Champion
Your Champion is the owner with a personal interest in getting the pain solved who, once built up, sells on your behalf when you’re not around.
Pain is an important driver, and implication drives urgency.
However, there is always an owner with a personal interest in getting this pain solved. This personal interest drives the person to collaborate with peers, consultants and vendors to attack the pain as soon as possible.
The goal should be to identify these individuals. Even if they don’t hold an official management title, they can be spotted because they are well accepted by their peers, are very influential and usually have a good track record of successful projects that makes them visible in the chain of command.
Once you have recognized your potential Champion’s goals, you will be able to develop the relationship by enabling them to address the pain: for example, by linking them to the subject matter experts in your company, inviting them to the right seminars or connecting them with your references so they can learn from their experience handling similar projects.
Once you’ve built up a real Champion, they will recognize your support and understand that you will be able to help them solve the pain moving forward. It will become a joint effort, and your Champion will become a true defender of the cause, selling on your behalf whenever you’re not around.
Questions to ask
- Why is this person a champion?
- Does the person have influence?
- What is their personal interest?
- Will they stand up for you and sell for you when you are not there?
Go deeper on Champion
The owner with a personal interest in solving the pain, who drives it inside the account.