What is the difference between a champion and a coach?

A coach gives you insider truth: how decisions get made, who matters, what objections are coming. That help happens with you, not with the buying team, and no political capital is spent. A champion does everything a coach does, then sells for you when you're not there and spends political capital to move the deal forward.

Should you have more than one champion?

Yes. Done in MEDDPICC means enough stakeholders, at multiple levels, are actively driving the change. You want champion behavior from end users, problem owners, the leader who sets priorities, the people who control the technical decision, and the people funding it.

How do you test a champion?

Watch for behavior, not friendliness: do they get you into the right rooms, sell your story when you're not there, defend the initiative when it's challenged, and co-own next steps between meetings? Then ask directly: "Based on what you've seen, do you believe our solution is the best option for the business?"

Champion in MEDDPICC: A Behavior, Not a Person

“Champion” is the most misused word in all of sales.

I’ve heard too many sellers walk out of a good first meeting saying, “I’ve got a great champion here.” I can literally see their heads getting bigger.

Don’t be this person. Champions are powerful forces. Label them correctly, or risk getting blindsided later.

A champion isn’t a person. A champion is a behavior. Specifically, people spending political capital to advocate for change with your solution.

Being friendly isn’t championing.
Taking your calls isn’t championing.
Sharing information is just coaching.

What Champion Really Means in MEDDPICC

Here’s the definition I use. To be a champion, someone needs three things:

Access to power, and the willingness to use it. They’re in the room when the decision is made, or they highly influence that room.
Willingness to fight for your solution. They sell for you when you aren’t there, and spend political capital to mobilize and carry the change narrative.
Continuous validation. Champion isn’t a label you assign once. It’s a relationship you keep testing.

All three have to be true, consistently. If you’re thinking someone is your champion instead of testing and knowing, you’ll get blindsided by a friendly Contact or Coach.

The distinction between those labels is covered in depth in Sales Champion vs Coach. The short version: a coach helps you. A champion sells for you, inside the buying team, and spends political capital doing it.

Why It Matters

Champions create momentum when you’re not in the room, and they get you to power.

Without that, your story dies in the middle of the business. A friendly contact bubbles your idea up to their boss, and the answer comes back: “Sorry, this isn’t a priority.”

No championing, no deal.

You Can’t Have a Real Champion Early

This one surprises people.

You likely won’t have a real champion until mid to late stage. People need to see your competitors, believe in the change, and feel it should be prioritized now before they’ll fight for you and stick their neck out with power.

So early in a deal, label them honestly: a Contact or a Coach. Don’t promote someone because they’re enthusiastic.

That’s why yellow is the honest color for most mid-stage deals. You have a coach, maybe someone showing early signs, but the behavior hasn’t been tested at every level. Keep calling them a Coach until they prove otherwise.

How to Grade It: What Done Looks Like

Most teams grade Champion on one question: do we have one?

That’s the wrong question. Done means enough stakeholders, at multiple levels, are actively driving the change and spending political capital to make it happen.

I want championing at every level:

End users
Problem owners
The department head who sets priorities
The people who control the technical decision
The people funding it

One champion is fragile. If they get reassigned, your deal becomes an orphan. (If that’s already happened, see What to Do When Your Champion Leaves.)

Two practical grading rules:

Red means you’re still at the contact or coach level. You’re being helped, but you’re not being championed.
Green requires champion behavior from the people who can get the deal done. If you don’t have a mobilized Problem Owner and an Executive Sponsor demonstrating champion behaviors, you can’t be green on stakeholders. You may have support. You don’t have the force required to create change.

How to Test a Champion

You can tell what a champion is doing behind closed doors by what they tell you about how meetings went, and by the outcomes you see from those meetings.

The behaviors I look for:

They get you into the right rooms early enough to shape the outcome.
They socialize the business case before big meetings.
They defend the initiative when it’s challenged, instead of folding at the first objection.
They bring in new stakeholders early, instead of letting them appear late as a surprise.
They co-own next steps, dates and a mutual plan, and move the deal forward between meetings.

And one direct question does a lot of work:

“Based on what you’ve seen, do you believe our solution is the best option for the business?”

If the answer is “We can’t tell yet,” follow up with: “Where do you see us being different?” Now you know what they’d say about you in a room you’re not in.

For four behavioral tests and the scripts to run them, see What Is a Champion in Sales?

Plays to Build Champion Behavior

Don’t hope a champion appears. Build one.

The Intentional Champion Builder. Define what a real champion is (access to power, willingness to sell internally when you’re not there, proven through action), then deliberately build that person through working sessions, meeting prep, shared deliverables and regular one-on-ones.

Arm them to sell. Champions sell with what you give them. Send pre-meeting and post-meeting summaries, build the business case with them, shape the decision criteria together, and create assets they can forward without you in the room.

Follow the path to power. Most true champions sit one level below the Economic Buyer. The path usually looks like this: map the org chart, use strategic questions with current stakeholders to understand influence and trust lines, request their involvement in key moments of the process, then earn direct one-on-one time until they have enough conviction to actively champion for you.

Common Champion Mistakes

Promoting a coach. Coaches can even have access to power. What they lack is the willingness to stick their neck out for you.
Confusing function with behavior. A Problem Owner is often the person you most want to champion you, but function alone doesn’t make them one. Test them like anyone else.
Labeling once and never re-testing. Champion is a relationship you keep testing, not a box you check once.
Betting the deal on one person. Single-threading is a gamble, not a strategy.

How It Connects to Deal Management

In Deal Management, Champion lives inside the Stakeholders criterion. Every stakeholder gets two labels: a functional role (End User, Problem Owner, Technical Buyer, Executive Sponsor, Economic Buyer) and a behavioral label (Contact, Coach, Champion, Blocker). The function is stable. The behavior can change.

That’s why Champion and Economic Buyer belong on the same map. My number one priority in every deal is to earn an Executive Sponsor, and Executive Sponsors can be your strongest champions, especially when they secure budget and take ownership of the project. I’ve never won a deal without one.

Where to Go Deeper

What Is a Champion in Sales? It’s a Behavior, Not a Title: the four champion tests, with scripts.
Sales Champion vs Coach: functional roles, behavioral labels and multi-level advocacy.
What to Do When Your Champion Leaves: the five-step playbook when your deal becomes an orphan.
Map every stakeholder with the free Stakeholder Map Template.
Next letter: Competition. Or go back to the MEDDPICC overview.