Our key account champion says all the right things. Will they fight for us when we’re not in the room?

Our key account champion says all the right things. Will they fight for us when we’re not in the room?

The real test of a champion happens in rooms your team isn’t invited to: the budget meeting, the executive review, the call where your price comes up. The way to know how they show up there is to test them before you need them.

Five questions to see if your team can do this job today:

1. Can the champion explain, in their own words, why they choose you over the alternatives?
2. Have they introduced your KAM to an executive or economic buyer?
3. Have they shared something you couldn’t learn anywhere else, like budget plans, politics or a competitor’s move?
4. Do they sell for you in meetings you’re not in, and tell you how it went?
5. Has your KAM checked how engaged the champion is in the last 90 days?

Two or more no’s, and your champion may be a friendly contact who won’t carry your message.

At lunch, we tested a key decision maker we knew could be a great champion for us. He said he would be willing to get us to the top floor (the C-suite), but admitted to us that we didn't deserve that intro yet.

He was right. We were winning in delivery, giving the business what they'd asked for, but we were not doing the things that lead to becoming a strategic partner. He coached us on what that would look like.

We had to align what we do to their top customer projects, and make sure our services had a direct impact on helping their business grow. So we got to work. Instead of tracking work orders, we began tracking client projects, starting with the ones the executives track.

We were already doing a lot with their biggest accounts. We just weren't tracking it. We created reporting to prove we were making an impact on critical projects, found opportunities to invest more resources in them, and developed ideas to help them expand faster and save money. Revenue, cost and risk: we nailed all three where it mattered most.

About six months later, our champion sold us in to the top executive. Both of them attended our business reviews and customer appreciation events, and developed personal relationships that transcend the business partnership.

We were doing much of the work all along. Once we could see and show its impact on their most important relationships, we got our intro and a seat at the table.

Our system, the Vitality Index, shows your key account teams where they stand today, the work it takes to level up, and how to do it, until they reach a vital partnership that lasts.

When did your champion last open a door for your team?

We built a free, 4-minute Key Account Risk Assessment. It gives you a risk score for your key accounts across team alignment, account planning, account transitions, and visibility. Link in the comments.