Are you ready for a test?
Champion is one of those words everyone throws around, but I’m not sure many people really know what it means.
If you subscribe to the MEDDICC methodology, a champion is someone who has influence and power, someone who acts as an internal seller for you (or your software, more specifically), and someone who has a vested interest in your success.
Even if you don’t use the MEDDICC method I bet you use the word champion, and I bet you think that description sounds pretty good.
One of the most important things in software sales, expansion and renewals is to know your champion. And know them well. When it comes time to demonstrate value, sign a contract, defend against a competitor or make up for a failure, you need a solid, dependable champion on your side to make sure your message lands with the people who pay the bills.
So, we all agree we want a champion. MEDDICC is primarily concerned with pre-sales, that is, the conversion of prospect to customer. Makes sense; if you want to get a foot in the door, kick out an incumbent or sell a solution to a problem someone didn’t even know they had, you’re going to need a person on the inside to go to bat for you when you’re not in the room.
But what happens after that?
The contract has been signed; what happens to the champion?
In time-honoured fashion, it depends.
If your champion was the person who, either directly, or via the team/function, felt the pain you solve, they might hang around. This is usually the case with mid-market customers and smaller enterprise businesses. However, the bigger the customer, the more complicated it can become.
Before we go on, do you, dear CS Leader insist your teams test their champions?
There are a few scenarios for champions, once you’ve closed the deal and the prospect is now a customer.
Champion is retained - this is the best possible outcome. Your product was bought by someone of influence who (via themselves or their team) is actually using your software
Champion is delegated - The person who bought the software will hand you off to someone on their team for implementation and ongoing discussions
Champion is lost - The existing champion could have been on a transformation team, for example, and now has no real vested interest in what happens next. This lack of interest normally manifests after implementation, once adoption looks ok, but there’s more work to do.
Let me tell you a story.
A few years ago, one of my biggest customers churned on me. I didn’t see it coming. We had such a great relationship. Every quarter, we had lunch, I knew his kids' names, and we chatted on WhatsApp.
He wasn’t my champion. He had influence, but he didn’t really care whether or not there was long-term success and, therefore, wasn’t going to put his neck out to defend my corner internally.
That was a lesson right there. His motives were solid, he was a transformation manager, and we were working together to drive adoption and improve ROI. An ROI which was tangible, obvious in the data and pervasive, but when the budget cuts came knocking, I wasn’t solving a problem for him. He really didn’t care about the actual value proposition.
So, why should you be making your team test their champions?
Because if you don’t know the motives of the people you talk to every day, you can’t know what their next step will be.
Most CSMs will talk to the same people, day in and day out. There’s nothing wrong with this, but the person you speak to all the time is not necessarily your champion or even a champion. My friend, whilst invested and was when I closed the original sale, the champion, had a different role post sale.
I should have spotted this and taken action.
The action I should have taken was to get my primary contact to introduce me to the people who would feel the benefit of the problem we were solving. Those people would be much more likely to go on the defensive for me when it came time to cut budgets.
What I learned from this experience and what I’ve done ever since is apply the same logic to my CSMs as my salespeople when it comes to qualification for renewals.
Test your champions.
I insist my CSMs test their champions right after onboarding and again before we head into the renewal process. To give an informed forecast about a customer’s renewal intentions, you need to know where you stand. If you’re not clear on who you’re talking to, about what and why, you’re always going to be second-guessing what’s going to happen.
And that means a flaky forecast and unexpected churn. Or, because I’m an optimist, after all, a whole lot of stress and anxiety for nothing.
Here are the things I expect my CSMs to be on top of when testing champions.
What’s their business driver? - What are they gaining from using your product? Time, money, something else? If they don’t directly gain a business outcome from your product, they might not be your champion. Think “vested interest”.
What’s their personal driver? - This one can be more impactful. Do they need some serious value or a successful project for a promotion?
What’s their influence? - You can normally ascertain this from job title, but how well connected to the budget holder (exec buyer) are they? Ask questions about where the budget for your software comes from and who pays for it. If they don’t know this, they’re probably not your champion.
Where’s your meeting? - If they do know and are connected to your exec buyer, can they get you a meeting? Do they see the point in getting you and your results in front of an exec? Remember, a champion (or stakeholder) that doesn’t think there’s value in the results you’re delivering probably won’t stick their neck on the line to get you an exec meeting. They won’t want to risk their own internal credibility.
Can they articulate your value? - Could they tell the story of what you deliver for their company? This one is straightforward: they should know what you do (at least) and have a good grasp of how valuable the outcomes you’ve achieved are. As a CS leader, this one is a great measure of CSM effectiveness. Your champion could be the best champion in the world, but if your CSM hasn’t effectively taught them about the value you’re delivering and showed them what this means for their team/business, then they need some guidance on what the point of customer success is.
Do you have a shared success plan, and does that plan map to their business goals? - Again, you can test the skills of your CSMs with this one. I can write a document and call it “shared success plan”, but if your champion can’t articulate clearly to their boss what you’re currently working on, the value it delivers and how it maps to strategic business outcomes, you’re in a pickle.
Can they outline the procurement process for you and find the right person for you to talk to? If they can’t, they probably haven’t done it before. This isn’t necessarily a red flag for championship, but it is something to bear in mind. To close that renewal, you’re going to want to be managing them through the paper process closely to ensure you don’t get blindsided with paperwork well in advance of the renewal date, if you’re sure they’re your champ.
It’s absolutely vital you know who you’re talking to, and why they’re talking to you. Customers aren’t dumb, they know what you’re up to (normally trying to sell them something) and for the most part, will accept this. Here’s the thing, they’re much more likely to accept this if they 1. Getting value for your product and 2. That value is making them look great internally.
There’s no value for you though if that person isn’t your champion. So test, test early, test well and test frequently. Add this into your success processes and factor it into risk management when it comes time to forecast your renewals.. T
People don’t lose value because they’re not champions. Encourage your team to be testing their champions, but building relationships across your customer organisation. Just know the roles each of your stakeholders play, that’s the key to successful account management.
Blog Photo by David Pennington on Unsplash
