Champion Test

The Champion Test is how you find out whether the name in your Champion field deserves to be there. It has two halves. First, the three criteria: do they have power and influence, do they have a personal stake in you winning, and are they actively selling for you? Second, and this is the half most sellers skip, you ask them to prove it. You request something that costs them effort or political capital and you watch what happens.

The question it answers: if I disappeared for a month, would this person keep my deal alive?

The mistake is testing with questions instead of asks. “Would you say you are our Champion?” is a question anyone will say yes to, because it is flattering and free. An ask is different. Can you get me thirty minutes with the Economic Buyer before the end of the month? Can you share the scoring sheet the evaluation team is using? Can you tell me what the Economic Buyer said about us after our last meeting? Each of those costs something. The answers, and more importantly the actions that follow, are the test.

How I use it. I run the test early and I run it again before anything goes into commit. A Champion who passes in month one can fail in month four, because they changed role, lost a fight, or found a bigger project. I keep the bar deliberately high. Liking your product is what a Coach does. The Champion I will forecast on sells it internally when I am not in the room, and the only proof of that is something they did. Pass the test and the deal is forecastable. Fail it and you know your next action.