Champion vs Champions in Strategic Accounts
When you’re working strategic accounts, the way you think about Champions has to change.
In a single opportunity, a single Champion can help you win a deal.
In a strategic account, Champions (plural) are how you scale impact, connect opportunities, and drive bigger outcomes over time.
But there’s one thing to get right from the start: a Champion is always specific to the outcome they're driving. This is usually at the single-deal or use-case level.
As soon as we label people too broadly, we risk misunderstanding their influence - and overestimating what they can actually get done.
Jump to:
What is a Champion
A Champion isn’t just someone who likes your solution or is easy to work with.
In a single opportunity, however, it can feel that way as things are relatively clear. You’re aligned around one problem, one team, and one outcome. Your Champion is focused, motivated, and directly connected to making that initiative succeed.
But to be a Champion, there are four things you should consistently see:
- Power and influence – they can move conversations forward.
- A track record for driving a case for change – they’ve done this before.
- Something to gain – personally or professionally.
- Access to the Economic buyer – directly or indirectly.
Miss one of these, and you may have support... but not a Champion.
To build a Champion, your role is to go deep with that person. Understand their world, align on pain and Metrics, equip them with the right messaging, and help them navigate stakeholders and the Decision process.
When this works well, you’re both driving toward the same outcome: “Let’s win this together.”
What Changes in Strategic Accounts
As soon as you step into a strategic account, that simplicity disappears.
You’re now dealing with multiple teams, different priorities, and parallel initiatives. And this is where many sellers get caught out.
Each deal stands on its own.
Each initiative has its own pain, its own Metrics, and its own internal process. And crucially, each one needs its own Champion, someone aligned to that specific outcome.
The mistake is assuming that success in one area carries across the account.
“We’ve got a great Champion here” often means: “We've got strong support for one specific initiative”.
Outside of that context, their influence may drop off quickly.
This is where deals stall. You miss stakeholders, overestimate coverage, and assume momentum that isn’t really there.
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When an Economic Buyer Becomes the Champion Across the Account
Sometimes, as you progress through a strategic account, you’ll see an interesting development.
The Economic buyer from an individual deal - someone who initially became involved to approve or sponsor a specific initiative - starts to engage more broadly.
They begin to:
- See multiple opportunities across the organisation.
- Recognise patterns and overlaps between initiatives.
- Take an interest in outcomes beyond their original scope.
In these situations, that Economic buyer can evolve into a Champion across a wider part of the business.
This often happens in:
- Multi-division organisations.
- Global or regional structures.
- Groups with multiple affiliates or business units.
Because they:
- Have seniority and authority.
- Can influence across boundaries.
- And often have the most to gain from scaled impact.
But again, this isn’t automatic.
They don’t become a Champion for everything by default - they become one because the deal outcomes align with their objectives, they see value in connecting multiple initiatives, and they're motivated by a bigger commercial opportunity.
Your role is to recognise this early and support it, moving from individual deals to something much bigger.
Connecting the Dots Across Opportunities
Once you have multiple initiatives moving, patterns start to emerge.
You’ll notice similar themes showing up across teams: efficiency, visibility, growth, and risk reduction. Individually, these are separate conversations. Together, they start to form something bigger.
At this point, the Economic buyer from one deal, or someone else in the organisation, can see the bigger picture across these initiatives. They may not own each one directly, but they:
- Have visibility across teams.
- Benefit from multiple outcomes succeeding.
- Care about broader business impact.
They’re not your Champion for everything, but they play a critical role in bringing things together.
This is an important factor in enterprise deals: The Champion who helps connect everything is often the one with the biggest win.
They're the person who stands to gain the most from multiple initiatives succeeding; whether that’s delivering a transformation programme, hitting a major business objective, or driving visible change across the organisation.
Even though you need Champions across multiple opportunities, one person typically emerges who:
- Has the most to gain.
- Has the broadest view.
- And is motivated to align everything into a bigger outcome.
Your role is to support that.
You’re no longer just progressing individual deals. You’re helping:
- Join the dots.
- Frame a bigger story.
- Align separate initiatives into something more meaningful.
You move from “How do we win this deal?” to “How do these opportunities reinforce each other, and who benefits most from that?”
Renewals: Where Champion Strategy Often Breaks Down
Renewals are where things often become less obvious and where risk builds.
One of the biggest changes is that the person who originally bought your solution is usually no longer the one you deal with day to day. Instead, you’re working with users, administrators, or operational owners.
These relationships can feel strong; the product is being used, and people are engaged.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re aligned with someone who:
- Has the ability to assign or remove budgets.
- Is accountable for the business outcome.
- Will drive the renewal decision.
This is where access gets mistaken for influence. And when renewal comes around, you can find yourself exposed.
To avoid this, you need to deliberately step back and reassess:
- Who actually owns this now?
- Has responsibility shifted since the original deal?
- Who benefits from continuing or expanding?
- Who will actively support this internally?
At the same time, you need to reconnect to value.
Over time, even strong solutions become embedded and expected, and as a result, they fade into the background. Your job is to bring that value back into focus - re-establish impact, highlight what’s at risk, and make the outcome visible again.
The strongest teams treat renewals as a moment to re-engage the right stakeholders, rebuild alignment, and expand the conversation, not just manage a process.
Bringing it all Together
Each deal needs its own Champion (including renewals), aligned to its own outcome. Influence is contextual; it doesn’t automatically transfer across the organisation.
At the same time, enterprise success rarely comes from isolated wins.
It comes from:
- Multiple initiatives gaining traction across an organisation.
- Clear alignment across stakeholders.
- One person who sees the bigger picture and has the most to gain from bringing it all together.
Your role is to:
- Build strength across individual opportunities.
- Stay clear on where influence really sits.
- Identify who benefits most from the bigger outcome.
- And connect opportunities that genuinely add value.
All while continuously reassessing - because people change, roles evolve, and accounts never stand still.
A Final Thought
A comprehensive view of Champions is needed in strategic accounts.
You need to think across the full picture:
- Champions at a deal level, driving individual opportunities.
- Champions who can help connect initiatives and elevate conversations.
- Champions who will support renewal and expansion over time.
And, importantly, recognise that in enterprise deals, one person often emerges with the biggest win and becomes critical to bringing a larger enterprise deal together.
The best enterprise sellers don’t just “find a Champion.” They build a series of opportunities with a choice of Enterprise Champions.
Footnote:
The Economic buyer typically operates at a level that influences broader organisational outcomes. While they may be involved in individual deals, their role aligns more naturally to connecting and enabling larger, cross-account initiatives rather than acting as the Champion for a single opportunity.
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