the template include a feature comparison grid?
Not on the card. A feature grid grows with every release and every row becomes a maintenance job. Keep the three differences that decide deals in the win and lose fields, and move the full grid to a separate comparison document or a public comparison page that is reviewed on its own schedule.
5. How do I adapt the template if we have no sales team?
Keep the same eight fields but add a "use in marketing" line to objections and weaknesses. Without sellers, the card feeds ad copy, FAQ answers, comparison pages and replies to comments that name the competitor.
In a team of two to fifteen people, the battlecard reader is often the founder on a demo, a marketer drafting an ad, or whoever answers the support inbox. The card still works, but the objection field should record where each answer is already published, so it is written once and reused everywhere.
| Field | Reused in |
|---|---|
| Their pitch | Your own homepage review: does your headline answer theirs? |
| Where they lose | Ad angles and comparison page sections, only where the source would survive being published |
| Objections | Pricing page FAQ, onboarding emails, replies to comments naming the competitor |
| Landmine questions | Buyer checklists and "questions to ask any vendor" content |
| Recent changes | Your weekly marketing review and playbook updates |
6. How do I check a filled template before sharing it?
Run five checks: it fits one screen, every weakness has a source, every objection is in buyer words, pricing carries a date, and a customer of that competitor would read it without finding a false statement.
- Open it on a laptop and do not scroll. If the header and the objection field are not both visible without scrolling, cut words until they are. The objection field is the one people reach for live.
- Point at each weakness and name the source. Go line by line through the lose field. Any weakness you cannot trace to a review pattern, their own pages, or a demo you can repeat gets deleted before the card ships.
- Read the objections aloud. Each one should sound like something a buyer said, not like a heading. If it reads like "concerns about pricing", go back to the call notes and find the actual sentence.
- Check every date. The header date, the pricing date and the recent-changes dates should all be recent. If the pricing check is more than a month old, re-verify it before sharing.
- Apply the customer test. Imagine a happy customer of the competitor reading the card. They should disagree with your conclusions, but they should not be able to point to a false fact.
7. How do I keep filled templates from going stale?
Give each card one owner, and update it when the competitor changes something, not on a fixed calendar. The recent-changes field is both the trigger log and the proof the card is maintained.
The quickest way to kill a set of cards is to fill in ten at once and never touch them again. Start with the two or three competitors who actually come up, keep the rest as a one-line note, and add cards as names start appearing in conversations. The guide on when to update battlecards covers which events should trigger an edit.
Oppira keeps one battlecard per tracked competitor and regenerates it on demand from the data it already collects (their posts, ads, landing page changes and reviews), so the recent-changes field fills itself and your job becomes reviewing what moved. On the Pro plan the same card can be regenerated from the command line with `oppira battlecard regen Veltrix`.
Key Takeaways
Eight fields, one screen
Header, pitch, wins, losses, objections, landmines, pricing and recent changes, with a word budget that keeps the whole card around 435 words.
Quote, do not paraphrase
Their pitch and the buyer objections go in word for word, because that is the wording the reader will hear in the moment.
Every weakness carries its source
A review pattern, their own pricing page or a repeatable demo. Anything without a source is deleted, not softened.
Dates on everything that moves
The card, the pricing and each recent change carry a date, so the reader can tell at a glance whether to trust it.
Small teams reuse the card in marketing
Without sellers, objections and weaknesses feed ad angles, pricing page FAQs and replies to comments naming the competitor.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sources
- Meta Ad Library Meta Platforms, September 2026.Public archive of active ads on Facebook and Instagram, the quickest place to copy a competitor ad claim word for word.
- Google Ads Transparency Center Google, September 2026.Shows ads a verified advertiser has run on Google surfaces, useful for the live ad claim in the pitch field.
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