Coach

A Coach is the person in the account who helps you. They take your calls, tell you who matters, warn you when the mood changes and explain the politics. What they do not do is sell for you. Either they lack the power and influence to move the decision, or they have no personal stake in the outcome, or both. They want you to win in the way a friend wants you to win. They are not going to put their own neck on the line to make it happen.

The question a Coach helps you answer is: what is really going on in there? The question they cannot answer is: who is going to make this happen when I am not there?

The mistake is the oldest one in enterprise sales, and I have made it. You mislabel a Coach as a Champion because the relationship feels strong. Then you forecast the deal on the strength of that relationship. Then the deal stalls in a meeting your Coach could not get into, and the best they can offer is an apology and a summary. Both are useful. Neither closes anything.

How I use it. I value Coaches and I keep them, because the intelligence they give is real. But I never let a Coach stand in the Champion slot of my qualification. The test is behaviour. Ask them to get you in front of the Economic Buyer. A Champion finds a way. A Coach tells you why it is difficult right now. If every senior contact in a deal turns out to be a Coach, I have a deal with information and no engine. That is a deal I build a Champion in, fast, or qualify out of.