You’ve got a killer product. A revenue team hungry to win. And a competitive intelligence program in place. So why are you still losing deals you should be winning?

In Crayon’s just-released 2025 State of Competitive Intelligence Report, we uncovered an unfortunate — but fixable — pattern: most companies still struggle to connect their compete efforts to their sales teams in a meaningful way.

And the cost? Millions in lost revenue.

Let’s break it down.

The Disconnect That’s Costing You Deals

Competitive selling is the new normal. This year, nearly 7 in 10 deals were head-to-head against a competitor. And 55% of companies said they’re seeing more competitive opportunities than last year.

But when asked how well-prepared their sales teams are to win those deals, companies gave themselves a 3.8 out of 10.

Why? Because compete teams and sales teams are out of sync:

• Only 48% of compete programs have an executive sponsor from Sales.
  
  
• Less than a third of teams engage with sales on a daily or weekly basis.
  
  
• 44% of teams don’t have visibility into which competitors are in which deals.
  
  
• And over half of compete teams still aren’t pushing intel through sales’ existing tools — or making it actionable in the moment sellers need it most.

This is the core problem: compete teams are building assets and gathering insights, but sales reps don’t know what to use, when, or why.

What Top Teams Are Doing Differently

The good news? We also found that companies who close the sales-compete gap are winning more deals — and winning big.

✅ Teams that enable sales daily saw an 84% increase in competitive sales effectiveness.
✅ Having a sales exec sponsor for the compete program boosted effectiveness by 76%.
✅ Teams using conversational intelligence to track competitor mentions in calls reported an 82% lift in win rates.
✅ Teams with dedicated compete platforms? A whopping 79% increase in effectiveness.

The message is clear: Effective competitive enablement is not about creating more content. It’s about strategic alignment with sales.

From Disconnect to Competitive Advantage

Here’s how today’s most successful companies are turning their compete program into a revenue-generating machine:

1. Get a Sales Exec in the Driver’s Seat

Your compete program needs a stakeholder with real skin in the game. A sales exec sponsor brings visibility, urgency, and influence to drive adoption across the team.

2. Make CI Part of the Sales Cadence

Compete updates should show up where reps already work — Slack, Teams, Salesforce. Whether through Crayon’s Compete Hub or Crayon Answers, top-performing teams embed CI directly into the sales workflow.

3. Think Beyond Battlecards

Static battlecards are table stakes. Leading teams deliver competitive content in dynamic, multi-channel formats — AI-powered, updated in real time, and personalized to each rep’s deals.

4. Track What Matters

Sales teams need CI they can trust. Focus on real-time intelligence from buyers, sellers, and deals, not just public web data. And make sure your CRM reflects competitive pressure in each opportunity.

5. Adopt AI to Accelerate Impact

Crayon Sparks — launched this year — is changing the game. It slashes the time from insight to action, helping compete teams analyze thousands of data points and deliver actionable content in seconds.

The Bottom Line

If your sales team is losing winnable deals, the root cause might not be product, price, or pitch — it might be a misaligned compete program.

This year’s State of CI Report proves that tight collaboration between compete and sales isn’t just a best practice — it’s a revenue imperative.

🔥 Download the full report here to see what the best teams are doing to win — and how your organization can join them.

Let’s stop losing the deals we should be winning.