MEDMEN: 5 Signs You Don't Have A Champion

00:00 Pim Roelofsen: Welcome to The MedMen Show. My name is Pim and that's Andy. What are we talking about today, Pim? 00:04 Andy Whyte: Today, Andy, we are talking about five signs that you don't have a champion. 00:08 Pim Roelofsen: Oh — I almost like you saying that to me. Made me hurt a little. What is the first of these five signs? 00:16 Andy Whyte: That I don't have a champion? 00:17 Pim Roelofsen: Yeah — you feel a bit implicated there, don't you! The first one, Andy? 00:20 Andy Whyte: Yes — your proposed champion doesn't introduce you to new stakeholders. 00:26 Pim Roelofsen: Yes indeed. And it's almost in the way you say it — that represents this picture of not having a champion. Because we know a real champion has a vested interest in your success and is therefore selling internally for you. It's not just a case of them not doing this or not giving you access — a real champion, metaphorically speaking, should be pulling you around the office saying "Have you met Pim? Look at what Pim's solution does — you need to see this." Building not just a champion, but potentially other champions, other coaches, other sponsors of your project. 01:02 Andy Whyte: The word "build" is an interesting one, because champions don't magically just walk around accounts for you. They're just contacts to begin with. A potential champion needs to be built into an actual, effective champion. Connecting to their vested interest — how do they win when you do — and then being able to sell on your behalf. These things require work. But by the time you've done the work, you want to make sure you qualify against it. Because if you don't see those introductions happening and you've been asking for them, it's a red flag. 01:31 Pim Roelofsen: Yeah. And I want to pick up on what you said — the work. You said it twice. The work, I think, is working with your champion — or potential champion — to uncover what their goals are. What are their challenges? What strategies do they have supporting those goals? What initiatives are in place? What obstacles are in the way? Working to uncover the pain and the underlying value. That is the work. But that brings us to our second sign that you don't have a champion — which is that they are not sharing information with you. Not sharing the insights. They're keeping a closed book of their business, which makes things very, very hard for you to sell. 02:14 Andy Whyte: Yeah, absolutely. And it ties into a third point too. I like the third sign because I think it underpins the two previous ones — which is proactivity. We know as sellers we need to be proactive. But by the time you've done the work to build your champion, they should be proactive too. Like pulling you around into the account — taking a proactive approach. If that's not there, the former doesn't happen. 02:37 Pim Roelofsen: And that ties nicely into the fourth sign — which is that they tell you things you didn't already know. Because that's part of being proactive. If every time you talk to your champion you just hear the same status quo, the same updates, the things that are obvious — they're not giving you those insights. "Oh, we had this competitor in last week." "This person isn't actually an advocate of yours — they're a detractor." Or: "This person is actually a real advocate — you should go and talk to them more." Those little gems are sometimes great signals that you do have a champion. But if you're reflecting on a live deal right now and thinking "actually, they haven't told me anything new about our opportunity for a while" — yeah. Not looking good. 03:29 Andy Whyte: That's such a strong run. I'll take us home with number five — which is? 03:33 Pim Roelofsen: They don't commit to anything. They work around commitments — and commitments are the things they'll need to do to create actions internally and make things happen. So for example, going back to stakeholder access — asking for that introduction and hearing "I'm not sure we're there yet." Kind of leaning back a little. People who want to make an impact — which is a trait we typically see with champions — don't shy away from commitments. Impact and commitments are traits of somebody who has genuine power and influence. Power and influence isn't assigned — it's not given by rank or title. It's given by the innate personality of the person. A typical trait of someone with power and influence is they get stuff done. And getting stuff done only happens when you have commitments. 04:21 Andy Whyte: Here's to champions! 04:23 Pim Roelofsen: Here's to champions — cheers!