Don’t beg. Don’t bug. Use your Champion

Enterprise purchases take time and involve multiple steps to close. When deals stall it's often due to the internal influence required on the customer side to navigate their buying process. That’s where your Champion becomes critical.

A Champion, under MEDDPICC terminology, is your insider guide, advocate, and pressure-tester. Used effectively, Champions shorten sales cycles, unblock stakeholder resistance, and improve your forecasting accuracy.

This blog explores how Champions help you understand customer decision making and their process to navigate complex buying journeys, and close deals faster.

Jump to section: 

• What’s the Champion’s role in the Decision process?
• What defines a great Champion in enterprise sales?
• How should Champions help with Dp? A test of knowledge
• Continue Champion-building: Investment for future asks
• Champion & Decision process red flags
• Summary:  Champion-led Decision process qualification

What’s the Champion’s role in the Decision process?

Under MEDDPICC, the Champion is your most powerful internal ally. Their role is to help you:

• Influence stakeholder alignment: They can build internal support for your solution and address objections early.
• Advocate for your solution when you're not in the room—especially with the Economic Buyer and decision committee.
• Navigate the internal buying journey: They know the formal and informal steps required to get a deal signed and make implementation a success.

Champions don’t just give you information; they actively work to help you win. If your Champion is weak, disengaged, or doesn’t have influence, your deal is at risk.

Top Tip: If you find yourself labelling your Champion i.e. ‘weak Champion’ perhaps they are not your Champion at all, as we detail in this blog.

What defines a great Champion in enterprise sales?

Not every supporter is a Champion. We've to continually qualify if they meet the definition. At a minimum, a Champion must have:

1. Power and influence: Either through title or internal capital, they can sway decisions and shape internal conversations.
2. Track record for driving change: They’ve successfully led or supported major buying decisions or strategic initiatives before.
3. Something to gain: Your solution helps them succeed—whether that’s improving KPIs, modernising their function, or gaining visibility.
4. Access to the Economic Buyer: They can either get you in the room or directly influence the Economic Buyer’s thinking.

If your contact lacks one or more of these traits, it doesn’t mean the deal is dead—but it does mean you need to revisit your Champion identification and building activities.

Example question to a Champion:
“What’s the best way to get [Economic Buyer] aligned on this?”
Using key testing questions throughout the sales cycle can ensure you're investing in the right relationships to yield results in the end.

How should Champions help with Dp? A test of knowledge

The best way to assess a Champion is not by how helpful they are in conversation—but by how they perform when you’re not there. Ask yourself:

• Do they have track record and are they knowledgeable about the steps to close?
• Do they have the experience and expertise to proactively guide you through internal processes?
• Do they have form for influencing other stakeholders?
• Do you see behaviour on overcoming obstacles or working with you on blockers or challenges to the desired outcome?
• Do they have a "win" which will motivate positive outcomes with procurement, finance, or risk teams? Do you see this motivation in action?

These questions aren’t just checkboxes—they are small 'tests' and 'tells' that all help qualify your Champion. If the win is theirs too, a Champion will help you shape the deal and navigate the Decision process.

A way to ensure you have adequately qualified is to continue to test this is through a Mutual Success Plan, Action Plan or Close Plan. This joint collaboration document is how you discuss the Decision process, uncover key next steps and assign someone to each action.

Champions are execution engines in our customers and will view a Mutual Success Plan as a must-have to keep on top of actions and owners, to meet their required deadlines. Frankly, they'll also appreciate you documenting the actions!

Example Decision process question:
“If the approvals were to stall, where would it likely happen?”
Another great question to test your Champion and anticipate any blockers before they happen.

Continue Champion-building: Investment for future asks

One of the biggest mistakes reps make? Stopping once they’ve identified a Champion. Identification of a Champion is just the beginning. It’s imperative that Champions are cultivated, built into our Champions, then tested and used in a continuous cycle.

How Champion building helps you in the future:

• Deals evolve: As new stakeholders enter or resistance appears, your Champion needs new tools and reinforcement.
• New asks are coming: Asking for access to the Economic Buyer, or navigating security and procurement, requires deeper trust.
• You’re setting up renewal and expansion: A Champion who helped close the initial deal can become your ongoing Champion for cross-sell and upsell.

Champion-building is not transactional—it’s a strategic investment. So continue to consider your "flowers and chocolates" – non-bribery based gifts like knowledge, industry insights, connections, speaking engagements, etc., to build that relationship.

Champion & Decision process red flags

It won’t all be smooth sailing. That’s sales! As you move through the later parts of the sales cycle and work with your Champion, look out for any risks or concerns which may need mitigating. Examples could be:

• Champions hesitate to connect you with senior stakeholders.
• Champions don’t share internal timelines or approval steps.
• Champions respond passively or only when prompted.

It’s easy to think your Champion may not be a Champion – however, our experience says that often Champions fail to deliver because asks have not been correctly articulated, or the seller hasn’t built enough trust with the person to justify the ask. Look in the mirror first to ensure you have done enough to warrant that ask.

Summary:  Champion-led Decision process qualification

A Champion is not a “nice-to-have”—they’re essential to understanding and influencing the Decision process and driving enterprise deals to close.

Here’s how to make them count:

• Qualify based on power, track record, personal gain, and access.
• Test your Champion continuously to avoid surprises
• Coach them with the right messaging and support materials.
• Invest in the relationship for future asks.

With a strong Champion by your side, you're no longer selling solo—you’re building internal momentum that drives deals forward faster.

This blog is one of our Decision process series. These blogs are accompanied by our newsletter, and a member-only live webinar.

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