BY Tim Londergan
B2B sales champions are the internal advocates who help your solution survive scrutiny, navigate politics, and ultimately win consensus. The finest of these insiders have your back and will plead your case even when you’re not in the room. According to our B2B BuyerSCAN survey, sellers can increasingly expect to encounter larger buyer committees. Given today’s complex, multilevel transactions, there is much to be gained by cultivating these rewarding sales champion relationships.
How do you spot a real sales champion?
Revenue blogger, James W Purvis, lists three requirements of a sales champion.
Power and influence
First, he insists they must have the necessary power and influence with the economic buyer. This is essential as they can define and control the success criteria and help you focus your efforts. Ideally, they have a strong personality and a job title getting them close enough to assist you with timing and key contacts.
Personal interest
Fear of loss or a desire for gain are common motivations stimulating an internal advocate. Perhaps saving their job, getting a promotion or gaining respect is their driver. Discovering their incentive takes some time and is only possible once you have established trust and credibility.
An unabashed advocate
A true sales champion will sell internally on your behalf, especially when you are not there. If they have the influence and the personal interest, their words will have much more power than yours could ever have. Helpfully, Purvis offers a list of ‘tells’ that may help identify how strongly the champion is on your side.
However, beware the imposter sales champion
An imposter sales champion often sounds supportive but lacks reach, urgency or internal standing. They may like your product, but they cannot move others, access power or take a risk to advocate for you. It’s important to understand, early-on, whether this person has the juice or is merely a fan of your product.
What do sales champions need?
According to mysalescoach, your internal sales champion needs to reduce risk and have convincing materials that they can push upward. This evidence must be clear, concise and resonate with the stakeholders. Additionally, the article provides discovery questions to help compose the documentation required.
The goal of the inquiry is to trade value for insight, not simply extract information. You’ll learn the who, when and why of decision-making. Further, when you help a champion win internally, they become more effective and more willing to advocate in the future.
Make your sales champion successful
In part 2 of a 5‑part series, salessuccess discusses how to master stakeholder engagement. Attainment requires strengthening the relationship; developing the advocate into a trusted co-pilot rather than a data source. Further, the best sellers treat these insiders as strategic partners, not just friendly contacts.
Valasys Media provides tips to make a champion more valuable:
- Give them a polished narrative they can reuse
- Send concise stakeholder-specific talking points
- Arm them with ROI, risk-reduction, and implementation details
- Help them anticipate objections before they arise
- Make them the hero of internal momentum, not simply the messenger
How to identify the red flags
Above, you had a warning of the imposter sales champion. This is one who creates the appearance of momentum but may avoid introducing you to the decision makers. Further red flags:
- They like your solution but cannot explain the business case in their own words
- They rarely challenge you or ask probing questions as a company’s advocate might do
- They seem enthusiastic but offer no access to the economic buyer
- They are evasive when asked about a timeline or identifying stakeholders
- They seem unknowing about internal objections to your proposal
- They ask for favors or rewards but show little internal progress of your proposal
The best way to dispel red flags is to assess what they SAY as opposed to what they DO. As Purvis would advise, “If they cannot access stakeholders or never sold an initiative internally, they are a friendly contact, NOT a sales champion.”
Image by Werner Pfennig on Pexels.
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