Champion

A champion is a person on the customer's side who benefits if the deal goes through. They explain how decisions are made, warn you about obstacles and argue for you in internal meetings. You cannot be in those meetings. Your champion can.

A champion is not just a friendly contact. Friendly people answer your calls. A champion takes action: they set up the meeting, forward the proposal with a note, or tell you the real objection. In a CRM, mark the contact's role on the deal card and note what they did last.

For example, a team lead suffers most from the slow process you fix. They book a call with their director and tell you in advance which question the director will ask.

In the weekly meeting the head of sales asks about each large deal. Who is our champion, and what did they do this week? If the seller cannot name an action, the contact is friendly but not yet a champion. That is a warning sign for the forecast.

A champion changes how the seller plans the next step. Instead of chasing the decision maker alone, the seller asks the champion how to reach them. When a deal goes quiet, the champion is the first call. They usually know whether the deal is stalled or just waiting.

The champion links several neighboring terms. The discovery call is where you often find them, because they describe the pain most clearly. The decision maker is the person they help you reach. The proposal should give them words they can repeat internally. A stalled deal often means the champion has left or lost interest.

• Mistaking a polite contact for a champion. Being nice costs them nothing. Test it: ask for one small action, such as an introduction, and see if it happens.
• Relying on one person only. If the champion changes jobs or goes on leave, the deal stops. Build a second contact on the customer's side early.
• Asking the champion to do your job. They will not write the business case for you. Give them a short summary they can forward as it is.
• Forgetting what the champion gets out of it. People help when the deal solves their own problem. Ask what success would mean for them personally, and keep it in mind.

By Friday, each seller lists their five largest open deals and names the champion for each. Next to every name, write the last thing that person did to move the deal, with a date. The head of sales reviews the list on Monday. Deals with no champion or no recent action get one next step: find or test a champion this week.

Six areas of the job on one map, with a self-assessment and a plan for your first month.