• Has Pain: Directly affected by the problem you solve
• Has Power: Can influence decision or control budget
• Has Gain: Personally benefits when you win (promotion, bonus, easier life)
• Is Accessible: You can reach them and build relationship
• Is Willing: Open to new solutions and vendors

• Champion: Actively sells for you internally, has skin in the game
• Coach: Helpful but passive, gives you intel but won't advocate
• Blocker: Opposes your solution (loves incumbent, risk-averse, loses if you win)

1. Role Relevance - How directly does their role relate to your solution?
2. Influence Level - Can they affect the buying decision?
3. Accessibility - Can you reach them? Warm intro possible?
4. Change Agent - Track record of adopting new solutions?
5. Personal Stake - Do they personally gain if you win?
6. Engagement Potential - Likely to respond to outreach?

• 50-60: Ideal champion candidate
• 40-49: Strong potential champion
• 30-39: Possible champion with work
• Below 30: Not likely to champion

• Stage: [Startup/Growth/Enterprise]
• Recent News: [Funding/Growth/Changes]
• Likely Pain Points: [Based on stage and industry]
• Decision-Making Style: [Committee/Top-down/Consensus]
• Budget Cycle: [When they buy]

• Existing Contacts: [X] contacts at this company
• Mutual Connections: [X] 2nd degree connections
• Inbound Interest: [Yes/No - Have they engaged?]
• Competitive Intel: [Do they use competitor?]

• Name: [First Last]
• Title: [Current Job Title]
• Department: [Department]
• Tenure: [X] years at company
• LinkedIn: [Profile URL]
• Email Pattern: [Likely email]
• Location: [City, State]

• Their role directly manages [area your solution impacts]
• Day-to-day responsibilities include [tasks you improve]
• Their success metrics tied to [metrics you improve]
• Evidence: Job description shows responsibility for [relevant area]

• Title suggests budget authority for tools like yours
• Reports to [CXO] - short path to economic buyer
• Manages team of [X] who would use your solution
• Evidence: LinkedIn shows they've purchased similar tools before

• mutual connections (2nd degree)
• Active on LinkedIn (posts weekly)
• Has engaged with content about [your topic]
• Warm Intro Path: You → [Mutual Connection] → [Candidate]

• Recently joined company ([X] months ago) - new people try new things
• Previous company adopted [similar solution] during their tenure
• LinkedIn posts show interest in innovation/new approaches
• Evidence: Posted about "always looking for better ways to [do X]"

• Their KPIs directly improve with your solution
• Likely has team efficiency/productivity goals
• Pain point you solve affects their daily work
• Evidence: Job posting for their role mentioned [problem you solve]

• Responds to LinkedIn messages (based on post engagement)
• Active in communities related to their role
• Has spoken at [conference/webinar] - comfortable engaging
• Evidence: Replied to comments on recent posts

1. [Specific pain point 1 their role experiences]
2. [Specific pain point 2 your solution solves]
3. [Specific pain point 3 they've mentioned publicly]

• Career Impact: Solving [problem] makes them look good to [boss]
• Team Impact: Their team gets [X hours/week] back
• Personal Impact: Less firefighting, more strategic work
• Measurable: Can tie success to their OKRs/KPIs

• Give you insight into decision process and criteria
• Introduce you to economic buyer
• Advocate for you in internal meetings
• Help you navigate politics and objections
• Coach you on competitive situation

• Posted about [topic] on LinkedIn [X days ago]
• Commented on [article/post] about [topic]
• Changed jobs [X months ago] - onboarding phase

• Both attended [University/Conference]
• Both interested in [Industry Topic]
• Both in [Professional Group]

• Progressed from [Previous Role] to [Current Role]
• Has experience at [Previous Company]
• Shows pattern of [career characteristic]

"Hi [Name], saw you recently [specific activity] - [relevant observation]. Given your role managing [area], I imagine [pain point]..."

1. "Walk me through how [process] works today at [Company]"
2. "What's working well? What's frustrating about it?"
3. "If you could wave a magic wand and fix one thing, what would it be?"
4. "Who else is impacted by [problem]?"
5. "What have you tried to solve this? Why didn't it work?"
6. "If this doesn't get fixed, what happens?"

1. "Is this problem on your roadmap to solve?"
2. "When you've bought tools like this before, how did the process work?"
3. "Who typically gets involved in these decisions?"
4. "What would success look like for you personally?"
5. "Would you be comfortable introducing me to [economic buyer]?"

• Can't articulate the pain clearly
• Doesn't know who the decision maker is
• Not willing to introduce you to others
• Doesn't have budget visibility
• Seems like they're just being polite

• Name: [First Last]
• Title: [Job Title]
• Department: [Department]
• Tenure: [X] years

• Role Relevance: 8/10
• Influence Level: 8/10
• Accessibility: 7/10
• Change Agent: 8/10
• Personal Stake: 9/10
• Engagement Potential: 7/10

• [Key strength 1]
• [Key strength 2]
• [Key strength 3]

• [One thing that makes them less ideal than #1]

• [Similar structure to #1 but adjusted for their profile]

• [Reason 1: e.g., "Too senior - C-level won't be your champion"]
• [Reason 2: e.g., "Wrong department - doesn't feel the pain"]
• [Reason 3: e.g., "Blocker risk - manages incumbent vendor relationship"]

1. Start With: [Champion #1] - Highest probability
2. Parallel Outreach: [Champion #2] - Different department, cover bases
3. Economic Buyer Access: Ask Champion #1 to introduce to [Decision Maker]
4. Technical Validator: Also connect with [Technical Person]
5. User Buy-In: Get feedback from [End User Rep]

Economic Buyer (Decision): [Name, Title]
        ↑
Champion (Advocate): [Champion #1]
        ↑
Technical (Validate): [Technical Person]
        ↑
Users (Adopt): [User Team]

• Single-threaded deals die if contact leaves or loses interest
• Different perspectives help you understand full picture
• Creates internal momentum (multiple people talking about you)
• Reduces risk of "ghost" situation

• employees joined in last 6 months (growth signal)
• employees recently promoted (change signal)
• employees active on LinkedIn (engagement signal)
• employees connected to your network (access signal)

• Engineering: [X] people
• Product: [X] people
• Sales: [X] people
• Marketing: [X] people

• [Job Title 1] - Indicates [what this tells you about priorities]
• [Job Title 2] - Suggests [pain point or growth area]
• [Job Title 3] - Shows [budget/investment in area]

• Hiring = growth = budget = good time to buy
• Job descriptions reveal pain points and priorities
• New hires are open to new tools (not attached to status quo)

• Secure warm intro from [Mutual Connection]
• Send personalized outreach
• Schedule discovery call
• Research their LinkedIn thoroughly

• Run discovery call (use questions above)
• Validate they have the pain
• Assess their influence and willingness
• Get them to open up about process and players

• Tailored demo focused on their pain points
• Share relevant case study
• Calculate ROI specific to their situation
• Get their reaction and feedback

• Ask: "Based on what you've seen, would this help you?"
• Ask: "Who else should see this?"
• Ask: "Would you be comfortable introducing me to [decision maker]?"
• Provide them ammo to sell internally (ROI calc, one-pager)

• Regular check-ins (weekly)
• Ask for coaching on internal process
• Get their input on proposal
• Have them review and socialize internally
• Coach you on objections and competitors

• Says yes to everything but never takes action
• Doesn't push back or ask hard questions
• Just being polite, not actually interested

• "I'll talk to [decision maker] and get back to you"
• Weeks go by with no introduction
• Always has excuse why you can't meet boss

• Can't describe how buying decisions get made
• Doesn't know who has budget
• Never bought tools like yours before

• Talks about problem in abstract terms
• Can't give specific examples from their daily work
• Pain is theoretical, not personal

• No personal KPIs tied to the problem
• Won't benefit from your solution
• Just doing research for someone else

• Keep them in the loop (may be useful later)
• Find the REAL champion (who actually has pain)
• Don't waste time on "coaches" pretending to be champions

1. Look for Recent Hires: New people want quick wins
2. Look for Promotions: Promoted people want to prove themselves
3. Look for Pain Posters: People who post about challenges on LinkedIn
4. Look for Change Agents: Track record of adopting new tools
5. Look for Event Speakers: Public faces are accessible

1. Make Them Look Good: Help them be the hero internally
2. Arm Them: Give them talking points and ROI calculations
3. Coach Them: Teach them how to sell you internally
4. Protect Them: Don't put them in awkward political positions
5. Celebrate Them: Give them credit when you win

1. Go Wide Early: Don't single-thread too long
2. Map the Org: Understand relationships and influence
3. Find Multiple Champions: Different departments = more advocates
4. Get to Economic Buyer: Champion must introduce you up

1. Can't get meetings: Not actually influential
2. Doesn't advocate: Just being nice, not actually championing
3. Ghosts periodically: Not actually engaged
4. Can't influence: No power despite title

undefined

1. Start at the Right Level: Director/VP level often best (too junior = no power, too senior = too busy)
2. Multiple Champions Better Than One: Multi-thread to reduce single point of failure
3. Qualify Early: Don't assume someone is a champion; validate with questions
4. Give Before You Ask: Provide value before asking for introductions
5. Make It About Them: Champions need to personally benefit
6. Document Everything: Track champion interactions and commitments in CRM
7. Stay Close: Regular check-ins keep champions engaged

• "Who should I connect with at Shopify to champion our tool?"
• "Find potential champions at this target account"
• "Analyze these LinkedIn profiles and identify the best champion"
• "Who at [Company] is most likely to advocate for us?"

"I'm targeting Stripe for our developer tools product. Analyze their engineering leadership team on LinkedIn and identify who would be the best internal champion. I need someone who feels the pain of developer productivity and can influence purchasing decisions."

1. Research company and relevant department
2. Identify 5-10 potential champion candidates
3. Analyze each on champion criteria (pain, power, gain, access)
4. Rank from best to worst champion potential
5. Provide outreach strategy and talking points
6. Map org chart and multi-threading plan