Customer Corner: How ConnectWise Increased Global ...

The leading characteristic of any successful competitive intelligence program is consistent, enthusiastic adoption. But before your sales reps can dive into the competitive assets you create for them, they first need to be able to access them.

So, when you’re enabling a global team, how can you make sure everyone is able to get their hands on the intel they need to win more deals? The answer: Create a centralized CI command center.

Read on to find out how Will Dowling, Product Marketing Manager at ConnectWise did just that to establish a culture of CI that generated thousands of battlecard views in 2023 — with at leat 50 percent of the team using battlecards quarterly.

1. To get us started, tell me about the role competitive intelligence plays at ConnectWise.

We’re using Crayon to enable a large, global sales team of more than 250 reps and other groups such as our partner success team. Everyone on the product marketing team has access to Crayon and has ownership of the platform.

Competitive intelligence isn’t owned by one PMM, competitive intelligence is everyone’s job.

2. I love that mindset of sharing the responsibility of CI around the entire organization. What role does Crayon play in the operation?

Crayon is the command center that helps us easily run our competitive intel operations — managing our battlecards, competitive content, and enablement materials to provide better insights to leadership teams.

With Crayon, it’s simple for anyone, regardless of department, to submit intel. If someone discovers something potentially relevant, they can send an email, and that intel will go directly into the platform for review. I love how easy it is for our company to share competitive findings.

A huge benefit to using Crayon is that the platform scales with us — everyone is granted access. With Crayon, the entire product marketing team can review incoming competitive intel in real time and then alert relevant stakeholders.

3. And because of how accessible your CI command center is you’ve seen a huge increase in battlecard adoption this year. What strategies or features do you use to encourage continued interest in CI assets at ConnectWise?

Every month we have a competitive broadcast to the entire company where the team shares competitive news highlights and big competitive wins, as well as recognizes the top competitive intel submitter for the month.

We’re also really enjoying the new Compete Hub feature because it shows our reps what’s new and relevant. If a rep has an upcoming sales call with someone who’s evaluating a competitor, a one-minute scan of the Compete Hub means they’re all caught up with any possible intel updates for the day.

4. Looking toward the New Year, can you share any CI resolutions or goals you have for 2024?

Our goal is to integrate Crayon everywhere we can. We want to remove any barriers for employees to access battlecards and intelligence they may need to make better decisions on a daily basis.

When we think about next year and beyond, we’re constantly looking for ways to evolve the CI program to drive even better insights and better engagement across our teams. Crayon is the partner that helps us get there.

Interested to learn how other Crayon customers are boosting battlecard adoption and closing more competitive deals? Check out these additional Customer Corner success stories!

Sheila Lahar

Sheila Lahar is the VP of Content Marketing here at Crayon, responsible for making sure that everything we publish is unique, compelling, and valuable. Prior to joining Crayon, she built successful content marketing programs at a number of B2B SaaS companies, including Flatfile, Datto, and Eloqua.