Champion Plan: who is selling for you, and whether they've been tested
A Champion Plan starts with coverage: which side of the deal has somebody speaking for you, and which side has nobody. Then each champion one at a time — how you know them, what they win, what you have seen them move and how they held up when tested — and the next thing to ask each of them to carry. A champion who likes you has not been tested.
Updated
When you reach for it
Wednesday, because on Thursday your champion is in a room you are not in.
Technical champion vs business champion: do I need both?
Yes, and on a bigger deal an executive champion as well. A technical champion defends the evaluation, a business champion makes the business case, and an executive champion gets the deal priority over other work, so a side with nobody on it is where your deal stalls.
| The deal needs | Technical | Business | Executive |
|---|---|---|---|
| The evaluation won | Defends it when you are not there. | Needs it to pass. Rarely argues it. | Assumes it passed. |
| The business case made | Checks the numbers. Doesn't own them. | Makes it, in their own numbers. | Backs it where budgets get set. |
| Priority over other work | Has little say in it. | Argues for it inside their budget. | Sets it, or sways whoever does. |
In SalesWolf you record each champion's side yourself, on their card on the deal. Nothing guesses it from your calls, and a champion with no side recorded counts toward none of them.
The Champion Plan opens with coverage: who you have on each side, and each side with nobody. Its verdict reads the technical and business pair; an empty executive side is listed but left out of the verdict.
What if I only have one champion?
Then the plan's first job is the side nobody covers, and the person there worth testing. One champion is one reorg away from none.
Give your one champion a small test before the next round, and ask them who else feels the problem. Their answer is your next candidate. How to tell a champion from a coach
Champion plan template
A champion plan puts everyone selling for you inside the account on one page: which side of the buying committee each covers, how far each has been tested, and what you'll ask of each next. Start with coverage, because a technical champion with nobody on the business side is half a deal.
Download the blank template: Markdown.
These are the sections SalesWolf's Champion Plan is built from. In the product each one is written from the facts you've accepted on the deal. A section with nothing to stand on says what it's missing instead.
One of them is written out in full below, on the sample deal.
Who you've got, and which side is uncovered
The technical side and the business side, who you have on each, and the side with nobody on it.
Technical champion vs business champion: do I need both?Each champion, one at a time
Each person in turn: what they want fixed, what they get if it closes, who you've watched them move, and the test they have or haven't passed.
Champion: candidate · motivated · influential · tested
How to work them before the next round
Who carries what before the next round, who to bring on next, and the one ask for each.
Champion Coverage
DraftOne champion on this deal, with no recorded side. No technical champion on record. No business champion on record. No executive champion on record. No champion side recorded for Marta Reiss — counts toward neither the technical nor the business side until you record one. Coverage: no champion on record covers the technical or the business side. Depth: the one champion has not been tested and delivered yet, so the cover is unproven.
This is what comes out.
What goes in is the call you already had.
14 days free, no card, no call.