A champion is an internal advocate inside the buying organization who sells your solution when you are not in the room. They are not the economic buyer and not the user. A real champion has personal motivation tied to the project’s success, political capital to spend, and the access to spend it. Without one, complex deals do not close on time.
The three tests of a real champion
Most reps mistake a friendly contact for a champion. Apply three tests before you put “Champion: green” in CRM:
- Power. Do they have the standing to influence the economic buyer? A junior analyst who likes the demo is not a champion.
- Vested interest. Will their career, scope, or status improve if this project succeeds? A neutral evaluator is not a champion.
- Action. Have they done something for you that cost them political capital? Sent an internal email, set up a meeting with their boss, shared an internal document, defended you in a committee?
If any test is no, they are a coach or a fan, not a champion. Keep working.
How to develop one
Champions are made, not found. The progression looks like:
| Stage | Behavior | Signal |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Coach | Answers your questions | Internal context flows to you |
| 2. Mobilizer | Sets up meetings on your behalf | Their calendar holds your deal |
| 3. Champion | Defends you when you are absent | They reframe objections themselves |
| 4. Co-conspirator | Co-authors the business case with you | They send you their CFO’s pushback before you ask |
Each stage requires that you give before you ask: tailored research, a prepared internal narrative, slides they can present without you, an answer to the objection their VP will raise.
What to give your champion
The single highest-leverage artifact is a one-page internal business case the champion can forward without editing. It should include the metric, the dollar impact, the 12-month risk of inaction, and a specific 30-day pilot scope. If they have to rewrite it, you have not done your job.
A close second is rehearsing the meeting with the economic buyer. Walk through the three objections most likely to come up and the answer to each. A champion who fumbles in front of their CFO loses faith in your product and in themselves.
Common pitfalls
- Single-threading. One champion is fragile. Champions get reorged, fired, or change their mind. Develop two, ideally on different teams.
- Confusing access with advocacy. A friendly contact who takes your calls but never escalates is not a champion. Test their willingness to act.
- Outsourcing the deal to the champion. They cannot win it for you. They can only multiply your access. The AE still owns the strategy and the close.
- No champion test before forecast Commit. If the C in MEDDDPICC is yellow, the deal is not Commit. Coach to the test.
Related
- MEDDDPICC — the qualification framework where champion lives
- Discovery call — where champion identification starts
- BANT vs MEDIC — frameworks that include champion as a field
- Gong — call analytics that surface who is talking and who is silent