COMPETITIVE POSITIONING SPRINT

Jake McMahon · ProductQuant

Know exactly where you’re winning deals — and where you’re losing them to competitors.

Full competitive landscape mapped. Positioning gaps identified. Battle cards your sales team will actually use in the next deal.

Book a Call → See what’s included ↓

2-week delivery · battle cards included

WHAT YOU HAVE AT THE END

Landscape map 8–12 competitors mapped: pricing, positioning, features, messaging

Battle cards 3 battle cards for your top competitors. Ready for the next sales call.

Positioning gap analysis Where the narrative is going and where your messaging isn’t keeping pace

Win/lose summary Patterns from your recent deals — where you win and why you lose

Messaging recommendations Specific language changes your team can use immediately

Fixed price · 2-week sprint

We build a clear picture of your competition.

You get a simple map of who you're up against and specific reports your team can use immediately to win more deals.

SALES CALL

"Why should I pick you over Company X?"

Your sales rep gets an instant, one-page summary of your strengths against that specific competitor. They have a confident answer ready, instead of guessing. This helps them close the deal.

MARKETING MEETING

"What messages are actually resonating with customers?"

You see a report showing the exact reasons customers chose you or a competitor. You stop guessing and start using the words that actually work in your ads and website.

PRODUCT ROADMAP

"What feature should we build next?"

You get a list of the top features your competitors have that you don't. You can see which gaps are losing you deals, so you know where to invest your development time.

QUARTERLY REVIEW

"Are we losing ground to anyone new?"

You receive an updated landscape map showing any new competitors and shifts in the market. You're never surprised by a new rival and can adjust your strategy early.

What’s actually happening right now

You’re losing deals without understanding why.

The product is competitive. The team knows it. But the feedback from lost deals is vague — “went with a different direction” tells you nothing about what the other direction was or why it won. You’re preparing for the next competitive deal with the same approach that lost the last one.

“We find out we lost to a competitor from the cancellation email, not from the sales call.”

Your sales team positions each deal differently because there’s no agreed playbook.

Every AE has their own competitive story. Your best rep wins because they’ve figured out the right framing after dozens of deals. Your other reps are still guessing. The knowledge exists inside a few people’s heads and doesn’t transfer.

“We don’t have battle cards. When a competitor comes up, each rep handles it differently.”

You learn about competitor moves from churned customers.

By the time you hear a competitor launched a new pricing model or repositioned against your key feature, you’ve already lost three deals to it. There’s no systematic monitoring — competitive intel is accidental, not operational.

“A customer mentioned our main competitor dropped their price and added our core feature. That was news to us.”

You don’t have battle cards, or the ones you have nobody uses.

A battle card that reads like a feature checklist doesn’t help a rep in a live sales call. Generic comparisons don’t shift a prospect who’s already heard the competitor’s story. The battle card needs to address what the competitor actually says about you — not what you wish they said.

“We have a competitor matrix in a spreadsheet. Nobody opens it before a call.”

WHY THIS IS DIFFERENT

A competitive analysis that ends with battle cards your sales team reaches for.

A competitive audit that pulls screenshots and builds a comparison table often gets filed and forgotten. It doesn't answer the question a rep has in the middle of a live competitive call: what do I say right now?

This sprint works differently because it starts from win/loss patterns, not from competitor marketing sites. The competitor analysis feeds directly into the battle cards. The battle cards are framed around how your specific competitors actually position against you — not generic “we’re better because of feature X” copy. And the positioning gap analysis is ranked by deal impact, not by how impressive it looks in a slide deck.

The output is a landscape map, battle cards, and a positioning gap analysis — built for your sales team to use in the next competitive deal, not for leadership to review at a quarterly offsite.

WHAT YOU GET

16 deliverables that turn win/loss evidence into positioning your sales team can use.

Deliverable 01

8–12 Competitor Landscape Mapping

Your competitive set is mapped across product, pricing, messaging, and market positioning. You'll see exactly who is competing for the same buyers, how they're positioned, and where their claims don't hold up under scrutiny.

Deliverable 02

Pricing Structure Analysis Across Competitors

How every significant competitor structures and presents their pricing is documented. You'll know where you're priced competitively, where you're leaving money on the table, and where competitors are vulnerable to a pricing conversation.

Deliverable 03

Sales Narrative Analysis from G2/Capterra Reviews

The language your competitors' customers use to describe wins and losses is analysed. You get direct access to what buyers are actually saying when they compare alternatives — more useful than any sales script.

Deliverable 04

Win/Loss Pattern Analysis from 20+ Recent Deals

Patterns across your own recent wins and losses are synthesised into a clear picture of why deals go your way and why they don't. Your team stops being surprised by the same objections in late-stage conversations.

Deliverable 05

Messaging Gap Analysis Against Competitor Claims

Where competitors are making strong claims you're not addressing — and where they're overclaiming in ways you can credibly challenge — is identified and documented.

Deliverable 06

Competitive Landscape Map Spreadsheet

A structured, living document covering every significant competitor: their positioning, pricing, strengths, weaknesses, and how they describe themselves versus how their customers describe them.

Deliverable 07

Battle Cards for Top 3 Competitors

Ready-to-use cards your sales team can pull up mid-call to handle objections, reframe comparisons, and position your product accurately against the three competitors they encounter most. Not slide decks — working sales tools.

Deliverable 08

Positioning Gap Analysis Document

A clear map of where your current positioning leaves questions unanswered or advantages unclaimed, with specific language recommendations for closing each gap.

Deliverable 09

Win/Loss Summary with Deal Patterns

A written synthesis of what your deals have in common when they close and when they don't — including the specific moments where deals tend to be won or lost.

Deliverable 10

Messaging Recommendations with Specific Language

Concrete language suggestions for how to position your product against each key competitor, grounded in the research rather than invented in a boardroom.

Deliverable 11

Counter-Narrative Scripts for Sales

Scripts for handling the most common competitive objections your sales team faces — written to redirect the conversation without being dismissive or defensive.

Deliverable 12

Research Methodology Documentation

A full record of how the competitive analysis was conducted, so your team can repeat the process as the market evolves and trust that the outputs are grounded in real data.

Deliverable 13

Battle Card Usage Guide for Sales Team

Practical guidance for how to use the battle cards in an actual sales conversation — including when to introduce them, how to handle pushback, and how to avoid coming across as scripted.

Deliverable 14

Team Walkthrough Session (Recorded)

A live session where every output is walked through with your team and questions are answered in context. The recording means anyone who joins later can get full context without a repeat session.

Deliverable 15

Quarterly Update Framework

A documented process for keeping the competitive landscape current as competitors update their positioning, pricing, and product. Your competitive intelligence doesn't go stale after the first month.

Deliverable 16

30-Day Clarification Support + One Sales Team Training Session

A month of direct access for questions, plus a dedicated session where your sales team practices using the materials before they're live in deals.

Everything above for $2,997. No hourly billing. No scope creep. Everything stays with your team.

THE TIMELINE

Two weeks: competitor audit, win/loss patterns, battle cards, team walkthrough.

Week 1: Competitor Audit — Pricing, Positioning, Features, Messaging

All 8–12 competitors reviewed: homepage, pricing page, customer reviews (G2, Capterra, Product Hunt), public case studies, and any available sales collateral. The landscape map is built from primary sources — not from what your team remembers hearing in lost deals. By end of week 1 you have the full competitive picture in front of you.

Week 2, First Half: Win/Loss Pattern Analysis

Recent deal outcomes mapped against the competitive landscape. Win patterns identified. Loss patterns documented with the specific competitor context. The positioning gap analysis is built from this — which gaps actually cost you deals vs. which are cosmetic. The gap list is ranked so the first item is the one that changes the most outcomes.

Week 2, Second Half: Battle Cards + Positioning Recommendations

Three battle cards written for your top competitors. Each one framed around their actual narrative against you — not a feature checklist. Messaging recommendations drafted: specific language changes your reps can use in the next competitive call without waiting for a brand project. Everything delivered for async review before the walkthrough.

End of Week 2: Walkthrough with Your Team

45-minute live session with your team. Every finding walked through. Battle cards explained with context. Priority actions agreed before we end the call. Session recorded and shared for anyone who wasn’t in the room. Your reps leave the call with specific language for the next competitive deal.

FIT

Who gets the most from this sprint — and who doesn’t.

This is for you if

B2B SaaS with 3 or more named competitors you regularly encounter in deals
A sales team losing deals they should be winning to specific competitors
No agreed competitive playbook — reps handle competitive deals individually
Post-revenue and have deal history to draw patterns from
Competitive intel is currently reactive — you learn about moves after the fact
Repositioning into a new segment where the competitive landscape needs mapping first

This is not for you if

Pre-revenue — without deal history, the win/loss pattern analysis has no foundation
You already have a dedicated competitive intelligence function running this work
Fewer than 3 named competitors in your space
You want copywriting — this sprint delivers the strategy and language framework, not website copy
You want a comprehensive rebrand — this sprint delivers sales-ready positioning, not a brand overhaul

WHO’S DOING THE WORK

Jake McMahon — ProductQuant

Jake McMahon

8+ years building retention, activation, and growth programs inside B2B SaaS · Behavioural Psychology + Big Data (Masters)

I run this sprint myself. Competitive positioning problems are almost always invisible from the inside — you’re too close to your own product to see what the buyer sees when they’re evaluating all options at once. The analysis has to be done from the outside in, starting from what your competitors are actually saying rather than what your team thinks they’re saying.

The battle cards are built to be used in a live sales call, not filed in a shared drive. The goal is that your sales team walks out of the walkthrough with specific language for the next competitive deal — not a strategy document that requires a six-month brand project to implement.

I won’t do this:

Build a competitor matrix based only on marketing sites without reviewing customer reviews and public case studies
Write battle cards that ignore what your specific competitors actually say about you
Recommend a positioning change that requires wholesale rebranding before it can be tested
Deliver a gap list without a priority order based on deal impact
Write website copy or pitch decks — this sprint delivers the strategy and language framework, not the final copy

Do I need to have deal recordings or a CRM?

No. The win/loss pattern analysis works from whatever deal history you have — CRM notes, memory of recent outcomes, even a conversation about the last 10 competitive deals. The more structured your data the deeper the patterns, but the sprint is designed to produce useful output even if the only source is a 30-minute conversation about your recent competitive losses.

Teams Jake has worked with

PRICING

$2,997. Delivered in 2 weeks.

$2,997

one-time · 2-week sprint

Fixed price · No ongoing commitment

Competitive landscape map (8–12 competitors: pricing, positioning, features, messaging)
Battle cards for top 3 competitors (sales-ready, not a feature checklist)
Positioning gap analysis ranked by deal impact
Win/lose pattern summary from your recent deals
Messaging recommendations your reps can use in the next call
45-minute walkthrough with your team + recording
Everything built from primary research, not templates

Every deliverable stays with you permanently. No retainer required.

Book a Call →

Guarantee: If your sales team doesn't have battle cards they can use in the next competitive deal, we keep working at no cost until they do.

Questions.

Or book a call →

How many competitors do you cover? +

The landscape map covers 8–12 competitors at research depth — pricing, positioning, feature set, and messaging. The battle cards go deeper: 3 competitors are covered in full detail, with specific framing around what they say about you and how to respond. If you have more than 3 competitors that regularly come up in deals, we can discuss expanding the battle card scope at the beginning of the sprint.

Do you write new website copy or pitch decks? +

No. This sprint delivers the positioning strategy, the language framework, and specific language for competitive sales conversations. It doesn’t include copywriting for your website or pitch deck. If you want the messaging written, that’s a follow-on project. Most clients take the strategy document and brief their own copywriter — it gives them exactly what they need to do that efficiently.

What do we need to provide? +

A 30-minute kickoff call to align on your top competitors and the deals you most want to win. Access to your current sales materials (pitch deck, one-pager, any existing battle cards) so I understand what your team is working with. Recent deal history — this can be a CRM export, a list of recent wins and losses, or a conversation about your last 10 competitive deals. No complex data access required.

How is this different from the positioning-data report? +

This sprint focuses on the competitive landscape — external research, competitor mapping, and battle cards. The Positioning Data Report adds sales call analysis from your actual deal recordings — win/loss rates by segment, forces analysis per competitor, and battle cards validated against your real transcripts. If you have call recordings and want the positioning built from internal data as well as external research, the Positioning Data Report goes deeper.

What does the walkthrough cover? +

A 45-minute live session with your team. Full walkthrough of the landscape map, the positioning gap analysis, and the battle cards. Specific rationale for each battle card framing explained. Priority actions agreed before we end the call. The session is recorded and shared — your reps who couldn’t attend can watch it async, and it’s useful for onboarding future team members into the competitive context.

Can we start even if we haven’t mapped our competitors before? +

Yes — in fact, that’s the most common starting point. Teams that have never done structured competitive analysis typically get the most from this sprint because there’s so much that’s invisible to them. If you have some existing competitive research, I’ll incorporate it. If you’re starting from scratch, the landscape map covers everything from primary sources.

What’s the guarantee? +

Battle cards your sales team will actually use in competitive deals. If your team walks out of the walkthrough and the battle cards aren't immediately useful for the next competitive conversation, we keep working at no cost until they are.