Tag: Relationships

Why You Need A Customer Champion and Three Ideas to Empower Your Champion

If you take nothing from this article, take this: you need someone selling on your behalf when you are not around.

Recent research from Gartner finds when B2B buyers are considering a purchase, they spend only 17% of that time meeting with potential suppliers. Further, when buyers are comparing multiple suppliers, the amount of time spent with any one sales rep is only 5% or 6%.

Brent Adamson, the author of The Challenger Sale, shared in a 2017 article that the average number of customer stakeholders involved in a B2B purchasing decision is 6.8, up from 5.4 in 2014.

With a decreasing amount of time spent with suppliers and an increasing number of customer stakeholders involved in a decision, one of the keys to making progress on a complex sales cycle is to find creative ways to add value even when you’re not in the room. To do this, you need a customer champion in the buying organization. 

Andy Whyte, the author of MEDDIC, defines a Champion as a person who assists you and has power, influence, and credibility within the buying organization. The champion is not necessarily the final decision-maker. Still, this individual has access to the final decision maker(s) and economic buyer(s) and understands the decision criteria and process. 

More importantly, this person has a vested interest in your success which is why “the most critical selling your Champion can do for you is when you are not there.”  You win; they win. 

If you take nothing from this article, take this: you need someone selling on your behalf when you are not around. 

Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash

Three Ideas to Empower Your Champion

Educate your champion on the value of your solution. Your champion needs to know your solution’s good, bad, and ugly elements. The more they know, the more they can play defense and offense when you’re not in the room. As part of educating your champion, they must know how your solution is different from your competition. It is very likely your competitor also has a champion, so getting in front of this helps you empower your champion to succeed ahead of other competing champions.

Match your champion to an internal champion within your organization. Your champion needs to know there is a champion within your organization that wants to get a deal done as much as they do. This individual can be your direct Sales Manager, Director, or VP, depending on the size of your company. The key is to align your champion with someone who also has power, influence, and credibility within your company. This internal champion could serve as an escalation path to help remove blockers when they arise, which is bound to happen in a complex sales cycle.  

Connect your Champion to trusted third-party stakeholders. If it’s an expansion or renewal opportunity, start with internal stakeholders within the buying organization who can advocate for your company. These internal advocates add credibility when you are not in the room. If it is a new prospect and there are no existing relationships, connect your champion to champions at other companies. The key here is for your champion to hear from a trusted third party. The more relevant the third-party connection is to their business and industry, the more impactful the conversation will be to them. 

Godspeed selling!

What Table Tennis 🏓 taught me about selling

According to Dr. Wendy Suzuki, professor of neuroscience and psychology at New York University, a game of “table tennis works parts of the brain that are responsible for movement, fine motor skills, and strategy – areas that could be growing stronger with each match.” It is no surprise it is easy to spot a table tennis corner in communal areas of some of the fastest-growing startups and technology companies. My passion for table tennis began many years ago in Nigeria when my parents bought us a table when I was about twelve years old. My game has continued to improve, and I feel fortunate to work in a field where taking a few minutes to play a game isn’t frowned upon but encouraged to build camaraderie and brainpower. There are four lessons the game of table tennis has taught me about selling.

1/ You can influence the outcome by focusing on what you can control– In a standard game of first to 21 points, each player gets to serve at least ten times. A serve is when the ball is tossed up at least 6 inches and struck, so the ball first bounces on the server’s side and then the opponent’s side. The level of creativity of your serve is one of the elements of the game you have full control over. As such, making it difficult for your opponent to return your serve is one of the fastest ways to score points and gain an advantage. However, mastering a difficult serve takes immense discipline and practice. Similar to sales, you can influence the outcome of an opportunity by maniacally focusing on the elements of the process you can control.

Pay attention to the serve which sets up the opportunity for the forehand smash.


2/ Mistakes are inevitable; learn from them. A player who dwells on the mistakes made, which may have caused him to lose a point, is often visibly timid and risk-averse. Since thoughts drive action, it’s essential to have a growth mindset. For instance, instead of thinking “how could I be so careless, dumb, [insert your choice of words] to lose that point?,” try thinking “how can I adjust my game to have an unfair advantage?” A player who learns from her mistakes and makes adjustments in real-time accelerates her potential to win the game and ultimately win in life and business.




3/ Persistence strengthens relationships. I needed to get in front of the CTO and Co-Founder of one of the fastest-growing startups in SoCal. I tried contacting him via email, telephone, and social media but couldn’t get through. After many months, I discovered an article published in the early 2000s of this executive and how he loved table tennis. Instinctively, I challenged him to a game. He accepted. Without going into details about who won (we both did 😃) the game established a foundation for a healthy relationship that continues to blossom. This executive has become a friend and continues to inspire me to improve my game in business and life. He even kindly donated to a table tennis charity tournament I helped organize to raise money for Hack-The-Hood, a non-profit organization in Oakland focused on increasing the representation of minorities in the tech industry.

4/ Do not underestimate your opponent. We all love the stories of underdogs that come from behind to claim victory over big dawgs despite the odds stacked against them. I’ve played many games where I fell behind only to come back to claim victory. I’ve also played many games where I was well ahead only to crumble and lose the game. In both scenarios, one person was underestimating the other person. Chinese philosopher and writer, Lao Tzu, teaches that “there is no greater danger than underestimating your opponent.” In Sales, you’re either representing the incumbent (big dawg) or challenger (underdog). It doesn’t matter who you represent, underestimating your opponent leaves you exposed and unprepared to execute a winning strategy. 

As a bonus, check out this incredible 41 shot rally featuring Nigerian table tennis superstar – Segun Toriola. It is a masterclass in executing a defensive strategy.