A contact isn't a champion.
Someone who takes your calls, answers your questions, and seems friendly might do absolutely nothing to advance your deal internally. They'll smile through demos, forward your emails, and let your opportunity quietly die without ever raising a hand in your defense.
Real champions put themselves at risk for you. They spend political capital, have difficult conversations, and advocate when you're not in the room. That's a fundamentally different relationship than a friendly contact. Building genuine champions is the difference between deals that progress and deals that stall.
What Champions Actually Do
Champions sell for you when you're not there. That's the definition that matters.
They translate your value proposition into language that resonates with their colleagues. They preempt objections by addressing concerns before meetings. They build coalition among stakeholders you'll never meet. They push back against inertia when doing nothing would be easier.
Champions take personal risk. When someone advocates for a vendor internally, they're staking their reputation on that recommendation. If the solution fails, they own that failure. If colleagues resent the change, they absorb that resentment. This risk is why most contacts don't become champions. The safer path is staying neutral.
Champions need personal motivation. Nobody takes professional risk for altruistic reasons. Your champion needs something from this deal succeeding. Maybe it solves a problem that's making their life miserable. Maybe it supports an initiative tied to their advancement. Maybe it positions them as an innovator within their organization. Understanding what they get from your success is essential.
Identifying Champion Potential
Not everyone can be a champion. Some people lack organizational influence. Some lack the motivation to advocate. Some lack the courage to take positions. Identifying who has champion potential before investing time saves enormous effort.
Influence indicators. Do other stakeholders reference this person's opinions? Do they get invited to meetings beyond their formal scope? When they speak, do others listen? Influence comes from relationships and track record, not titles. Someone two levels below the decision-maker might have more actual influence than someone reporting directly to them.
Motivation indicators. Is this person personally affected by the problem you solve? Do they have career incentive to be associated with solving it? Have they tried other solutions and failed? Someone with failed attempts behind them is often more motivated than someone encountering the problem fresh.
Courage indicators. Has this person taken public positions before? Have they advocated for changes that met resistance? Do they seem comfortable with conflict, or do they avoid it? Champions need the backbone to persist when they encounter pushback.
The best champions combine all three: influence within the organization, personal motivation for your solution to succeed, and willingness to advocate despite risk.
Creating Investment
Champions emerge when someone becomes invested in your success. This investment comes from participation, not persuasion.
Collaboration over presentation. When you present, they listen. When you collaborate, they participate. Collaboration creates ownership. Ask for their input on how to position things internally. Incorporate their language and framing. When your solution reflects their contribution, they're defending their own work, not just your product.
Small commitments first. Each action someone takes on your behalf deepens their investment. "Can you introduce me to Sarah in IT?" is a small ask. Once they've made that introduction, they're more invested than before. Build through incremental commitment rather than asking for major advocacy upfront.
Shared planning. Work with your champion to plan the path forward. When they participate in creating the approach, they own it. "What do you think our next step should be?" turns them from observer to participant. "How should we handle the CFO's concerns?" makes them problem-solver rather than spectator.
Visibility and credit. Position your champion as the source of good ideas internally. When executives hear about your solution, they should associate it with your champion's judgment. This increases the career payoff for advocacy and strengthens their motivation to see the deal succeed.
Arming for Internal Battles
Champions who feel unprepared stop advocating. Your job is ensuring they never feel unprepared.
Anticipate objections. What will skeptics say? What concerns will the CFO raise? What questions will IT ask? Walk your champion through each scenario before it happens. "When procurement pushes back on pricing, here's how I'd frame the conversation..." Preparation builds confidence.
Provide ammunition. Give your champion specific tools for internal conversations. Not generic marketing materials but targeted resources: the one-pager that works for finance discussions, the case study that matches their technical environment, the ROI model they can defend in detail.
Practice the conversation. Role-play difficult internal meetings. Let your champion rehearse their talking points. Refine their language together. This practice reveals gaps in their preparation that you can address before real conversations happen.
Debrief every interaction. After your champion has internal conversations, understand what happened. What went well? What questions came up that they couldn't answer? What concerns surprised them? Each debrief generates intelligence for the next round and shows your champion you're invested in their success.
Multiple Champions
Relying on a single champion is dangerous. People change roles, leave companies, and lose influence. Deals that depend entirely on one person die when that person wavers.
Build a coalition. Different stakeholders can champion different aspects of your solution. The operations manager champions efficiency gains. The IT lead champions technical fit. The finance person champions ROI. Each brings credibility in their domain that others lack.
Champions reinforce each other. When multiple people advocate, each one feels less exposed. The risk distributes across the coalition. A single champion standing alone against skeptics often retreats. A coalition of champions can hold ground.
Navigate champion dynamics. Multiple champions can create complexity. They may disagree on approach or compete for credit. Understand their relationships with each other. Coordinate their efforts so they reinforce rather than undermine each other's advocacy.
Identify the primary champion. While building coalition, recognize who holds the most influence and investment. This primary champion is your main partner in strategy. Others support, but someone needs to lead the internal effort. That person gets the deepest relationship and most attention.
When Champions Waver
Champions lose conviction for reasons they rarely voice directly. Recognizing the signals and responding appropriately can recover relationships that would otherwise fade.
Response time increases. When someone who replied quickly starts taking days, their engagement has dropped. Don't ignore this signal. Address it directly: "I've noticed things have slowed down. Is something happening I should know about?"
Delegation signals. If your primary contact starts routing conversations through others, they're stepping back. This often happens after they encountered internal resistance they don't want to describe. Explore what happened.
Language shifts. When "we should" becomes "you should," when "our plan" becomes "your proposal," ownership is transferring away. Your champion is creating distance. Understand why before the distance becomes unbridgeable.
The honest conversation. Sometimes the only recovery is direct dialogue. "I get the sense something's shifted. Can we talk about what's really happening?" gives permission for honesty. You might learn about internal politics, competing priorities, or lost confidence that you can address once you understand it.
Not every champion can be saved. Some situations genuinely change in ways that make advocacy impossible. But many champions waver for reasons you could address if you only knew what they were. Create the conditions for honest conversation before assuming the relationship is lost.