Can your Champion sell to their execs?

Continuing the theme on key questions to help get your Champion selling for you, let’s take a look at how they sell internally. Many Champions will tell you they should sell your solution to their colleagues, and especially their management line, rather than introduce you. This is rarely right - in fact, a Champion that prevents you accessing their organisation is almost certainly a blocker and not a Champion.

However, there will be many cases where your Champion does need to communicate about your product, maybe in preparation for introducing you, or as part of internal analysis. How can we help them do the best possible job?

How will you demonstrate that benefit to your management?

This question helps you hear how they will talk about the product. This can educate you – they may give you a clear view for how it fits their organisation, that you had not previously understood. At least as often, it reveals that they are missing a key point - perhaps not emphasising where the commercial benefit is that their boss will care about (instead, they are focussing on the practical benefits that will personally help them).

Once you hear what the boss cares about, you can coach the Champion with ideas that will enhance their internal comms.

Which of the benefits (of this project) that we have discussed will be of greatest interest to your manager (or VP or Economic Buyer or…)?

Each person you engage will have a different motivation. Different concerns, different functional worries. It’s easy to assume that our Champion represents the company’s view, and subsequently discover, often when it’s too late, that the Economic Buyer’s key criteria were quite different. It’s always best to ask each individual what matters to them, but as you are navigating the organisation and coaching your supporters, you can find out a lot to help you at the next stage.

Before you meet somebody more senior, and even before your Champion discusses your product with their own executives, ask this question. It will force the Champion to pause and think about what is of consequence to these people, and allow the two of you to determine the best positioning.