June 9, 2023 - Ascender Teams - Building, Testing, & Developing Champions [Event Recap]

Joe Huber

@Patrick McLoughlin joined us to discuss the process behind taking someone from a prospect to a Champion. Paddy Mac shared great tips around Champions like how you can find likely candidates, what traits they have, and even how to build some of the information-sharing.

Let us know what you do to build Champions in the comments!

https://ascender-1.wistia.com/medias/kk8gkl34gr

Joe Huber

Some of the takeaways were:

• The best time to build a Champion is when you're outside of a sales cycle.
  • You have more freedom to ask questions and can be impartial to any kind of information being shared because you're not actively selling to them.
• Come up with a communication plan if you're planning on building Champions outside of the sales cycle.
• There is a basic anatomy of a good sales story, but be sure to build something that works for you, too.
  • Here is a link to a course on sales storytelling on Ascender.
• Where to look for Champions.
  • "Find the skeptic".
    • If you can flip someone from skeptical, you've likely found someone that will be your best asset.
    • "They don't want to make you look bad. They don't want you to make them look bad."
  • "Where there is change, there is likely a Champion".
    • If you can uncover an area of the business that is desperate to change the way things operate right now, you'll find someone that will want to create the right solution to the problem.

Be sure to check these courses about building and validating Champions on Ascender, as well!

• Building Champions for Life
• Validating Champions