You Don't Need to Keep Pitching to Your Champion

The moment you get a champion, most sellers blow it. Not because they do something wrong. Because they keep doing the thing that was right five minutes ago.

Here's the scene: You finally have someone on the inside who gets it. They're nodding, asking good questions, sending you their org chart unprompted. And what does the seller do? Keeps pitching them. Feature after feature. ROI slide after ROI slide. They're so locked into "sell" mode they can't see that the selling is already done.

That's not how you close a deal. That's how you exhaust the one person who was going to close it for you.

Here's the mindset shift that changes everything: once someone is genuinely bought in, your job description changes. You're no longer a salesperson to them. You're a coach.

Your champion is about to walk into a room full of skeptics, budget hawks, and the one executive who killed the last three initiatives. They need to be ready for that. Your job is to make sure they are.

Arm them, don't pitch them

When you're not in the room, your champion is your voice. They're fielding questions you'll never hear, objections you didn't know existed, and political resistance that never shows up on a discovery call. If all you've done is sell to them, they'll have your pitch. If you've coached through them, they'll have answers.

The difference looks like this: instead of running through your deck again, you ask them, "When you bring this to your CFO, what's the first thing he's going to push back on?" Then you work through it together. You give them the language. You help them anticipate the resistance so it doesn't catch them flat-footed.

Map the room with them

Your champion knows things you don't. Who hates change. Who controls budget even if they don't own the title. Who the real decision maker listens to. Stop assuming your org chart is accurate and start asking questions.

"Who else needs to be comfortable with this before it moves forward?"

"Is there anyone who could slow this down?"

That intel doesn't just help you strategize. It shows your champion you're invested in their success, not just your quota.

Give them a win to own

People go to bat for things they feel ownership over. The best champions aren't the ones who love your product most. They're the ones who feel like this is their initiative, not something they're buying from a vendor. Find ways to put their fingerprints on it. Let them shape the rollout plan. Credit them internally. Make the success theirs.

The sale doesn't close in your demo. It closes in a conversation you're never part of. The only question is whether you did enough to make sure your champion walks in ready.

Stop pitching. Start coaching. The sellers who get this close faster, waste less time, and rarely lose deals they thought they had.

Have a take? hi@chrisvaldemoro.com