In complex sales, where the sales cycle is long, competition is keen, and multiple players are engaged in the decision, developing internal champions is one of the more effective best practices.
Why? A lot of the discussions and decisions go on when you’re not there. So if you have a champion in the room, it’s more likely you’ll have a better outcome.
But like many things that work really well, developing an internal champion is not easy. As a matter of fact, it requires substantial thought, time, and effort to get it right. And the negative consequences can be telling – if you don’t get it right and your competition does, it could be the difference between winning and losing.
Because it’s an important best practice, what traps do salespeople need to avoid when developing internal champions?
Confusing friends and champions. One major trap is failing to distinguish between account friends and internal champions. Both account friends and internal champions will like you, but internal champions are willing to sell for you when you’re not there – big difference! This trap has the added negative that you may think you have a champion when you don’t.
Selecting the wrong person. People you develop as internal champions cannot help if they are not one of the decision-makers or key influencers. In a complex sale, this is an easy trap to fall into because it’s difficult to determine the decision-making authority and influential power of the various players. A wrong selection can eat up valuable time because it takes a while to develop an effective internal champion.
Failing to rehearse your champion. Let’s take the following scenario. You have a champion that likes your solution, is willing to speak for you in that upcoming key internal meeting, and is one of the key players in the decision process. Nice picture. The trap is the failure to leverage your advantage. The last step in such a scenario must be to rehearse your internal champion on how best to sell for you in that upcoming meeting. You’re the salesperson – your champion isn’t. You need to help them help you.
In summary, consider these two points:
To win major business you have to continuously get to the right person, at the right time, with the right message. An internal champion can be of tremendous help in getting that done!
Because developing internal champions is an important and a highly skilled task, the topic of internal champions should be included in every basic sales training program and coaching effort.