Last updated: 10 November 2026
A competitor reference card is a one-page summary that a salesperson can open during a deal. It says who the competitor is, which buyers it suits, what buyers say about it, where your offer differs, what questions to ask the buyer and which claims to avoid. AI helps you read the sources and draft the card. A person checks every claim against a source before the card reaches the team.
The prompts below work in Claude, Google Gemini, ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot; replace the words in square brackets with your own details. The example uses an invented company that sells booking software to small dental clinics, and an invented competitor called ClinicFlow.
For the wider sales process, see our practical guide to AI for sales.
What is a competitor reference card?
A competitor reference card is a short, dated document about one competitor, written for the moment a buyer says ‘We are also looking at them.’ It gives the salesperson accurate facts and good questions, so the answer does not depend on memory or rumour.
It is an internal document. It helps your team position your offer fairly against another option, and it does not replace the buyer’s own evaluation.
What should the card contain?
Keep it to one page, so that people use it.
| Section | What to write | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Snapshot | What the competitor sells, to whom, and how it describes itself | Their website and public pages |
| Best-fit buyers | The kind of buyer the competitor serves well | Their case studies and reviews |
| What buyers say | Points that reviewers praise and points they raise repeatedly | Third-party review sites |
| Where we differ | Differences you can support with your own facts | Your approved product facts |
| Questions to ask | Questions that help the buyer decide what matters to them | Your sales team and your won and lost deal notes |
| Claims to avoid | Statements about the competitor that you cannot support | Your review of the sources |
| Last checked | The date and the person who checked the card | Your team |
Which sources can you use?
Use information that is public or that you obtained legitimately: the competitor’s website, pricing and product pages, published documentation, case studies, webinars and press releases, third-party reviews and your own notes from won and lost deals.
Leave out anything confidential that you were not entitled to see, such as leaked documents or material from a former employee of the competitor. If you are unsure whether a source is safe to use, take legal advice. Remove customer names and personal details from your own deal notes before you paste them into any tool, and read our PDPA checklist for using AI on customer data.
How do you research a competitor with AI prompts?
There are two ways to give an assistant its sources. You can paste the text of the pages, or upload the PDFs, and tell the assistant to use only that material. Or you can switch on the assistant’s web search and ask it to cite the pages it used. Pasting the sources gives you tighter control. Web search is quicker, and you then open every page it cites. An assistant can misread a page or state something the page does not say, so each point needs a check against its source.
- Collect the sources for one competitor in a single document, with the web address and the date you saved each one.
- Start a new conversation for each competitor, so that details from different companies do not mix.
- Paste or upload the sources and ask questions that need a citation, using the prompts below.
- Open the source for every point you plan to use and check that it says what the answer claims.
- Copy the verified points into a working document.
Based only on the sources below, what does [competitor] say it is for, and which types of customer does it name? Give the source for each point. Sources: [paste the sources]
List every statement in the sources about what is included and what is not included in [competitor]’s plans. Quote the wording and give the source for each.
Which points do reviewers praise repeatedly, and which do they raise as problems? Separate the points by the size of the reviewer’s company where the review states it.
What do these sources not tell us about [competitor]? List the questions a buyer would want answered that the sources leave open.
The last prompt is the most useful one. It shows you where your knowledge stops, so that nobody fills the gap with a guess.
An assistant’s own memory of a company can be out of date or wrong, so ask it to work from the sources you supply or from pages it cites. The sources need care too. A review can be out of date and a web page can change, so note the date you saved each source.
How do you turn the research into a card?
The card is written from two inputs: the verified research and a short set of approved facts about your own offer. Put both into a conversation together with the card template from the table above. If your assistant has a project or custom assistant feature, keep the template and your approved facts there, so that every card follows the same format.
You are helping a sales team write an internal reference card about [competitor]. Use only the two sets of facts I give you: the verified research on [competitor] and our approved facts about [our product]. Fill in the template: Snapshot, Best-fit buyers, What buyers say, Where we differ, Questions to ask, Claims to avoid. Mark any statement that is not supported by the facts I gave you as UNVERIFIED instead of writing it as fact. Keep the tone fair, and do not criticise the competitor.
Using the card, write six questions a salesperson can ask a buyer to find out what matters most to them in this decision. The questions should help the buyer reach their own view and should not mention the competitor’s weaknesses.
Read the draft against your sources before anyone uses it. Delete or fix every line marked UNVERIFIED, and ask the assistant to explain any point you cannot trace to a source.
What does a finished card look like?
Here is a shortened card for the invented competitor ClinicFlow, written by the invented company that sells booking software to small dental clinics. Every detail is made up.
| Section | Card entry |
|---|---|
| Snapshot | ClinicFlow sells online booking and reminders for clinics and describes itself as built for multi-branch practices (source: its home page). |
| Best-fit buyers | Clinic groups with several branches and a dedicated administrator (source: its case studies page). |
| What buyers say | Reviewers praise the reminder feature. Several mention that setup takes time (source: two review sites). |
| Where we differ | We set up a single-clinic account on the day of signing, using our own onboarding checklist (source: our approved product facts). |
| Questions to ask | How many people manage bookings today? How long can you wait for a new system to go live? Which tasks take most of the front desk’s time now? |
| Claims to avoid | Anything about ClinicFlow’s prices or contract terms, because the pricing page does not list them. |
| Last checked | [date] by [name] |
The card stays fair. It tells the salesperson where the competitor is strong, which is good for the conversation with a buyer who has already done their own research.
How do you use the card in a live deal?
Open the card before the call and decide which two or three questions to ask. During the call, listen for the buyer’s priorities and use the questions to bring them out. After the call, record what the buyer said about the competitor, because that is the most useful input for the next update.
The question ‘Why should we choose you rather than them?’ is a common objection. You can rehearse the answer with an AI practice partner. Our guide to building an AI sales coach shows how to set one up with your product facts and the card.
How do you keep the cards accurate?
Give each card an owner and a review date. When you review a card, gather the new or changed sources and ask the assistant to compare them with the existing card.
Here is the current reference card for [competitor] and the new sources collected since the last review. List what has changed, which statements on the card are now out of date and which new points deserve a place on the card. Quote the source for each change.
Remove any claim that you can no longer trace to a source. A shorter card that is right is worth more than a longer one that is not.
What should you avoid?
- Unsupported claims about the competitor. A salesperson who repeats an unverified claim puts the company’s credibility at risk. Keep comparisons factual and supportable, and ask your legal adviser before you use comparative claims in marketing material.
- Facts from the assistant’s memory. An assistant can state outdated or invented details about a company with confidence. Work from sources you supply or pages it cites, and open them.
- Confidential material. Use sources you are entitled to use. If a document looks internal to the competitor, leave it out.
- Customer personal data in AI tools. Remove names and contact details from deal notes before you paste them.
- Copying the competitor’s wording. Summarise what they say in your own words and record the source.
- Cards that never change. Without a review date, a card turns into a rumour.
Where does this guide fit in our AI for sales series?
Competitive positioning belongs to the engage stage of selling with AI, once a buyer is comparing options. Start with the practical guide to AI for sales, compare prospecting tools with Clay vs Apollo for Singapore sales teams and practise the ‘why you?’ conversation with an AI sales coach.
Practise positioning in class
QD Academy’s two-day Mastering AI for Sales Growth and Team Dynamics course covers prompt writing for sales and using AI support in real deals, taught by practitioners and funded for eligible learners. Check the course page for the latest dates, fees and funding.
Is it legal to research competitors with AI?
Reading a competitor’s public website, pricing pages and published reviews is a normal part of selling, and AI makes the reading faster. Do not use confidential material that you were not entitled to see, and take legal advice if you are unsure about a source or about a comparison you plan to publish.
Which AI assistant should I use for competitor research?
Claude, Google Gemini, ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot can all do the job. Choose the one your team already uses and has approved. Whichever you pick, give it the sources, ask it to cite them and check every claim against them, because an assistant can state a fact with confidence and still be wrong.
Can I upload competitor pricing documents?
Upload documents that the competitor published or that you obtained legitimately, such as public pricing pages and product documentation. Leave out anything that looks confidential or internal to the competitor.
How many competitor cards do I need?
Start with the two or three competitors that appear most often in your deals. Add more when a competitor starts to show up regularly.
Should I show the card to customers?
No. The card is an internal tool for your sales team. If you want a comparison page for customers, keep every statement factual, check it against a source and have it reviewed before you publish it.