Why Not Having A Real Champion Will Kill Your Deal (And How To Fix It)
Not having a real Champion in your deal is one of the most common reasons that deals die.
Without a Champion you’ll get stuck in endless loops of meetings that go nowhere, you’ll lose to ‘no decision’, or you’ll just get ghosted and never find out why.
And if a competitor has a great Champion and you don’t, no amount of follow-ups, chasing for meetings, demos or ROI justification will help. You will lose, stone-cold dead, even if you have a better technical solution.
You may think you have a Champion in your deal because they’re so enthusiastic about your solution and are eager to talk to you.
A real Champion, however, is much more than an advocate for your solution.
Your Champion should be the internal engine for your deal within your prospect’s organisation. They should drive momentum, help shape the buying criteria, give you the real story of what’s happening, who the key stakeholders are, what they care about, what the buying process really is, and they should be able to get you in front of the right people at the right time.
They will often be risking their credibility and reputation to support you. If the size of the deal, or the impact of your solution, is big enough, they may even be putting their jobs on the line for you.
What Characteristics Define a True Champion?
For someone to be your true deal Champion, they need the four key characteristics below. I’ve also given examples of how to test for each one, though bear in mind that you’ll need the right level of trust and rapport, which can take a number of meetings to develop.
Authority and/or Influence
It is absolutely critical that your Champion is at the right level in the organisation to have the necessary influence or authority to get you in front of the right people, including the person who holds the budget for your solution (the Economic Buyer). They will need to advocate for you in internal meetings that you are not a part of, so they also need to have a strong voice within the business.
As an early-stage founder, it’s not uncommon for your initial interaction with a prospect to be with a technical individual contributor (IC). However, unless this IC is very senior and exceptionally well connected and respected within the company, it is unlikely they will be able to fulfil this role as Champion for you.
Unless you’re selling to very small companies, or your deal sizes are very low, your Champion will likely need to be at management level. And the bigger the deal, the more senior they will need to be.
Let’s take a look at an example of trying to sell a developer solution to a prospect’s engineering team. Below you can see an org chart which includes some of the potential stakeholders for the deal.
One of the key factors that will determine where your Champion will need to sit in the org chart is the price of your deal.
If you were selling a $5k deal, it’s possible that this could be signed off by the Development Manager. In this scenario, if you were initially engaged with one of the IC developers, then it’s possible they could be your Champion and get you or your solution in front of the Development Manager.
However, if your deal size was say $30k, then it’s more likely that the VP Engineering would need to be the final sign off, the Economic Buyer (EB). In this scenario, it’s very unlikely that the IC developer would be able to be your Champion and much more likely that you’d need the Development Manager to Champion your deal.
If you had first engaged with the IC developer, then once you’ve built up some trust and rapport with them, you would need to get them to introduce you to the Development Manager so you can understand their priorities and help them understand how your solution can help them. You’d then work with the Development Manager to show how much value you can deliver to them personally and nurture them into becoming a Champion for you.
If your deal size was $100k, then it’s quite likely the CTO would be the EB. In a smaller company it may even be the CEO who’d be the EB. Could the Development Manager be your Champion if the CTO or CEO was the Economic Buyer? Possibly, if they were very well respected and had a lot of influence in the company.
But it’s more likely you’d need to work your way up to the VP Engineering and show how much value you could deliver to them and nurture them into becoming a Champion for you. If the CEO was the EB, it may even be the CTO who you need to win over to be your Champion.
How to test: One of the key tests is to understand (or at least start with a hypothesis) of who will need to be the final signoff, the Economic Buyer, in your deal. Signoff limits vary by company and by role, and even if your price is technically within someone’s signoff authority, they may want, or need, to get their boss’s approval to actually spend the money.
Another good test is when you ask about the buying process how much does your potential Champion know and how much are they willing/able to find out?
Also whether and how quickly they’re able to arrange meetings or make intros to other stakeholders can be another good indicator of whether you have a true Champion.
Personal high-priority stake in the outcome
The risks for a Champion advocating for a new solution and the amount of effort involved are non-trivial. For someone to be motivated enough to be a true Champion, they need to feel the pain your solution solves so they are emotionally and practically invested in solving it. And this pain needs to be a high priority for them.
This may be because it has a direct and significant impact on their own targets or KPIs or because it impacts the targets / KPIs of the individuals or teams working for them in a way that rolls up to their own targets or KPIs.
If you’re talking to someone, even if they’re a senior manager, who is not impacted first hand by the pain, or hasn’t been given a directive from senior management to fix the pain, it is unlikely they can be a real Champion for you.
And bear in mind that it’s not enough for the people in their team to be impacted by the pain, they need to also be impacted personally by the pain in a significant way.
How to test: Ask your Champion about how they and their team are impacted by the problem they’re trying to solve. Ask if they have specific KPIs or targets they’re trying to achieve that this problem is preventing them from hitting. You can also ask them questions like ‘Why are you looking for a solution now?’ See our booklet Value Creation Explained for a deeper dive on what motivates different stakeholders.
Deep understanding of the problem across the business
They also need to be organisationally aware enough to understand how the pain impacts other stakeholders within the buying chain. As you can see in the below Value Pyramid, technical stakeholders will usually care about the technical problem being solved, more senior stakeholders will usually care more about the business problem being impacted.
Your Champion needs to understand and be able to educate you on all of these, and be able to help you put a business case together that is compelling for the Economic Buyer.
How to test: Ask your Champion about the motivations of other stakeholders, particularly the EB. What does the EB care most about in relation to solving the problem and why? What metrics will they use to evaluate solutions? Is there a high-level initiative to solve this problem? Why is now the right time to solve this problem? Does it align with any strategic initiatives the company has?
Bought into your solution being their solution
And, of course, they also need to believe that you have the best solution for them and the problem(s) they have. They need to trust you, they need to believe in your technology, and they need to believe in your ability to deliver that technology to make them successful.
How to test: This is one of the more difficult to test, though if you have built up a good relationship, you can ask whether they are evaluating other options and how your solution stacks up. People generally want to keep their options open and / or don’t want you to think you have the best solution, as you may try and ramp up the price, so you may not get a conclusive answer to this.
However, you can get a sense of how well disposed they are towards your solution. Are they regularly willing to book the next meeting with you at the end of the current one (BAMFAM), do they respond to emails quickly, are they willing to answer questions, do they seem interested and engaged when you talk about your solution?
It is important to bear in mind that even if someone is wildly enthusiastic about your solution, they also need to have the other characteristics (particularly the right level of Authority and/or Influence) to be your true Champion.
Nurturing A True Champion Can Take Time
It’s quite likely that it will take several meetings before you feel that you really have a Champion, someone who has these characteristics and becomes more motivated to advocate on your behalf.
Even if you have found someone who you believe is at the right level, experiences the pain first hand and seems to have a good knowledge of the business, it may take time for them to trust you and to come to the belief that you have the best solution for them.
One of the keys to building that trust is to meet your potential Champion in person. It’s the best way to get to know someone, and to allow them to get to know you. Don’t skimp on this important aspect of building Champion relationships (see my blog Get On A Plane! for more on this).
Any questions, just DM me or email me at ben@crane.vc.
Best of luck with finding your deal, Champions!
