Hey Niepodam,

Most sellers think they have a strong deal because they have a strong champion.

The champion replies fast.
They show up to every meeting.
They say things like:

“Looks great.”
“I’ll push this internally.”
“I’ll talk to leadership.”

So the deal feels safe.

But here’s the uncomfortable reality: Champions rarely have the power to buy.

And when your deal depends on them alone…

You’re not really selling.

You’re outsourcing the sale.

A company I worked with last year learned this the hard way.

One AE had been working a €180K opportunity for nearly three months.

Their champion was the Head of Operations.

Perfect champion on paper.

Highly engaged.
Loved the product.
Brought good internal questions.

Everything looked like a commit.

Then suddenly: “We’re going to pause this for now.”

Classic.

When we reviewed the deal, the issue wasn’t pricing. It wasn’t the product.

It was access.

For three months the AE had only spoken to one person.

Meanwhile the real buying process looked like this:

• The CFO controlled the budget
• The VP owned the strategic initiative
• Procurement would run the commercial process

The champion believed in the solution.

But they couldn’t carry the deal internally.

So we changed the strategy.

Instead of asking the champion to “push internally,” we equipped them to do it.

Two simple moves.

First, the AE recorded a 2-minute Loom recap covering:

• The problem
• The expected ROI
• The implementation path

Something the champion could easily forward to leadership.

Second, we asked for early executive alignment:

“Would it make sense to involve whoever reviews the budget and implementation early so we avoid surprises later?”

That brought the CFO into the next call.

Within 15 minutes, two things became clear:

• Budget existed (but not approved yet)
• The project was tied to a Q3 initiative

The deal closed four weeks later with some changes to the contract and scope. But CLOSED WON.

Same champion.
Same product.

But now the deal had real buying access.

This is where many sellers misunderstand the difference between SMB and enterprise deals.

In SMB, your champion is often the buyer.

You’re selling an €8K ARR tool to a Head of Marketing at a 40-person company.

They evaluate it.
They approve the budget.
They sign the contract.

Champion = buyer.

But in enterprise, the buying process looks very different.

You might sell a €150K platform to a RevOps leader.

They love the solution.

But the decision involves multiple stakeholders:

• VP Sales
• Finance
• IT / Security
• Procurement

Your champion can support the deal.

But they don’t control the outcome.

That’s why elite sellers don’t just build champions.

They build buying groups.

They help their champion:

• socialize the idea internally
• align stakeholders early
• create internal momentum

Because the bigger the deal…

The less likely one person can say yes.

And the more important it becomes to orchestrate the entire buying process.

Alan "Modern Seller" Ruchtein

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