The MEDDPICC champion is the single most predictive element in any deal qualification framework. I've run hundreds of deal reviews over the past fifteen years, and the pattern holds every time: deals with a real champion close. Deals without one stall, slip, and eventually die. The problem isn't that reps don't know the word. They all know the word. The problem is that most reps label anyone who returns their calls as a "champion" in Salesforce, and then they're genuinely surprised when the deal goes dark in the eleventh hour.

In The CRO Report's MEDDPICC Hiring Rubric, champion identification carries 25% of the total score. That's the heaviest single element. More than metrics, more than economic buyer access, more than decision criteria. We weight it that heavily because the data supports it: across 1,298 executive sales postings we track weekly, the 117 roles that explicitly reference MEDDPICC (9.0% of all postings) are concentrated in enterprise environments where multi-quarter deal cycles make champion strength a survival skill.

Data source: Based on analysis of 1,298 executive sales postings tracked weekly by The CRO Report. MEDDPICC appears in 117 postings (9.0%). Champion identification is weighted at 25% in our MEDDPICC Hiring Rubric, the heaviest single element. Consultative Selling leads all methodologies at 172 mentions, with Enterprise Sales at 102. Salesforce appears in 180 postings as the dominant CRM where champion data lives.

Champion vs. Coach vs. Friendly Contact

Three types of people show up in your pipeline. Your reps are calling all three "champion." They aren't the same.

Champion

A champion has three qualities, and all three must be present simultaneously. They have positional power or political influence within the buying organization. They have a personal win tied to the deal closing. And they're actively selling your solution internally when you're not in the room.

That last part is what separates a champion from everyone else. Champions present your business case in internal meetings. They push back on competing priorities. They navigate procurement on your behalf. They do this because the deal's success is tied to their own career trajectory, not because they think your product is neat.

Coach

A coach gives you information. Good information, often. They'll tell you who the real decision-maker is. They'll warn you about a competing initiative. They'll share the internal timeline. They genuinely want you to win.

But they can't or won't put their neck out. Maybe they lack the seniority. Maybe they're risk-averse. Maybe they don't have a personal stake in the outcome. A coach is valuable. You need coaches. But a coach won't carry your deal through a contentious budget meeting when finance is pushing back.

Friendly Contact

A friendly contact returns your emails. They take your calls. They seem engaged and positive. They might even say things like "we really need this" or "I'm pushing for this internally."

They have no influence and no stake. They're being polite. Maybe they like talking to vendors because it breaks up their day. Maybe they're gathering intel for a decision that someone else will make. They aren't going to help you close anything, and they don't have the ability to even if they wanted to.

The CRM Problem

Open your CRM right now. Look at the deals in stages 3 through 5. Count how many have a "champion" field populated. Now ask yourself how many of those names would pass the tests I'm about to describe.

In my experience, roughly half the people labeled as champions in any given pipeline are actually coaches or friendly contacts. Reps aren't lying. They genuinely believe they have a champion because the person is responsive and supportive. But responsive and supportive doesn't close enterprise deals. Internal advocacy does.

The Three Tests for a Real Champion

I use three tests in every deal review. They're simple, they're hard to fake, and they give you a clear answer within about ninety seconds.

Test 1: The Access Test

Can your champion get you a meeting with the economic buyer?

Not "they said they'd try." Not "they forwarded our deck." Can they pick up the phone, call the VP or C-level who controls the budget, and get you thirty minutes on the calendar?

If the answer is no, you're looking at one of two scenarios. Either they don't have the organizational standing to make that introduction, which means they lack the power component of a real champion. Or they're unwilling to spend their political capital on your deal, which means the personal win isn't strong enough to motivate action.

Either way, they aren't a champion.

Test 2: The Risk Test

Has your champion put their reputation on the line for this deal?

Champions advocate. They present your business case in meetings you're not invited to. They argue for budget allocation. They tell their boss, "I've evaluated the options and this is the one we should go with." That's a reputational bet. If the deal goes sideways after close, they own that recommendation.

Ask your rep: "Has [champion name] presented our solution internally to anyone who wasn't already in a meeting with us?" If the rep hesitates or says something vague like "I think they mentioned it," you don't have a champion. You have a coach who likes your product.

Test 3: The Personal Win Test

Can your rep articulate what the champion personally gains if this deal closes?

Not what the company gains. Not "they'll improve their security posture" or "they'll save 200 hours a month." What does the individual person get?

Real answers sound like this: "She's been trying to get headcount for a data team for two years, and our platform eliminates the manual work that's been her justification for not getting it approved. If we close, she can reallocate that budget request toward hiring analysts instead." Or: "He's up for a promotion to VP Ops in Q3, and this project is the centerpiece of his pitch to the COO. He needs a win here."

If the rep can only describe company-level benefits, they haven't done the work to understand their champion's personal motivation. And if the champion doesn't have a personal motivation, they won't fight for you when the deal gets hard. Because every enterprise deal gets hard at some point.

Questions That Expose the Truth in Deal Reviews

I ask five questions in pipeline reviews. The answers tell me within minutes whether the rep has a real champion or is leaning on a friendly contact. Here's each question, and what the answers reveal.

"Who's presenting our business case internally this week?"
Strong answer: "Sarah is presenting the ROI model we built together to the CFO's staff meeting on Thursday. She asked me to update the implementation timeline slide yesterday."
Weak answer: "I sent the deck to Mike and he said he'd share it around."

The strong answer shows co-creation, a specific meeting, a specific audience, and active preparation. The weak answer describes a forwarded email. Forwarded emails don't close deals.

"What does [champion name] personally gain if this closes?"
Strong answer: "She's been stuck managing this process manually for eighteen months and her team is burning out. If we automate it, she frees up two headcount she can redirect to the strategic project her SVP keeps asking about."
Weak answer: "He thinks the product is great and really wants to modernize their stack."

The strong answer is specific, personal, and tied to the person's career trajectory. The weak answer is a product opinion. Product opinions don't survive budget cuts.

"When was the last time they proactively shared internal information with you?"
Strong answer: "Tuesday. She texted me that the procurement team wants to consolidate vendors this quarter, so we should position our multi-product bundle in the next presentation."
Weak answer: "He answers when I reach out, usually within a day or two."

Champions share information before you ask for it. They volunteer intel about internal dynamics, timelines, competitive threats, and political shifts. Coaches and friendly contacts respond when prompted. There's a meaningful difference between someone who feeds you information and someone who answers your questions.

"Have they introduced you to anyone above them?"
Strong answer: "She set up a lunch with the CTO two weeks ago and prepped me on what he cares about beforehand."
Weak answer: "I asked and he said the timing isn't right yet."

"The timing isn't right" is a deflection. A champion who can't or won't introduce you upward is either lacking the access or lacking the conviction. Both are problems.

"What happens to their initiative if they choose a competitor?"
Strong answer: "She said competitor X can't integrate with their data warehouse, which means her team would need to build a custom connector. That delays her project by a quarter, and she told me she can't afford that because the board review is in June."
Weak answer: "He said he prefers us but they're still evaluating options."

A real champion has thought through what happens if you lose, because the outcome affects them directly. "Prefers us" is a preference. Preferences change in enterprise deals. Consequences don't.

When the Champion Leaves (and They Will)

Enterprise deal cycles run multiple quarters. People get promoted, change roles, and leave companies. Your champion will move at some point. If you've single-threaded through one person, the deal doesn't automatically die, but it's on life support.

I've watched this happen more times than I can count. A rep builds an incredible relationship with a director-level champion who's driving the evaluation. Three months in, that director takes a VP role at another company. The rep calls me in a panic. "My champion left."

The question I always ask: "Who else in that account knows your name?"

Multi-threading is champion insurance. If your rep has relationships with three or four people across the buying committee, losing one doesn't kill the deal. Someone inherits the initiative. Someone else remembers the business case. The institutional knowledge doesn't walk out the door with one person.

Three things to do when a champion leaves mid-deal:

  • Identify the successor immediately. Someone inherits the project, the budget, or the problem your champion was solving. Find that person within a week. Your departing champion may tell you who it is if you ask directly.
  • Re-establish the business case. The new stakeholder didn't build the business case with you. They inherited it. They may not understand it, agree with it, or care about it. You're partially starting over. Accept that and move fast.
  • Keep the departing champion close. They're now a potential buyer at their next company. The best salespeople I've worked with have closed deals at a champion's second and third company because they maintained the relationship after the person left.

Building Champion Identification into Your Process

Knowing what a champion looks like is the first step. Making champion identification a consistent, repeatable part of your operating rhythm is what actually moves win rates.

Here's what I've implemented at every team I've run, and what the 102 Enterprise Sales postings in our dataset are implicitly asking for when they list "deal qualification" or "pipeline management" as requirements.

Require a Champion Name in the CRM After Stage 2

If a deal advances past discovery and into a formal evaluation without an identified champion, something is wrong. The rep either hasn't found one, which means the deal is at risk. Or they haven't looked, which means you have a coaching opportunity.

Make the field mandatory. Not optional, not "nice to have." Mandatory. Deals without a named champion after stage 2 should be flagged in your pipeline report and discussed in the next review.

Add a "Last Champion Contact" Date Field

Champions go cold. People get busy, priorities shift, reorgs happen. A champion you spoke with three weeks ago who hasn't responded since is a leading indicator of deal trouble.

Track the date of last substantive contact with the champion. If that date is more than ten business days old on any deal in stages 3 through 5, it shows up in your pipeline review. This simple field has surfaced more at-risk deals for me than any forecasting model.

Flag Champion-less Deals in Pipeline Reviews

Every weekly pipeline review should include a segment specifically focused on champion health. Pull up every deal above a certain threshold, say $50K ACV, and verify the champion. Not just the name in the field. Verify the champion passes the three tests.

This takes ten minutes per deal. Across a pipeline of twenty deals, that's a three-hour investment per week. The return is that you catch champion problems before they become forecast misses.

Score Champion Strength, Not Just Champion Existence

A binary "has champion / no champion" field isn't enough. I use a simple three-tier scoring system: strong, developing, or weak. Strong means they pass all three tests. Developing means they pass one or two but there are gaps. Weak means the rep has named someone but the evidence doesn't support the label.

This scoring feeds directly into forecast confidence. A deal with a strong champion and confirmed decision criteria gets a different commit probability than a deal with a weak champion and vague next steps. Salesforce, which shows up in 180 of the 1,298 postings we track, supports custom fields and validation rules that make this operational at scale.