Battle card library - Snow Doughnut

One row per competitor. A card is not in circulation until it has a row here. The library answers a question no single card can: across every deal being worked right now, which competitors are actually in them, which cards are current, and where the same losing reason keeps repeating. Twelve cards written over two years look like coverage until they are listed with their review dates next to them.

Rows are filled from a completed competitor battle card. Tier values are defined at the bottom of this page. The reasoning behind cards and tiering is in battle card concepts.

Before you write a new card

Check the register below

If the competitor already has a card, update it rather than starting a second one.

Check the deal count

A competitor seen in a handful of deals gets a watch row here. A card carries maintenance cost forever, and an unmaintained card costs more credibility than it returns.

Fill in the card, then add the row

A row with no card behind it is a name, not a card.

The register

Rows 1 to 3 show examples using Doughnut Labs, a SaaS company that sells disruptive Doughnut Technology, against two invented competitors. Delete them and fill in your own.

Competitor	Tier	How they position	Deals seen, last 2 quarters	Win rate against them	Owner	Status	Review date	Card
E.g. Cruller Systems	E.g. Tier 1	E.g. Enterprise platform for regulated operations	E.g. 23	E.g. 38%	E.g. Priya Nadel	E.g. Current	E.g. 12 Nov 2026	E.g. link
E.g. Glazeworks	E.g. Tier 1	E.g. The fastest way to run one workflow	E.g. 31	E.g. 64%	E.g. Tom Reyes	E.g. Needs review	E.g. 2 Sep 2026	E.g. link
E.g. Spreadsheets and doing nothing	E.g. Tier 1	E.g. Free, already open	E.g. 40	E.g. 22%	E.g. Priya Nadel	E.g. Current	E.g. 1 Dec 2026	E.g. link
[add competitor]

The internal alternative belongs in the register. In many categories, a buyer keeping their spreadsheet is the most common outcome by a wide margin, and it loses to different arguments than a named vendor does. Leaving it off the register makes the competitive picture look tidier than it is.

What each competitor beats us on

The pattern check. One row per competitor, holding the single reason that shows up most in losses.

Competitor	The reason we lose most often	Deals it decided, last 2 quarters	Fixable by
E.g. Cruller Systems	E.g. SOC 2 Type II gates the pilot	E.g. 9	E.g. Product. Certification in progress, Q1
E.g. Glazeworks	E.g. Entry price, in deals under 20 seats	E.g. 6	E.g. Packaging. Nobody has owned this
E.g. Doing nothing	E.g. No internal owner for the change	E.g. 14	E.g. Sales motion. Qualification question
[add competitor]

A losing reason that appears against three or more competitors is not a competitive problem, and a card will not solve it. Route it to positioning or to product, and note here where it went.

Coverage

The two tables that turn a list of cards into a health check. Fill them from the register above.

By tier

Tier	Competitors	Cards current	Cards overdue
Tier 1	E.g. 3	E.g. 2	E.g. 1
Tier 2	E.g. 4	E.g. 1	E.g. 0
Watch	E.g. 6	E.g. 0	E.g. 0

An overdue Tier 1 card is the row that matters here. It is the card most likely to be opened and the one most likely to carry a claim a competitor has already made false.

By customer profile

A profile where one competitor takes most of the deals is a profile where the argument is being decided by someone else.

Customer profile	Competitor seen most	Win rate	Note
E.g. Mid-market operations lead	E.g. Glazeworks	E.g. 64%
E.g. Regulated enterprise ops	E.g. Cruller Systems	E.g. 18%	E.g. Losing on certification, not on product
[add profile]

Tier values

Tier	Meaning	What it gets
Tier 1	Appears in enough deals to move the forecast	A full card, a named owner, quarterly review
Tier 2	Appears regularly, rarely decides the deal	A short card covering sections 1 to 4, reviewed twice a year
Watch	Seen occasionally, or new to the category	A register row and a note. No card
Retired	No longer seen, acquired, or shut down	The row stays, with the date and what happened

Retired rows stay in the library. A competitor that disappeared, and the reason, is the entry that stops someone rebuilding a card for a company that no longer sells the product.

Status values

Status	Meaning
Current	Reviewed within its interval, claims checked
Needs review	Past its review date, or a claim on it is in question
Draft	Being written, not yet in circulation
Retired	Competitor no longer active or no longer seen

Review

Cards go stale without announcing it, so the review is scheduled rather than triggered by a loss. At each review, for every Tier 1 and Tier 2 card:

Has the competitor shipped anything that makes a claim on the card false? Check their changelog and pricing page, and note the date you read them.
Do the deal count and win rate still match what the card says about where they win?
Are the proof points still cleared, and are the named customers still customers?
Is the same losing reason now appearing against other competitors? See the warning above.
Is a Tier 2 competitor now appearing often enough to warrant a full card, or a Tier 1 few enough to drop?

A rep who finds one stale claim on a card stops trusting the whole set, and that costs more than the individual claim ever did. If a card cannot be kept current, retire it and move the competitor to a watch row rather than leaving it in circulation.

Competitor battle card The workbook a row here is filled from.
Battle card concepts Why cards are tiered, and what makes one usable in a call.
Positioning Where a losing reason that appears against every competitor belongs.
Customer profile library The profiles used in the coverage table above.
Messaging The approved words, and which competitive claims have been cleared.

​Before you write a new card

​The register

​What each competitor beats us on

​Coverage

​By tier

​By customer profile

​Tier values

​Status values

​Review

​Related resources

Before you write a new card

The register

What each competitor beats us on

Coverage

By tier

By customer profile

Tier values

Status values

Review

Related resources