We could all use a hype man/woman/person from time to time.
It never hurts to have somebody actively vouching for how awesome you are — especially in sales.
A champion who tells other stakeholders the professional equivalent of, "Don't worry. They're chill." is a major asset.
That's why we surveyed over 300 sales leaders to better understand how to develop and enable those B2B cheerleaders.
Very few orgs assess potential champions' influence and enthusiasm.
Our data indicates that 23% of sales leaders assess a potential champion's influence while assuming their enthusiasm, and 17% evaluate enthusiasm but assume influence. Only 14% verify both.
A champion is like a mascot. They should put on a show — one with breakdancing and t-shirt guns to get other stakeholders fired up about you.
An influential but apathetic one gets plenty of Jumbotron airtime, but they don't bother putting their giant animal head on and might stop the halftime show to take a call.
The opposite might be willing to sleep in their costume and risk third-degree burns by leaping through hoops of fire, but they can only perform in the parking lot.
Standing and willingness are both crucial, but many orgs pick one or the other.
Tracking champions' impact is often a blind spot.
Most sales orgs benefit from involving champions in some capacity, but many just say, "Holy cow! Champions rule!" without poking around more.
I may be oversimplifying — but leaders and reps who lean on champions should take a more thorough look at how those relationships impact performance.
Some closer examination or a formal audit could inform more sophisticated approaches to who you contact and how you enable them.
What can you do with this next-level, revelatory insight?
For reps: If champion impact isn't measured, leadership might overlook your relationship-building skills and effort. Find ways to independently document the connections you make.
For managers: Train reps to test both influence and enthusiasm explicitly. "Can they advocate?" and "Will they advocate?" are different questions requiring different evidence.
For leadership: If you lack a structured qualification for both ability and willingness, your champion assessment might mostly be guesswork. That's a trainable gap.
"Give me a Jay! (Jay!) Give me a Fuchs! (Fuchs!) Give me a 'wrote this newsletter like he does every week!'"
Jay Fuchs. Managing Editor, The Science of Scaling Newsletter
The data in question
We sourced the data we used here through Panoplai: I honestly don't know how many of you read this little blurb I always include about how awesome Panoplai is, but I'm going to keep writing a new one every send. That's how much I love that platform.
How does your team assess whether a potential champion has the ability AND willingness to advocate for you?
- Structured qualification process — specific questions and tests to verify both ability and willingness - 14%
- Ability-focused assessment — verify their influence and access but assume willingness - 23%
- Willingness-focused assessment — gauge their enthusiasm but don't validate their organizational influence - 17%
- Informal evaluation — reps use intuition and experience to judge champion strength - 20%
- No formal assessment — we take advocates at face value without testing - 16%
- None of the above - 11%
What percentage of your closed-won deals involved an active internal champion (someone inside the prospect's organization advocating for you)?
- 75-100% — internal champions are essential to our sales motion - 10%
- 50-74% — internal champions significantly improve win rates - 28%
- 25-49% — internal champions help but aren't always present in wins - 20%
- 10-24% — we occasionally benefit from internal champions but don't rely on them - 17%
- Under 10% — internal champions rarely factor into our closed deals - 10%
- None of the above - 16%
How does your organization measure the impact of champion development on sales outcomes?
- Comprehensive tracking — champion presence correlated with win rates, deal velocity, and deal size - 13%
- Basic win/loss analysis — track whether deals had champions and compare performance - 28%
- Qualitative assessment — sales leaders believe champions help but don't quantify impact - 21%
- Anecdotal evidence — individual reps share champion success stories but no systematic measurement - 11%
- Not measured — we don't track champion impact on sales metrics - 16%
- None of the above - 10%
Prospect Plays