Champion Enablement Through The Lens Of Memes and Dyadic Links
A Fundamental Shift in B2B Sales & Marketing On The Horizon
Innovation can come from the most unexpected places. In a previous role, I had a revelation while speaking with new value-added resellers. To my surprise, they were already pitching our product to potential clients before we knew about these opportunities. But, there was a catch - they often hit roadblocks in sales objections, which put the deals at risk.
This sparked an idea. Could improving our feedback loops and creating proximity to champions help us dissect broken conversion strategies and make sales more efficient? Spoiler alert: it did. These insights were crucial in activating those partners and rescuing stalling cohorts.
Who would have thought that having deep, one-on-one conversations would be like a “cheat-code”. Shouldn't this be like DNA? Wasn't that the whole point of the lean startup movement, to be customer first? Yet here I was, struggling to get buy-in for something as obvious as “let’s go speak to people to find out why deals are stalling”.
In hindsight it's always obvious isn't it. Speaking with people closer to the prospect buyer isn't exactly a breakthrough idea, by any stretch of the imagination. So why do too few teams do a good enough job of it? Or do it at all…
Despite the clear benefits, many teams still struggle with effective buyer intelligence programs and champion enablement strategies. From talking with startups and industry leaders in recent weeks, John James and I have noticed a tendency to overlook these areas due to biases, which then create dangerous blind spots.
Instead of teams reaching eureka moments, they are instead passing around a hot potato when it comes to running customer research. You’ll hear a lot of “I’m just too busy." But it’s often an excuse hiding a complacency bred from staring too long at analytics dashboards. Let’s face it. Low interest rates made everyone lazy. Without digging into the 'why' behind the numbers, though, and doing discovery from first principles. Especially in these tricky times, there’s a real risk of bankruptcy.
It’s easy to spot those at risk of extinction too. Here’s the tell tell signal to watch-out for.
To reverse a negative business metric trend or boost a positive one, more customer insights can make the difference, increasing your odds of success. Which is why there's huge value in proximity to champions.
But don’t take my word for it…
“We basically never make a sale unless we have a champion” - CMO at Notion
“Sales reps don’t close deals, champions do” - Nate Nasralla at Fluint
“No champion, no deal. Big champion, Big deal!” – Jack and Steve at SMG
What The Heck Are Champions?
John Kaplan of Force Management defines them as individuals at your target prospect company with access to economic buyers, wielding influence and selling on your behalf. However, I propose a tweak to this definition:
“Someone who actively shares your memes, advocates for your offer, and helps bridge buyer chasms.”