The definitive Champion development framework for B2B SaaS
Win the deal by
winning their career.
A Champion is not just someone who supports your deal. They are an internal power broker who leverages your solution to advance their own career, and yours. This is the operating system for identifying, building, testing, and leveraging them at enterprise scale.
The Champion Journey
Four stages. Each with hard exit gates.
This is not a process. It is a discipline. Each stage builds on the last. Each has criteria that must be met before you advance.
Identify
Spot the Three A's: Attitude, Access, Authority. Run the Outside-In scan before the first meeting.
Build
Map the Three Wins, Personal, Professional, Commercial. Show up as a Champion yourself.
Test
Five test categories. The sub-14-day meeting test. Stage exit gates that are hard rules, not guidelines.
Leverage
Compress the cycle. Expand the deal. Build the Cohort. Navigate the Cohort. Win the career.
The Champion Bible
8 concepts. 5 pillars.
Select a pillar to filter. Click any concept to go deeper into the layered doctrine.
What Is a Champion?
A Champion is an internal power broker who leverages your solution to win their career. They are not a contact, not a coach, and not a sponsor. They are the person who puts their political capital on the line because they believe in the personal, professional, and commercial win your solution delivers.
The Three A's
A Champion must possess all three A's: Attitude (the outside-in perspective and willingness to challenge), Authority (the organisational power to influence the decision), and Access (the ability to open doors to the Economic Buyer). A contact who has two of the three is not a Champion.
The Three Wins
Every Champion needs three wins to sustain their advocacy: a Personal Win (visibility, recognition, career advancement), a Professional Win (KPI achievement, team performance, role security), and a Commercial Win (the organisational ROI). Remove any one and the Champion's advocacy will fade.
The 6 C's
The 6 C's are the seller's obligation in every Champion interaction: Credible, Clear, Concise, Champion-Centric, Curious, and Characterful. You cannot build a Champion if you do not show up as one. These are not soft skills — they are the behavioural prerequisites for earning the right to be championed.
The Champion Lifecycle
The Champion relationship evolves through five stages: Identification, Validation, Development, Activation, and Multiplication. Each stage has a hard exit gate. You do not advance until the gate is passed. This is not a guideline — it is a deal qualification standard.
The Champion Cohort
In enterprise deals, a single Champion is rarely sufficient. The Champion Cohort is a deliberately built network of internal advocates across business units, each with their own Three Wins, each playing a specific role in the deal. The art is knowing when to bring them together and when to keep them separate.
The Validation Tests
A Champion is not validated by what they say — they are validated by what they do. The five validation tests each require the Champion to take an action that costs them something. Pass all five and you have a Champion. Fail any one and you have a Coach.
MEDDPICC Intersections
The Champion is not a standalone MEDDPICC element — they are the connective tissue that makes every other element work. Understanding where the Champion's role intersects with Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Paper Process, Identified Pain, and Competition is essential for deal qualification.
The Foundation
The Three A's
Every Champion must possess all three. One missing and you have a Coach, helpful, but not enough to close a complex deal.
Attitude
An outside-in perspective. Bold enough to challenge the status quo, which is the biggest deal-killer. Visible externally: LinkedIn, market commentary, willingness to be provocative.
“They challenge your insights because they know their numbers.”
Access
Direct access to the Economic Buyer, the CEO or CFO. Not 'I can probably get a meeting' but 'I will set it up this week.' C-minus 2 or above.
“They can name the EB and commit to an introduction.”
Authority
Enough organisational authority to influence the decision, shape criteria, and force timelines. They treat policies as guidelines, not constraints.
“They can move procurement. They can expedite legal. They can force a date.”
Live Deal Coaching
Apply it to a live deal.
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