NO CHAMPION, NO DEAL
A Champion is a person who has power, influence, and, subsequently, credibility within the customer's organization and who is willing and able to assist you in making progress with your deal.
WHAT MAKES A CHAMPION?
A CHAMPION HAS POWER AND INFLUENCE
A CHAMPION ACTS AS AN INTERNAL SELLER FOR YOU
A CHAMPION HAS A VESTED INTEREST IN YOUR SUCCESS
CONTACT, COACH, OR CHAMPION?
Having a Champion is crucial for a deal’s success. However, you rarely have one straight away. So what do you do if you have a helpful stakeholder who is missing one of the three Champion criteria?
This kind of contact is referred to as a Coach. Typically, they lack the power and influence to be a Champion, but they can still give you helpful insight into the deal and introduce you to important stakeholders.
If your coach has power and influence, but either doesn’t have a vested interest or isn’t selling internally for you, you can work on building them into your Champion.
BUILDING TRUST
Trust is a critical element in building a Champion. A Champion who trusts the seller will always work harder for you and be happier to give you information, good, bad, or ugly.
This can take time and comes from being consistent, reliable, and honest.
While you want to be friendly with your Champion, you don’t necessarily want to be friends. Your relationship needs to be outcome-driven, where you both mutually benefit from each other’s success. We have seen sellers become so close with their Champions that they become afraid to call them to the task, which negates the purpose of having a Champion.
BUILDING YOUR CHAMPION
Your Champion needs to not only be bought into your solution, but to be able to advocate for your solution when you’re not there. It is your responsibility to prepare them for pushback against your solution.
You can use the Three Whys to help your Champion understand the value of your solution and to be able to articulate it to other stakeholders. Remember that your competitors will have Champions too, and the only way you will beat them is if your Champion is stronger.
It’s also important to continually test your Champion throughout the sales process to ensure that they are properly qualified to act as your Champion, and you are set up for success. Deals tracks this on every opportunity with MEDDPICC opportunity scoring, so you see the gap before it costs you the deal.
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WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT CHAMPIONS?
In this episode of MEDMEN, Andy and Pim break down the three essential traits of a true sales Champion and dives deep into 𝙑𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙄𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙩 — why it matters, how to spot it, and how to nurture it so your Champions have a genuine reason to back you and your solution.
In this episode of The MedMen Show, Andy and Pim answer this question and more as they have a look at everything people get wrong when it comes to the Champion. For example, the misconception that you can only ever have just one!
If your contact isn’t your Champion, they won’t tell you… but there will be signs.
In this episode of MEDMEN, Andy and Pim look at the five signs that you don’t have a Champion.