A sales champion is an internal advocate within a target company who believes in your solution and has the influence to affect purchasing decisions. They are not just passive supporters; they have a personal stake in the outcome and actively work to help you succeed by building business cases and navigating their organization's internal structure.
A sales champion acts as your internal guide, taking on several crucial responsibilities to steer the deal forward. They go beyond simple support, actively working to ensure your solution is seen, understood, and adopted by the right people within their organization.
A true sales champion possesses a unique blend of influence, insight, and internal drive. They are more than just a friendly contact; they are a strategic partner invested in your mutual success. Their effectiveness hinges on a few core characteristics that enable them to push a deal across the finish line.
While both are crucial to closing deals, a sales champion and a sales leader play fundamentally different roles in the sales process.
A sales champion acts as your team's extension within the prospect's company. They provide crucial insider knowledge, helping you navigate internal politics and understand the decision-making process. By advocating for your solution internally, they build consensus among their colleagues.
This internal support gives your team significant leverage and boosts strategic positioning. The champion fosters a collaborative relationship, building trust between your team and the prospect's organization. This alignment accelerates the sales cycle and increases the likelihood of closing the deal.
This is how you can become an effective sales champion within your organization.
How is a champion different from a coach?
A coach offers guidance and information, but a champion takes action. They actively sell on your behalf internally, build consensus, and connect you with economic buyers, putting their personal credibility on the line to ensure the deal closes.
What if my champion leaves the company?
Losing a champion puts the deal at serious risk. This highlights the importance of multi-threading—building relationships with multiple stakeholders in the account to ensure the deal's momentum isn't reliant on a single person's presence.
How do I identify a potential champion?
Look for someone with a vested interest in solving the problem your solution addresses. They often express frustration with the current state, have influence among peers, and are willing to provide insider information to help you build a case.
A Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) is a secure, isolated section of a public cloud. It lets you provision your own logically isolated resources.
White labeling is when a company puts its own branding on a product or service that was actually produced by a different company.
ETL, short for Extract, Transform, Load, is a data integration process for moving raw data from various sources to a central data warehouse.
Multi-threading allows a single CPU core to run multiple independent threads (or tasks) at the same time, boosting efficiency and performance.
Product recommendations are a marketing strategy that uses customer data to suggest relevant products, boosting sales and customer engagement.
Sales and marketing alignment means both teams work in sync, sharing goals and data to boost lead quality, conversions, and company revenue.
Demand forecasting is the process of predicting future customer demand for a product or service based on historical data and market trends.
User interaction is any action a user takes within a digital interface, like clicking a button, scrolling a page, or filling out a form.
Sales team management is the process of leading, coaching, and motivating a sales team to achieve its sales goals and drive revenue growth.
Internal signals are data points from your own systems, like website visits or product usage, that indicate a customer's buying intent.
Smarketing is the process of aligning your sales and marketing teams. This integration focuses on shared goals to improve lead quality and drive revenue.
Learn about B2B marketing channels, including maximizing B2B channel effectiveness, & exploring digital vs. traditional channels.
A Sales Development Representative (SDR) is a sales specialist who finds and qualifies new leads, building a pipeline for the sales team.
An Account Executive (AE) is a sales professional responsible for closing new business deals and managing existing client relationships to drive revenue.
The awareness stage is the first step in the buyer's journey, where a potential customer realizes they have a problem or an opportunity to explore.
Inbound sales attracts interested prospects who've engaged with your brand, letting sales reps connect with warm leads instead of cold outreach.
Mid-market companies are businesses larger than small businesses but smaller than large enterprises, often defined by revenue or employee size.
Platform as a Service (PaaS) is a cloud model where a provider delivers a platform for users to develop, run, and manage applications online.
A Product Qualified Lead (PQL) is a user who has experienced a product's value, signaling a strong potential to convert to a paid customer.
Demand capture is the strategy of engaging potential customers who are already actively looking for a solution that your company provides.
Going dark is when a once-responsive prospect suddenly stops all communication, leaving you wondering what went wrong.
Learn about BANT framework, including implementing BANT in sales strategy, advantages of the BANT methodology, & BANT vs. other qualification models.
Sales training is the process of honing a salesperson's skills and knowledge to enhance their effectiveness and drive sales success.
De-duping, or data deduplication, is the process of eliminating duplicate copies of data within a dataset to improve accuracy and save space.
Mobile compatibility ensures your site or app works flawlessly on mobile devices, like smartphones and tablets, for a seamless user experience.
Lead management is the process of capturing, nurturing, and qualifying leads to guide them from initial interest to sales-ready.
Learn about batch processing, including benefits of batch processing, best practices for implementation, & common use cases.
Gamification applies game mechanics like points, badges, and leaderboards to non-game activities to boost engagement and motivate users.
Predictive analytics uses historical data, statistical algorithms, and machine learning to identify the likelihood of future outcomes.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a premium tool helping sales teams find and engage with the right leads and accounts on the LinkedIn network.
A Statement of Work (SoW) is a document that outlines a project's scope, deliverables, and timeline. It acts as a contract between parties.
Unit economics are the direct revenues and costs of a business calculated on a per-unit basis, revealing its fundamental profitability.
Marketing analytics involves measuring and analyzing marketing data to understand campaign performance and improve return on investment (ROI).
Discount strategies are pricing tactics used to attract customers and boost sales by temporarily reducing the price of products or services.
Video email involves embedding a short video directly into an email. This lets recipients watch your message without leaving their inbox.
An electronic signature is a digital method for getting consent on electronic documents. It's a legally binding way to sign agreements online.
Inbound leads are potential customers who proactively reach out after finding your business through content, social media, or search.
Lead scoring is the process of assigning points to leads based on their attributes and actions to determine their sales-readiness.
A lead generation funnel is a systematic process that guides potential customers from initial awareness of your brand to becoming qualified leads.
Trade shows are events where companies in a specific industry showcase their latest products and services to find new customers and partners.
Learn about B2B sales channels, including types of B2B sales channels, strategies for effective channel selection, & integrating technology in B2B sales.
A data pipeline is a set of automated processes that move raw data from various sources to a destination for storage and analysis.
Intent leads are prospects who show buying signals through their online actions, indicating they're actively looking to make a purchase.
Digital contracts are legally binding agreements created, signed, and stored electronically, offering a faster, more secure alternative to paper.
A Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) is a prospect vetted by marketing and sales, deemed ready for a direct sales pitch after showing intent to buy.
Lead conversion is the process of turning a prospect into a customer by getting them to complete a desired action, such as making a purchase.
A trusted advisor is an expert who builds a deep client relationship by consistently prioritizing their best interests over any single transaction.
Learn about brag book, including crafting your outstanding brag book, essential components of a brag book, & brag book vs. resume: unveiling the differences.
A competitive advantage is a unique edge that allows a business to produce goods or services better or more cheaply than its rivals.
Funnel optimization is the process of improving each stage of the customer journey to maximize conversions and drive revenue growth.
Prospecting is the process of identifying potential customers, or prospects, to build a sales pipeline and generate new business opportunities.
Email marketing is a digital strategy where businesses send targeted emails to prospects and customers to build relationships and drive sales.
Direct sales involves selling products directly to consumers in a non-retail setting, such as at home, online, or person-to-person.
Sales metrics are quantifiable data points that track and measure a sales team's performance against specific goals and objectives.
Direct mail is a marketing method where businesses send physical promotional materials directly to potential customers' mailboxes.
Learn about bulk API, including how it works, the advantages of using it, common use cases, and tips for optimizing it.
Rapport building is the process of establishing a connection and mutual understanding with someone, creating a foundation of trust and affinity.
Funnel analysis is a method for understanding the steps users take to complete a goal, revealing where they drop off in the conversion process.
Psychographics categorizes people by their attitudes, interests, and lifestyles, revealing the 'why' behind their purchasing decisions.
Order management is the end-to-end process of tracking customer orders from placement to fulfillment, ensuring a seamless customer experience.
Process automation uses technology to execute recurring tasks or processes, replacing manual effort to cut costs and boost efficiency.
Video hosting is a service that allows users to upload, store, and share video content online, making it accessible for playback anywhere.
Responsive design is an approach where a website's layout adapts to the user's screen size, providing an optimal experience on any device.
A Digital Sales Room is a private online space where sellers share all relevant content with buyers to streamline the sales cycle.
A Call for Proposal (CFP) is a document that solicits proposals, often through a bidding process, for a specific project or service.
Learn about bad leads, including identifying bad leads, warning signs of bad leads, impact of bad leads on sales, & strategies to minimize bad leads.
Content curation involves gathering, organizing, and sharing the most relevant online content on a specific topic for a particular audience.
A freemium model offers a product's basic features for free, enticing users to upgrade to a paid version for more advanced capabilities.
Data visualization is the practice of translating information into a visual context, like a map or graph, to make data easier to understand.
A performance plan is a formal document outlining an employee's goals, expectations, and metrics for success over a specific period.
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search results.
Sales partnerships are strategic alliances where two companies co-sell products to expand their reach, generate new leads, and increase revenue.
Sales enablement provides sales teams with the necessary tools, content, and information to help them sell more effectively and efficiently.
Learn about BAB formula, including implementing BAB in sales strategies, crafting an effective BAB pitch, & comparing BAB with other sales frameworks.
Network monitoring is the continuous process of tracking a computer network's performance and health to detect and resolve issues proactively.
Real-time data is information processed and made available almost instantaneously, enabling immediate analysis and decision-making.
Analytical CRM analyzes customer data to uncover actionable insights, helping businesses make smarter decisions and improve customer interactions.
Enrichment is the process of adding third-party data to your existing customer profiles to get a more complete picture of your leads.
Lead scraping is the process of automatically extracting contact information and other relevant data about potential customers from online sources.
A spiff is a short-term sales incentive, often a cash bonus, paid directly to a salesperson for selling a specific product or service.
The open rate is the percentage of recipients who opened an email. It's a primary indicator of a subject line's effectiveness.
Precision targeting is a marketing strategy that uses data to identify and reach a highly specific audience most likely to convert.
Data enrichment is the process of enhancing raw data by adding missing information from other sources, making it more complete and actionable.
Account mapping is comparing your customer list with a partner's to find common prospects and unlock new sales opportunities.
Fault tolerance is a system's ability to continue operating without interruption when one or more of its components fail.
Conversational intelligence (CI) is AI technology that analyzes customer conversations to find insights that help sales and support teams improve.
Retargeting marketing is a digital advertising strategy that targets users who have previously interacted with your website or brand online.
An Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is a detailed description of the perfect, hypothetical company that would get the most value from your product.
A Request for Information (RFI) is a formal process for gathering information from potential suppliers before issuing a more detailed proposal.
Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) is the predictable, recurring income a business expects to receive each month from all active subscriptions.
Conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who complete a desired goal, like a purchase or sign-up, out of the total number of visitors.
Data-driven lead generation is the process of using data insights to identify, attract, and convert high-quality leads into customers.
Average Selling Price (ASP) is the average price at which a particular product or service is sold across different markets and channels.
Affiliate marketing is a performance-based model where affiliates earn a commission for promoting another company’s products or services.
Learn about bottom of the funnel, including maximizing conversions at the funnel's end, & strategies for nurturing bottom-funnel leads.
Sales forecast accuracy is a key metric that compares your predicted sales revenue against the actual sales revenue you ultimately achieve.
Personalization is the practice of using data to tailor products, services, or content to an individual's specific needs and preferences.
Buying intent is the collection of online cues and behaviors that signal a prospect is actively researching and moving toward a purchase decision.
A marketing budget breakdown is a detailed plan that allocates your total marketing funds across various channels, campaigns, and activities.
Lead nurturing is the process of developing and reinforcing relationships with buyers at every stage of the sales funnel.