In today’s competitive sales environment, reps need real-time, battle-tested competitive insights delivered in the tools they already use. Yet, the majority of sales teams remain woefully underprepared for the growing volume of head-to-head deals.

The newly released 2025 State of Competitive Intelligence report exposes this gap — and offers a clear roadmap to closing it.

Here are 5 proven ways to better enable your sales teams, drawn directly from Crayon’s latest research and real-world best practices.

1. Get Sales Buy-In at the Top

85% of CI pros say their programs support sales. That’s great. But only 48% report having a sales executive sponsor. That gap matters because teams with sales exec sponsorship reported a 76% increase in sales effectiveness when it came to winning competitive deals.

Tip: Don't treat sales as a “customer” of your compete program. Make them a co-owner

2. Focus on High-Quality Analysis, Not Just Raw Data

When it comes to enabling sales, the quality of analysis matters. Reps don’t need another firehose of facts. They need clear takeaways: what the competitor’s saying, what to say back, and why it matters in the deal.

According to the report, 47% ranked “quality of analysis” as the most important factor, ahead of presentation and speed.

This aligns with our recent post: You Don’t Need More Battlecards. Raw intel isn’t the blocker — signal extraction is. Reps win more when CI teams deliver clear, situation-aware insights sourced from real GTM interactions.

3. Make CI a Two-Way Street

The most effective CI teams don’t just push content to sales — they create effective feedback loops.

According to the report:

• Teams that share CI updates daily see an 84% increase in sales effectiveness.

• The teams that told us they share intel daily or weekly are 75% more likely to report revenue impact from their compete program.

But here’s the kicker: when CI is delivered ad hoc or quarterly, sales reps “rarely” or “never” contribute back.

You get out what you put in — and when intel flows consistently, trust grows, insights deepen, and win rates rise.

4. Embed Enablement Where Sales Works

Traditional battlecards still have value — but their reign is fading. In fact, battlecard creation has declined from 76% in 2023 to just 58% in 2025.

So where should you focus? Delivering insights where sellers already work:

• Slack

• Salesforce

• Email

• Gong or Clari

The best CI programs are shifting from creating documents to creating access. Compete programs that give reps instant intel in the exact moments they need it are becoming more valuable.  

5. Operationalize Call Intelligence

Here’s the biggest missed opportunity: only 25% of CI pros use call recordings like Gong or Chorus to fuel their programs. And fewer than 30% use that data to update CRM records with competitive context.

Yet teams that do use conversational intelligence tools saw an 82% increase in sales effectiveness.

The insight is clear: your reps are sitting on gold in their call recordings. Mining that data — and automatically piping it directly into competitive content and coaching sessions — is one of the highest-leverage moves you can make.

The Bottom Line

Sales teams today don’t need more content. They need curated, relevant, and automated competitive intelligence, delivered when and where they sell.

The best compete programs:
✅ Prioritize sales buy-in
✅ Focus on insight quality
✅ Establish strong feedback loops
✅ Meet reps in their workflow
✅ Tap into existing call intelligence tools

And thanks to Crayon’s newest AI innovations — including GTM Insights and Sparks — enabling sales teams with competitive intel has never been more scalable, measurable, or impactful. See for yourself! Request a Crayon demo today.