Sales Champion Development

We closed a £200K+ deal last week It wasn’t clean or linear - here’s how it happened and hopefully some learnings to share: 1. We opened the doors wider than our champion We set up a trumpet 🎺 Pod and shared it early. Within days, people we hadn’t met logged in — Finance, Security, Ops. That told us this wasn’t a one-person decision and gave us a reason to build for the full committee, not just the one voice we knew. 2. We followed the silent signals The CFO spent 12 minutes on our ROI section at 9:52pm. We hadn’t spoken to them, but that behaviour said more than any call. Next morning we reframed that page around real financial impact for them, which became the backbone of their business case. 3. We handled objections before they landed Security never reached out directly. But we saw repeated views on our compliance docs. That told us their checklist subtedly. So we highlighted certifications and integrations proactively and added a few case studies where security was paramount too. 4. We kept it contextual Every update we dropped into the Pod was framed differently depending on who’d be reading it: exec summary for leadership, workflows and integrations for ops, proof points for procurement. Same story, different lenses. 5. We gave our champion cover The Mutual Action Plan wasn’t for us. It let our champion walk into meetings with a roadmap in hand instead of “trust me.” That turned them into the project manager for the deal inside their company. They worked along side us to stick to the timeline and plan. It made our champion look great internally too. 6. We let MEDDICC shape the approach Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain, Champion, Competition. Metrics: ROI engagement told us the numbers that mattered. Economic Buyer: We spotted them in the views before meetings Decision Criteria: Pages revisited most showed the true priorities. Champion: The MAP turned them into our inside seller. Instead of guessing, we aligned MEDDICC with buyer behaviour. 7. We adjusted in real-time When we saw re-visits or long views on certain pages, we knew what to surface next in calls. Instead of pushing our agenda, we followed theirs and double downed on them with deeper relevant info. 8. We created internal advocates without meeting them Stakeholders could self-serve content in the Pod, already armed with the answers they cared about. We were effectively selling through people we hadn’t spoken to directly. 9. We left a trail for future expansion The Pod didn’t disappear after the deal. It became a live resource for onboarding and handovers. Next time expansion comes, we’re not starting from scratch. Result: a 6-figure deal that closed 38 days faster than forecast, with a champion who looked like a hero in front of their peers. That’s buyer enablement in practice: organised chaos, subtle, insight driven, and more powerful when paired with MEDDICC to keep the deal on track.

“I’ll have to run this by our CFO.” That line has killed more deals than bad pricing, long sales cycles, or weak demos. Here’s the truth: Your champion isn’t trained to sell. And yet 99% of reps hand them a 25-slide vendor deck and pray it somehow gets executive approval. That’s not enablement. That’s deal suicide. In enterprise sales, you will not always be in the room. Your champion—no matter how well-intentioned—has to carry your deal up the chain. And if you don’t equip them to do it in executive language, you’ve already lost. Executives don’t care about feature sets. They care about: - Profitability - Risk - Market share - Growth But most sellers send over jargon-filled PDFs that die on the first scroll. Here’s what I do instead: I build what I call a Champion Selling Aid (inspired by The Challenger Customer and refined through years of $1M+ deals). It’s a one-page executive memo—co-created with your champion—that distills the entire deal into the only things execs actually care about: 1. The core issue → One line that frames the problem at the highest level. 2. Why it matters → Translate the pain into executive KPIs (profit, revenue, churn, risk). 3. Desired outcome → What success looks like in their words. 4. Background → Proof of work already done (pilots, security checks, stakeholder interviews). 5. Options → Do nothing, hire more people, or implement your solution. 6. The ask → Clear, simple, and budget-aligned. Sometimes I even rebrand it into their internal template so it feels like their deck, not mine. Lately, I’ve been using AI to help champions polish these into crisp, executive-friendly emails and memos. But the principle stays the same: Don’t just sell to your champion. Sell through your champion. If your deal lives or dies on whether a mid-level manager can pitch your product… you’re not just rolling dice—you’re throwing them away. Stop handing over vendor decks. Start equipping champions to speak the only language that matters: executive outcomes. That’s how you turn “I’ll run this by my CFO” into “My CFO already said yes.”

I love MEDDIC, it's been the guiding principle for how I've closed millions in Enterprise SaaS over the past 12 years. Not for the reasons you think though. MEDDIC can be very seller first if you don't use it properly. It's not just about filling out fields in Salesforce...it's about firing up your champions/buying committee to take action. Metrics Old lens: “Quantify the economic impact of your solution.” Buyer first lens: Co create measurable outcomes that matter to the buyer. Ask: “What would success look like for you six months after implementation?” Purpose: Show you care about their scoreboard, not your quota. E Empowered Champion Old lens: “Find the internal advocate who sells for you.” Buyer first lens: Empower an internal leader to create change with confidence. Ask: “Who feels the most ownership of solving this problem internally?” Purpose: Make them the hero of the story, not your mouthpiece. D Decision Criteria Old lens: “Understand how they’ll choose a vendor.” Buyer first lens: Clarify what matters most to them and why, then design around it. Ask: “When you’ve made great decisions in the past, what made them great?” Purpose: Align to their values, not your feature list. D Decision Process Old lens: “Map the approval steps to close faster.” Buyer first lens: Guide them through a friction-free buying journey that protects their time and reputation. Ask: “What’s the smoothest way to get this evaluated without adding noise internally?” Purpose: Be their internal project manager, not a pushy seller. I Identified Pain Old lens: “Uncover pain to create urgency.” Buyer first lens: Understand the human and business cost of the status quo. Ask: “What happens if nothing changes and who feels that most?” Purpose: Build empathy and shared motivation to act. C Champion Old lens: “Build and maintain a strong internal ally.” Buyer first lens: Develop mutual accountability with your internal partner. Ask: “How can I make you look good internally as we do this together?” Purpose: Shift from extraction to collaboration. TLDR...make it about them and not about you or your forecast and watch the magic happen Thoughts? #sales

I’ve now been involved in buying software at 4 companies. I never realized how many mistakes I was making as an AE until I was on the other side. Why is “How we buy” not a part of every AEs onboarding? AEs listen up. Here is where I got it wrong and what I think is important to understand: 1️⃣ Your buyer has a full-time job. Evaluating software is an additional task that is time consuming, requires some internal political pull and can likely mean they are putting themselves (or their jobs) on the line. Understand this and don’t take it lightly. It’s important you understand whether this person has bought software before and HOW RECENTLY. Why? If I happened to just buy a software last month, I likely used up some of my “internal pull” and energy on it. This matters more than you think. 2️⃣ Buying cycles are slightly different based on whether somebody came inbound or outbound. If I request a demo, it may be out of curiosity, but usually this is an initiative that has already been talked about internally with various stakeholders, potentially a budgeted line item and half the decision has already been made. This person is likely a champion, needs less convincing of the problem/solution and is probably talking with other vendors. Focus on differentiation early here. For outbound, this potentially means a much larger uphill battle for your buyer. You must identify key stakeholders early and start multi-threading and helping that champion sell. One of my favorite things to do here is spin up a digital sales room like Aligned and uncover who is actually looking at the material I’ve sent over. 3️⃣ Buying software is not rooted in rationality. Humans are not rational actors. Your ROI numbers are likely irrelevant… especially if we didn’t specifically sit down and confirm them. Example: Let’s say your solution ultimately helps me get more qualified pipeline. There are HUNDREDS of ways that I can go about doing this. Better contact data, better signals, better research on accounts, better emails, better training etc. You need to help me prove that you are the BEST way to do that. 4️⃣ Make it extremely easy for me to sell internally. No exec watches demo recordings, reads case studies or has time for 20 slides in a deck. Gal Aga said it best in a post the other day: 1. Equip them with a CXO-ready business case 2. Co-build all internal assets (ROI, TCO, FAQs) 3. Pre-plan rollout (beyond just closing) 4. Pressure-test expected internal objections 5. Prep champions for CFO skepticism 6. Map risks openly—no deal is risk-free 7. Constantly challenge: "What could kill this project?" Please don’t just send over a bunch of links or PDFs. Get yourself Aligned and make it easy for buyers to have a hub with all documentation in one place. Try it for free here: https://lnkd.in/eqcE6G9r

Who makes the final call in Indonesian companies? Typical assumption - the CEO, Director, or VP. So, high-level meetings are pushed early. That's when the deal goes silent. Why? Because big titles do not mean they can decide autonomously. --- In general, sellers often miss how influence actually works. 🚫 They pitch to the wrong people. 🚫 They ignore internal champions. 🚫 They assume a director’s approval = a done deal. But in Indonesia, decisions don’t happen in isolation. They go through layers of silent approvals, internal buy-ins, and invisible influencers. — Here’s how it really works: 💡 Junior Executives → The First Filter They decide who gets access to leadership. If they don’t support you, you won’t get past them. If they see value, they’ll push for internal discussions. 💡 Middle Managers → The Internal Gatekeepers They control execution - so if they resist, the deal is dead. Leadership relies on their feedback before making decisions. If they champion your solution, they build momentum internally. 💡 Internal Champions → The Secret Decision-Makers These are the people who sell your solution inside the company. If you don’t have a champion, your deal will get stuck. If you win them over, they get leadership buy-in for you. 💡 Senior Leaders → The Final Approval Yes, they sign off on deals. But they rarely drive the process. If there’s no internal alignment before reaching them, they’ll delay or say no. --- Why Many Sellers Fail 🚫 They pitch to senior leaders too early. A CEO meeting won’t save you if middle managers aren’t convinced. 🚫 They ignore the “small” players. Junior execs and mid-level managers hold more influence than their titles suggest. 🚫 They assume a verbal ‘yes’ means commitment. A director might approve in a meeting—but execution depends on the team. --- How to Sell Smarter in Indonesia ✅ Find your internal champion first. Before chasing leadership, win over key influencers. Ask: "Who else needs to be involved in this discussion?" ✅ Get middle managers to see your value. They care about execution, risk, and workload. If you don’t address their concerns, they will block your deal. ✅ Don’t rush leadership buy-in. Senior leaders listen to their teams. If internal buy-in is strong, leadership approval is just a formality. --- Many sellers lose deals because they target the wrong people at the wrong time. Want to learn how to navigate Indonesia’s decision-making process and close deals without getting stuck in endless internal discussions? I’ll be covering this in my Feb 26 webinar – "B2B Selling in Indonesia - Reduce Ghosting Rates” 👇 🔥 How to identify real decision-makers 🔥 How to win internal buy-in before leadership approval 🔥 How to prevent your deal from stalling or getting ghosted Drop a "Webinar" in the comments and connect with me if you haven't. That will allow me to send across the registration link 🙂 See ya! ✌🏻

Sellers, don’t take this the wrong way, but in a self-service and AI era, I can trial your tool, watch demos, read reviews, and research without you. I do NOT need a salesperson as a gatekeeper of information. I need one to make sense of it. Nick Cegelski nailed it: “Buyers don’t suffer from starvation—but indigestion of information”, which is why 60% of deals die of indecision. Here are the 10 best ‘Sense-Making’ moves I’ve seen Top AEs use to guide buyers (instead of more PDFs and emails): —— 1. Summarize Problems, Not Products After each call, great AEs recap key pain points, not product info. I’d much rather have reminders on why I need to buy vs what the vendor does. 2. Information Restraint We never read the 20 case studies & whitepapers... Top AEs serve just what supports our current buying task. Less drives influence. More drives ghosting. Less is More. 3. Teach, Not Just Tell Nothing leads to ghosting & indecision more than an AE who just tells us about their product. You think “ok, when I need more specs I’ll reach out”. Top AEs teach us about the industry, problem, etc—becoming an extension of our team. 4. Buying Guides, Not Just Selling Nothing is more frustrating than being led down a default sales process. A box that we almost never fit into. Top AEs help us navigate *our* process as well. 5. Co-Create the Business Case Almost every time I get a 25-slide deck, we end up not buying. It’s just too much. I always ask my team for a short 1-2 page business case instead. But it’s so hard to do right. Top AEs help our team build it. 6. Tailor, No One-Size-Fits-All You simply CANNOT speak to a CFO like you would with a Champion, Tech Buyer or End User. Top AEs just get us and give each person tailored treatment. 7. Manage the Between-Meetings Gap Instead of following up with 20-page whitepapers no one reads, Top AEs make every follow-up hyper valuable. E.g. progress checklist to keep momentum, or agenda and questions to discuss at the next meeting. 8. Embrace White Space White space = the strategic silence in your conversation. Let the buyer digest, reflect, and think. Don’t talk them to death. 9. De-Risk Top AEs show us how to mitigate internal pushback and navigate stakeholders. They proactively propose pilot programs, transparent ROI models, or easy exits. It’s about inspiring buyer confidence to move forward—without fear of regret. 10. Orchestrate Buying Top AEs don’t flood buyers with emails. They structure the buying journey in shared workspaces (a Deal Room), preventing key materials or next steps from slipping through the cracks, out-of-the-loop stakeholders, and info overload. —— When buyers choke on info, they ghost or freeze. The future belongs to the AEs who bring clarity. It’s time to be a 'Sense Maker' Seller. P.S. We built Aligned to help manage deal complexity for you AND your buyers. A 100% FREE Deal Room used by 35K sellers. Try here: https://lnkd.in/dwX_Zizk

Most deals don't die because you lost to a competitor. They die because your champion couldn't sell your solution internally. I had a rep this week who's vendor of choice. VP of Talent loves them. Pricing is aligned. Technical fit is perfect. But they need C-suite and board approval. And the rep hasn't talked to any of them yet. This is where 90% of deals stall out and die. Here's how I told her to fix it: Step 1: Study how the champion has closed deals before "When you got Bamboo HR and Coursera approved, what did that process look like? How did you present it to the C-suite? What made them say yes?" You need to know her playbook. Because if you don't know how she successfully sold internally before, you're guessing. Step 2: Offer to co-create the business case Don't just hand her a document and hope she reads it. "Some of our customers find it helpful to put together a one-pager for the internal conversation. What if we spent 30 minutes co-writing it together so you look really good to your C-suite?" Step 3: Pre-arm her for objections Walk through pricing. Then ask: "Pricing aside, remind me what you like most about us?" Let her articulate the value again in her own words. Then pressure test her conviction: "What would happen if Bamboo or Coursera cut their pricing by 50% to keep your business? Would you still choose us?" If she can't confidently say "Yes, we'd still switch," you have a problem. Because the CFO is going to ask the exact same question. Step 4: Link it to executive priorities "When you talk to the CHRO and CFO about this problem, what do they say? What do they believe will happen if you don't solve it?" You need to connect her problem to their priorities. Otherwise, it's just a nice-to-have that gets deprioritized. Here's what most reps get wrong: They think their job ends when the champion says "I want to buy." It doesn't. Your job is to arm your champion to sell for you when you're not in the room. That means co-creating the business case. Pre-arming them for objections. Linking to executive priorities. Because if your champion walks into that C-suite meeting unprepared, your deal is dead. And you won't even know why.

You don't have a sales problem. You have a buying problem. This hit me yesterday during a team review. We were analyzing our "lost" deals from Q1: 63% = "No decision" 22% = "Went with competitor" 15% = "Budget constraints" "No decision" is the real killer. Not your competitor. Not price. Not features. It's prospects unable to reach consensus. The Harvard Business Review found: - 5.4 stakeholders in average B2B purchase - 6.8 information sources consulted - 84% of buying journeys longer than expected Yet most sales processes still focus on: - YOUR pitch - YOUR follow-ups - YOUR cadence Instead of: - THEIR buying committee - THEIR internal selling needs - THEIR consensus-building process A prospect messaged me this morning: "I love your solution, but I'm struggling to get everyone on the same page." I didn't respond with: - Another feature explanation - Another case study - Another discount offer I sent a digital room where they could: - Map their buying committee visually - Document each stakeholder's concerns - Track who had reviewed which materials - Collaborate on implementation planning They closed two weeks later. Modern sales isn't about selling to one person. It's about helping one person sell to five others. Yet 92% of sales content isn't designed for this reality. Your champion doesn't need: - Your 45-slide deck - Your technical deep dive - Your complex pricing structure They need tools to make THEIR job easier: - Visual explanations they can share in 30 seconds - ROI calculations they can customize themselves - Objection responses they can deliver confidently When you fix THEIR buying problem, YOUR sales problem disappears. Simple as that. Agree?

One of the biggest reasons deals stall isn’t that buyers doubt your solution—it’s that they doubt their ability to make the right choice. Matt Dixon's research for The JOLT Effect found that 40% of lost deals are driven by customer indecision, not preference for a competitor. And Brent Adamson's new book The Framemaking Sale highlights that customers with high decision confidence are TEN TIMES more likely to make a purchase. Here are a few ways you can help buyers build confidence in themselves: 1. Reduce Decision Complexity According to Gartner, 77% of B2B buyers report their last purchase was “very complex or difficult." Streamlining options, providing decision guides, or recommending a clear best-fit reduces “analysis paralysis” and gives buyers confidence they aren’t missing something. 2. Reframe Risk in Personal Terms Buyers often fear personal blame more than organizational failure. Use case studies and peer validation to show how people in their role succeeded—helping them feel safe and supported in their choice. 3. Provide Buyer Enablement Tools Tools like ROI calculators, pre-built board decks, or checklists reduce the burden on them and demonstrate that they have what they need to decide. 4. Normalize Their Concerns The JOLT Effect also emphasizes “normalizing indecision” as a critical skill—buyers need to know hesitation is common and that you can guide them through it. Framing uncertainty as a normal step in the process reduces the shame that often delays action. 5. Signal Post-Decision Support Harvard Business Review highlights that buyers who see strong post-sale support are more confident in making initial commitments. Show them the path forward—onboarding, customer success, peer communities—so they know they won’t be left alone after purchase. Helping buyers feel personally confident and protected is as important as proving your product’s value. The most successful marketers and sellers don’t just build confidence in the solution—they build confidence in the decision-maker.

One of the reasons I love working across elite sport and business is because of how transferable the skills and lessons are. Here are six that show up time and time again: 1. Pressure is a skill - The best reframe pressure as a privilege. - If you’re pursuing greatness, pressure is inevitable - the goal isn’t to avoid it, it’s to use it. In business, pressure moments are where trust is built, reputations are shaped, and leadership is revealed. 2. Emotional intelligence drives performance - Elite performers don’t suppress emotions: they recognise, regulate, and use them. - Your ability to understand your own state (and others’) directly shapes decision-making, communication, and outcomes. 3. Visualisation gives you an edge - The best rehearse success before it happens - they’ve already “been there” mentally. - In business, visualising key moments (presentations, conversations, decisions) creates clarity, confidence, and sharper execution when it matters. 4. Resilience is speed of recovery - It’s not about avoiding failure, it’s how quickly you reset from it. - Setbacks are part of high performance. The advantage comes from how fast you recover and re-engage. 5. Your self-image sets your ceiling - Elite performers don’t just train skills, they train identity. - How you see yourself quietly defines what you believe is possible, and therefore what you’re willing to pursue. 6. Ruthless responsibility - The best take full ownership of their actions and growth. No excuses. No blaming. - They don’t wait to be told what to do they decide what needs to be done. - They understand their own limitations and take responsibility for pushing beyond them. And more than anything, the clearest similarity is that training your mind gives you an edge. No matter what field you are in - if you have mastered your mind, you gain the biggest advantage. ♻️ repost if this resonated. Also I would love to hear a lesson you have either learnt from business or sport that helps you in life.