How senior leaders should prep before a sales call
Hi Everyone,
When a competitive deal gets serious, the CEO, founder, or another senior leader often gets pulled in.
They are there to add weight, reassure the buyer, and help the team move the deal forward.
But the prep they get is often built for a different job. Most teams hand them the same battlecard the sales team uses. Useful for a rep handling objections live. Less useful for an executive who needs to understand the deal, the risks, and the role they should play.
Today, we're looking at what exec-ready competitive intel should look like.
When senior leaders get the wrong prep
This is where senior involvement can backfire.
Without the full context, a senior leader can start solving the wrong problem. They may repeat what the sales team has already covered, or say something that cuts across the work already done.
That doesn't reassure the buyer and makes the team look less aligned. That is the risk of sending a senior leader into the room with rep-level prep.
What to put in an exec brief
An exec brief should be short enough to read before the call so one page is enough.
It should cover five things:
1. Who is in the room: name the buyer, the champion, and anyone likely to block the deal. For example: "CFO cares about payback period. The operations lead is worried about implementation time."
2. What the buyer cares about: summarize the business reason behind the deal. For example: "They're buying because churn is rising and the board is asking for a retention plan."
3. Where the competitor is strongest: name the area where the competitor has the better position in this deal. For example: "Competitor is cheaper and already known by the finance team." Or: "Competitor has the stronger integration story, so avoid turning the call into a technical comparison."
4. Where the deal could go wrong: name the topic the senior leader should handle carefully or avoid reopening. For example: "Do not bring up security unless the buyer raises it. It was covered last week, and the buyer accepted the answer." Or: "Do not offer a custom rollout timeline. The team has already agreed on what is possible."
5. What you need the senior leader to do: be specific about the role they should play in the meeting. For example: "Reassure the CFO that the payback period is realistic." Or: "Back up the rollout plan without offering a custom timeline."
Try this today
Use the template we created for the next competitive deal where a senior leader may join the call. Fill it in with the buyer context, the competitor's strongest angle, the place the deal could go wrong, and the role you want the senior leader to play.
Keep the brief focused on the meeting they are about to walk into. If they can read it in five minutes and know what to do, it has done its job.
Go deeper
👉 Crayon: 2025 State of Competitive Intelligence — useful for the competitive-readiness gap: competitors appear in 68% of deals, while teams rate readiness at 3.8/10
👉 Klue: Competitive Battlecards 101 — good if you want examples of what rep-level battlecards usually include and why they need to stay short and practical.
👉 Lucidchart: Build an Executive Sponsorship Program — useful on pre-call briefings, clear talking points, and avoiding miscommunication when executives join account conversations.
👉 Donal Daly: The 5 Foundational Elements of an Executive Sponsor Program — a strong supporting read on why last-minute executive involvement can backfire when the role is unclear
Coming up tomorrow
Tomorrow, we're looking at why cross-functional initiatives often fail between strategy and execution, and how one clear owner can keep the work moving across teams.
P.S. Before your next competitive sales call, ask for the brief you would actually want to read. The template should give the team a starting point.