Champion building and planning
Enterprise selling inevitably comes with fierce competition. Competitors are everywhere, and the world is a noisy place that can distract customers' attention.
Whether your competition is “do nothing”, another project or priority, another competitor, Champions are advocating for these other solutions every day. Therefore, just identifying a Champion is not enough to get the win – to get that, you must build, test and use your Champions to execute with accuracy.
Jump to:
• The science of Champion building – 3 top tips for success
• The art of the Champion plan
Building Champions is not a one-time activity and shouldn’t be considered the art in sales – something you naturally achieve just by being a superhuman charismatic salesperson!
The science of enterprise sales kicks in when you move beyond instinct and personality, and you can systematically build Champions through repeat actions and activities which bring value to your customers.
The science of Champion building – 3 top tips for success
Consistently successful salespeople build Champions by executing the same activities sale after sale.
Here are our 3 top tips to help you increase your Champion-building and conversion success.
1. Identified pain equals something to gain
To build a Champion, you first have to identify the right person. Often, we give away our most valuable Champion building assets to people who do not meet the criteria for a Champion, specifically the importance of them needing “something to gain” from the deal.
Always qualify your Champion’s credentials as you build throughout the sales cycle. If they don’t have something meaningful to gain, they aren’t a true Champion. It is incredibly frustrating to invest time, effort and value into someone who ultimately cannot or will not advocate for you when it matters most.
2. Map your valuables to the sales cycle
A trick we discuss in our MEDDPICC workshops is to have a brainstorming session to list the value assets you have in your company that can be the “flowers and chocolates” to gift to a potential Champion to build the relationship.
When we discuss “gifts”, we are not talking bribery—we are talking about items of value that can be offered to your Champion throughout the sales cycle and that deliver value.
Typically, these value assets fall into several buckets:
a) Knowledge and insights: Whitepapers, case studies and business cases are examples of this. These empower our Champion to advocate/sell for us internally, boosting their industry knowledge and promoting their brand.
b) Connections: Connections at industry or roundtable events can be invaluable for senior executives, helping them make new industry connections and sometimes even helping their careers.
c) Commercial value: Services and pricing discounts can also provide a win, helping to smooth investment approvals. These need to be carefully considered to ensure they are only given once value has been fully established.
It’s important to recognise that different value assets will be more appropriate and impactful at different stages of the sales cycle. By mapping these assets to the sales cycle, you can offer the right “gifts” at the right time, strengthening the Champion relationship in a natural and valuable way.
For example, pricing discounts or case study connections should be carefully considered at the beginning of a sales cycle - you may be giving these away to the wrong person or before value is established.
So, spend some time with your team to map what value assets you have available, and when it is appropriate to use them over the sales cycle. This map can help systemise Champion building throughout discovery, solution and closing sales stages.
3. Planning
Once you have a map of the value assets and some potential Champions identified, you can consider using them to “give to get” throughout the sales cycle. You can begin offering key documents, connections, and commercial tools to qualify your Champion, gain access to the people with the information you need, and ultimately further your sales cycle.
It is highly recommended that you consider a “Champion Plan” for key enterprise deals. This will give you some headspace to consider what your key ask of the Champion will be, for example, access to the EB, and how you might influence or persuade the Champion to get you that important meeting.
In essence, our tips are to work out what the individual is looking for, check your armoury and then think about strategic deployment of these tools or assets.
The real benefit here, and where this becomes a science, not an art, is creating a deliberate plan.
Most of us offer value reactively — giving something when an opportunity arises. However, the most successful sales professionals get ahead by planning how they will build, test, and leverage their Champions at every stage. By mapping out when and how you’ll provide value, and how you’ll validate the Champion's commitment, you can significantly shorten your sales cycles and improve your overall deal control.
The art of the Champion plan
From what we’ve said, you might worry that Champion planning is arduous and time-consuming. It isn’t!
A simple plan, containing the following information, will enable you to effectively identify, build and use your Champion to execute on your plan:
1. What evidence do you have that your Champion is a Champion?
Think power and influence, track record for cases for change, something to gain, having and providing access to the Eb.
2. What risks do you have which you need to overcome?
Perhaps you are unsure of their track record – consider what you would need to validate this.
3. What will be your key asks of the Champion in the sales cycle?
Access to the Eb or sharing their internal business case, for example.
4. What Champion building assets could you deploy, and when, to influence a “yes” to these asks?
Think – offer a CIO-to-CIO meeting with an existing customer to enable a Champion/Eb meeting.
We often say that the simplest and most effective Champion plans focus on identifying three key actions, specifically relating to part 4 above, that you can deploy during the critical middle six weeks of the quarter. These actions should help you build, test, and use your Champion to progress the deal, secure access to key decision-makers, and further qualify the Decision process, giving you greater control and predictability in your sales cycle.
Summary
Good salespeople know how to Champion build. They understand relationships. They make the connection. They deliver value and achieve.
Great salespeople make a plan. They know they will need to deploy company value. They plan for it and use it to their advantage to increase deal sizes, shorten sales cycles, and build Champions for life.
This blog is part of our "Champion Series" of blogs and live member webinars.
Become a member today to join our exclusive member webinars and gain access to a host of valuable MEDDPICC resources.
