如何培养百万美元冠军

CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: THE COMPETITIVESELLING NO-BRAINER YOUR 3O-DAY CHAMPIONDEVELOPMENT PLAN PART 3: TESTING CHAMPIONSTRENGTH PART 1: FEINDING AND DEVELOPINGINTERNAL CHAMPIONS (PRE-SALE) CHAMPION ARMY NTRODUCTION When prospects hear this during a competitive evaluation, almost nobody says no. It's toovaluable. And when they talk to a customer who switched from your competitor andachieved dramatic success? That deal is essentially closed. But here's the problem: Most companies focus on traditional advocacy-case studies,reviews, testimonials. They're missing the two most powerful types of champions: Internal champions: The person inside a prospect's organization who'll fight for you whenyou're not in the room "WOULD YOU BEINTERESTED IN SPEAKINGTO SOMEONE WHO HASUSEDBOTHPRODUCTS?" but most sales teams never ask it. reference-backed deals, according to Mark Roberge), with average customer values of . The customer dinner strategy that creates lifetime advocates: Tests to verify champion strength before critical moments: A 30-day implementation plan WALK AWAY CHAMPION STRENGTH ASSESSMENT MATRIX THE WILLING VS. ABLE TEST PART01 Not everyone who likes your product is a champion.The critical distinction? Whether they're both willing ANDable to get the deal done. As John McMahon, Senior Sales Director at PTC, explains:"The way to find champions is by doing a great job indiscovery, doing a great job of scoping and trying tounderstand the pain and the metrics and the quantificationof that pain. When you do that and the problem's a bigenough problem, that's when a champion's going to start toemerge and want to tie their career and their reputation John McMahon's Litmus Test: specific questions:. "Have you taken anything to them in the last six months? What was that conversation like?". "When you went through legal on your last purchase,who did you work with?". "What do the typical red lines look like in contracts?". "Who else needs to be involved in this decision?"If they don't know the answers, you don't have a strong DEVELOPINGINTERNAL CHAMPIONS(PRE-SALE) and know these answers, you've found gold. DEVEOPNGACOACNOACAMPON When you identify someone with high willingness but low ability (a coach),here's how to develop them: MAP THEIR GAPS ASK: don't know-approval processes, budget thresholds, key stakeholders. SHARE THE PLAYBOOK executive sponsorship, and alignment with company priorities. Let's work backward from there." "When I worked with [similar company], their champion faced the same challenge getting Transform them from someone who likes your solution into CREATE SAFETY NETS "lf you get pushback on the Rol, text me immediately and I'll send you three comparison points that FROM IDENTIFICATION TO ACTIVATION IDENTIFYING YOUR BEST CHAMPIONS PART02 But identifying these champions is just the first step. The best customer champions often hide in plain sight.They fallinto two critical categories: Once your team identifies these potential champions, the next step is critical: transform them fromsatisfied customers into active advocates. This isn't accomplished through surveys or automatedemails. It requires personal investment. Competitive Switchers: Customers who evaluated yourcompetitor and chose you instead.These are your most powerful references-they can speakdirectly to why your solution is superior. The highest-ROl investment you can make? Take them to dinner. who've achieved measurable results. They may not havecompetitive context, but their enthusiasm and outcomesspeak volumes. THE MILLION DOLLAR CUSTOMER DINNER to dinner. The ROl makes a $250, $500, or $1,000 dinner investment trivial. Mark discovered that investing time with key customers pays massive dividends. "if I was out in Chicago and one of the companies on the list...I would take that person to a fancy lunch, fancy dinner, whatever it was,spend the hour, hour and a half, two hours.These aren't necessarily the biggest customers: "They were just median customers, everyday customers. best competitive wins from the last 90 days.Looking for customers who: The conversation follows a natural progression. After discussing their journey and success, the customer . Switched from a competitor to us You have tens of thousands of customers. Why me?"Mark would then say something like "You know, I like to stay in touch. And to be quite honest, you were : Have achieved measurable success. Would genuinely recommend usPlease send me: Company name, competitor don't know what they're missing. We want to make sure they make the right choice. And we want to makesure they have all the necessary resources to make that strong decision."That's when the ask happens: "All I ask from you in return is maybe once or twice a month, my sales team CUSTOMER CHAMPIONNETWORK Mark explains what happens next: "They're so grateful to you for what you have done for their business.They appreciate the special attention and are happy to, you