22 Champion Builder

# Skill: Champion Builder

## What This Skill Does

Turns an identified internal contact at a prospect account into a fully armed, motivated internal seller who fights for your deal when you're not in the room. Outputs a champion readiness assessment, a tailored arming kit (talking points, internal pitch, ROI data), a coaching plan for each stage of the deal, and scripts for every key champion interaction — from first signal of interest to deal close. Champions win deals. This skill builds them deliberately.

## When to Use

- You have a deal in progress and one contact is more engaged than others — you need to develop that person into a true champion
- You're navigating a multi-stakeholder deal and need someone on the inside to carry the message to the economic buyer
- Your deal has gone quiet and you suspect internal resistance — a champion can diagnose what's happening
- You've just done a great discovery call and want to lock in the most interested participant before the deal drifts
- You're in a competitive situation and need an internal advocate to position you favorably before the final decision

## Inputs Required

Before running this skill, ask the user for:

1. **Champion candidate name and title** — who are you considering developing as your champion?
2. **Account name and deal stage** — what stage is the deal at? (early discovery, proposal sent, in evaluation, negotiation)
3. **Champion's business pain** — what specific pain did they express? What outcome are they personally trying to achieve?
4. **Champion's political position** — what is their relationship with the economic buyer and other stakeholders? Are they respected, trusted, rising, lateral, or junior?
5. **What they've said or done** — any signals of genuine interest (questions asked, responses to emails, internal forwarding, urgency expressed)
6. **Competing priorities** — what else is on this person's plate that could de-prioritize your deal?
7. **Their personal win** — what does success look like for them personally if this deal goes through? (promotion, easier job, budget relief, recognition)

## Step-by-Step Instructions

### Step 1 — Run the Champion Readiness Assessment

Score the candidate on 5 dimensions:

| Dimension | Questions to Assess | Score (1–5) |
|---|---|---|
| **Access** | Can they get a meeting with the economic buyer on your behalf? Do they have regular contact with decision-makers? | |
| **Credibility** | Are they respected internally? Will others listen when they advocate for something? | |
| **Pain Alignment** | Do they personally feel the pain your solution solves? Is this their problem to fix? | |
| **Motivation** | Do they have a personal win tied to this deal succeeding? Is there urgency for them? | |
| **Activity Level** | Have they taken action on their own — forwarded your materials, asked follow-up questions, introduced you to others? | |

Scoring: 20–25 = strong champion, invest heavily. 12–19 = promising, needs development. Below 12 = not the right person yet — identify someone else.

### Step 2 — Define the Champion's Personal Win

Before arming the champion with your message, get crystal clear on what *they* get out of this. A champion without a personal win is just a friendly contact. A champion with a clear personal stake becomes unstoppable.

Common personal wins:
- Solves a problem they've been complaining about internally for months (makes them look perceptive)
- Delivers results that get them visibility with senior leadership
- Frees up their team's time or reduces a headache they own
- Makes their department metrics look better (revenue, cost, efficiency, headcount)
- Positions them as the person who brought in a strategic capability

Write one sentence: *"If this deal closes, [Champion Name] wins because ___."* This sentence drives every conversation you have with them.

### Step 3 — Build the Arming Kit

Create a champion arming kit — materials your champion can use internally when you're not in the room.

**A. The Internal Pitch (60-second verbal summary)**
Write a script your champion can use when their boss asks "what's this vendor you're talking to?" It must:
- Lead with the business problem (not your product)
- State the outcome in the language their executive cares about (revenue, cost, risk, speed)
- Pre-empt the top objection ("I know procurement will ask about X — here's how we handle it")
- End with a clear next step ("I'd like to get 30 minutes with you and their team")

**B. The One-Pager**
A single-page document your champion can share internally. Sections: problem → solution → proof (case study or data) → ROI → proposed next step. Written in the prospect's industry language, not yours.

**C. The ROI Snapshot**
Three numbers that make the business case undeniable. Use the champion's specific context wherever possible. Format: "Companies like [reference customer] see [X result] in [Y timeframe]. Based on what you told me about [their context], we'd expect [estimated outcome]."

**D. The Objection Prep Sheet**
List the top 3 objections the champion will face internally (budget, timing, competing priorities, incumbent vendor) and give them one clean response to each — short enough to say in a hallway conversation.

### Step 4 — Coach the Champion Through Each Stage

For each stage of the deal, tell the user exactly what to ask of their champion and what to give them:

**Early Discovery (champion just identified)**
- Ask: "Can you walk me through how decisions like this normally get made here?"
- Give: Nothing to share yet — your job is to make them feel heard and position yourself as a trusted advisor
- Goal: Establish that you're different from typical vendors who pitch immediately

**Proposal / Evaluation Stage**
- Ask: "Who else will be reviewing this? What questions are they most likely to raise?"
- Give: The internal pitch script and one-pager (from Step 3)
- Goal: Get them ready to carry the message before the proposal lands in someone's inbox cold

**Multi-Stakeholder Review**
- Ask: "Can you help me understand where [Economic Buyer Name] is on this? What would make them comfortable moving forward?"
- Give: The ROI snapshot and objection prep sheet
- Goal: Equip them to navigate the conversation you can't have directly

**Late Stage / Negotiation**
- Ask: "Is there anything happening internally that I should know about? Is there a reason this could slow down?"
- Give: A summary of what success looks like post-implementation (implementation plan, timeline, first-win milestones)
- Goal: Help them close internally and prevent last-minute surprises

### Step 5 — Run the Champion Coaching Conversations

Write a specific script for each key champion interaction:

**Champion Check-in Call (weekly during active deals)**
"[Name], I want to make sure I'm making this easy for you internally — not creating more work. Can you give me a quick temperature check on where things stand from your side? And is there anything I can prepare that would be useful for you before [next milestone]?"

**After a meeting where the champion was present but you weren't invited back**
"[Name], thanks for representing us in that session. How did it go? What questions came up that I could help you answer? And based on the reaction in the room, what do you think the right next move is?"

**When the deal goes quiet**
"[Name], I want to be respectful of your time — I know you have a lot going on. I also want to make sure I'm not letting things slip if there's momentum to capture. Can you give me an honest read on where this sits internally right now? I'd rather know if the timing is wrong than keep pushing at the wrong moment."

**When the champion needs to escalate to the economic buyer**
"[Name], I think the best next step is a 20-minute conversation between you, [Economic Buyer], and me — focused specifically on [the one thing EB cares most about]. Would you be comfortable setting that up? I can draft the invite for you if that makes it easier."

### Step 6 — Monitor Champion Health

Track these signals every week:

**Green signals (champion is active and engaged):**
- Responds to messages within 24 hours
- Volunteers new information unprompted
- Introduces you to new stakeholders
- Uses your language when describing the problem
- Asks questions about implementation or success metrics

**Yellow signals (champion is drifting):**
- Response time is slowing
- Answers are getting shorter and more vague
- They stop sharing internal context
- They mention a new priority that's come up

**Red signals (champion may be compromised or lost):**
- They stop responding entirely
- A competing vendor has a closer relationship with someone above them
- Their sponsor left the company or changed roles
- They start forwarding your emails to someone else without explanation

When yellow or red signals appear, have a direct conversation: "I want to make sure I'm not making this harder for you than it needs to be. Is now still the right time for this? And is there anything I should know about the internal situation?"

## Output Format

Deliver:

1. **Champion Readiness Score** — 5-dimension scorecard with total score and recommendation (invest, develop, or find a different champion)
2. **Personal Win Statement** — one sentence defining what this champion gets out of the deal
3. **Arming Kit** — internal pitch script, one-pager outline, ROI snapshot, and objection prep sheet
4. **Stage-by-Stage Coaching Plan** — what to ask and what to give the champion at each deal stage
5. **Champion Conversation Scripts** — tailored scripts for check-ins, quiet periods, and escalation asks
6. **Champion Health Tracker** — green/yellow/red signal checklist to use weekly

## Pro Tips

- The champion's personal win is the most important thing you can understand. People don't fight for vendors — they fight for their own outcomes. The moment you align your deal with something they care about personally, they become a genuine partner.
- Never give your champion materials they didn't ask for. Ask first: "What would be most useful for you to have in your next internal conversation?" Let them pull the content rather than pushing it.
- Your champion is also a source of intelligence. The best use of a champion is not to push your message — it's to understand what's happening inside the account that you can't see.
- A champion with low organizational credibility is worse than no champion. They can create the impression that only junior people support your deal. Assess access and credibility before investing.
- When your champion goes quiet, don't assume the deal is dead. Assume they're busy or that something changed internally. One honest conversation usually reveals what happened.
- Never ask your champion to do something that puts them in a politically difficult position. If the ask feels risky for them, they'll stop advocating. Make every request feel easy and low-risk.

## Example Output Snippet

**Champion:** James Okafor | Head of Revenue Operations | Momentum CRM | 18-month deal, proposal stage
**Champion Readiness Score:** 22/25 — Strong champion, invest heavily
**Personal Win Statement:** "If this deal closes, James wins because he becomes the person who solved the data chaos his sales team has complained about for two years — and gets credit with the new CRO."

**Internal Pitch Script (for James to use with the CRO):**

"I've been talking to a vendor that I think solves the reporting problem we've been fighting since the migration. They work with teams like ours — same stack, same size — and the companies I've spoken to see clean pipeline data in about 6 weeks. I know we've been burned before by over-promised implementations, so I asked them specifically about that. Their answer was good — they put first-milestone delivery on contract. I'd love 20 minutes to walk you through what they showed me and see if it makes sense to go deeper."