Coach, Champion, or Economic Buyer? How to Identify the People Who Actually Win Enterprise Deals
- James Purvis
- 6 hours ago
- 13 min read
Several years ago, I wrote two articles about one of the most important—and most misunderstood—elements of enterprise sales: The difference between a Coach and a Champion
The central lesson from my articles on the topic of sales champions still holds true:
If you do not have a Champion, you do not have a deal.
Especially now where enterprise buying has become even more complicated and one champion may not be enough.
Buying groups are larger, more cross-functional, and increasingly supported by digital research and AI.
Forrester reported that an average of 13 people inside an organization now participate in a business buying decision, with 89% of purchases involving at least two departments.
Gartner also found that 74% of B2B buying teams experience unhealthy conflict during the decision process.
That means sellers can no longer focus on one friendly contact and assume the deal is progressing.
You need to understand the different people inside the account, the roles they play, and the evidence required to qualify them correctly.
Three roles are especially important:
The Coach
The Champion
The Economic Buyer
All three can help you win.
But they are not interchangeable.
A Coach helps you understand the deal.
A Champion helps you win the deal.
The Economic Buyer decides whether the deal is worth doing.
Understanding the difference can prevent one of the most common—and costly—forecasting mistakes in enterprise sales: mistaking access and enthusiasm for actual influence and authority.
Why This Matters More Than Ever
Modern buying journeys are rarely linear.
Customers move back and forth between identifying a problem, exploring possible solutions, defining requirements, and selecting a supplier. Multiple stakeholders participate at different stages, often with conflicting priorities and independently gathered information.
One stakeholder may care about security.
Another may care about architecture.
Finance may focus on return on investment.
Procurement may focus on price and terms.
Legal may focus on risk.
An executive may support the outcome but care very little about the underlying technology.
Your job is not simply to identify everyone involved.
It is to understand:
Who provides information
Who influences the decision
Who has authority
Who controls funding
Who will advocate for you internally
Who can stop the deal
Who can move it forward when you are not present
AI can help research stakeholders, summarize public priorities, map likely organizational structures, and prepare better questions.
But AI cannot tell you who truly has power inside a specific decision.
Only evidence from the deal can do that.
What Is a Sales Coach?
A Coach is someone inside the customer’s organization who helps you understand and navigate the account.
A good Coach may provide information about:
The company and its priorities
The competitive landscape
Internal politics
Stakeholder relationships
The decision process
Technical requirements
Objections
Meetings you were not invited to
What people are saying about your solution
Coaches are enormously valuable.
They can help you avoid landmines, prepare for meetings, understand organizational dynamics, and identify potential Champions.
But a Coach does not necessarily have the influence or authority needed to change the outcome.
That is the critical distinction.
A Coach Guides the Seller
A Coach might say:
“Here is what happened in the meeting.”
A Champion says:
“Here is what I did in the meeting to move us forward.”
A Coach may explain who the Economic Buyer is.
A Champion can often get you access to the Economic Buyer.
A Coach may tell you the decision criteria.
A Champion can help shape the decision criteria.
A Coach may like you and want you to win.
A Champion is actively working to make sure you win.
Signs You May Have a Coach
Your contact may be a Coach when they:
Share useful account information
Explain the organizational structure
Help you prepare for important meetings
Warn you about competitors or internal resistance
Provide feedback on your proposal
Have regular time available for you
Understand the technology but not the executive business case
Need approval from others before making commitments
Cannot provide access to powerful stakeholders
Become quiet when senior leaders enter the conversation
None of these characteristics make the person unimportant.
A strong Coach can be one of your most valuable relationships in an account.
The mistake is not having a Coach.
The mistake is labeling that Coach as your Champion and forecasting the deal accordingly.
A Coach moves information. A Champion moves the organization.
What Is a Sales Champion?
A Champion is someone inside the customer’s organization who actively sells on your behalf when you are not there.
That remains the simplest definition.
However, internal advocacy alone does not automatically make someone a Champion.
A person may love your product and speak positively about it but lack the influence required to affect the decision. That person is an advocate, user, or Coach—not necessarily a Champion.
A true Champion must meet three requirements.
The Three Requirements of a Champion
1. They Have Influence
A Champion has credibility with the people who matter.
Others seek their opinion, listen when they speak, and trust their judgment. They understand how decisions are made and can influence the people involved.
Influence is not the same as title.
A vice president may have significant organizational authority but little credibility within a particular buying process.
A respected architect, director, operations leader, or subject-matter expert may have enormous influence without controlling the budget.
The test is not simply:
“How senior are they?”
The better questions are:
Can they influence the Economic Buyer?
Do other stakeholders trust them?
Have they successfully driven major initiatives before?
Can they build consensus across departments?
Can they secure access to people we need?
Can they affect the decision criteria and process?
What happens when they disagree with someone?
A Champion does not need to own the budget.
But they must be capable of influencing the people who do.
2. They Have Something to Win
Champions do not champion your solution because they want to help you hit your quota.
There must be a reason the outcome matters to them.
That motivation can be professional, personal, or both.
Professional wins may include:
Solving a visible business problem
Achieving a strategic objective
Reducing meaningful risk
Improving team performance
Delivering a successful transformation
Establishing credibility with executives
Becoming known as someone who tackles difficult problems
Protecting the organization from failure
Personal wins may include:
Recognition
Career advancement
Increased internal influence
Greater job security
A promotion
Expanded responsibility
Reduced stress or workload
Avoiding personal exposure if the current environment fails
The phrase “personal win” can sometimes sound manipulative, but it should not be treated that way.
A personal win is simply the human reason someone is willing to spend political capital on the initiative.
A Champion takes risk by attaching their name and reputation to your recommendation.
They need a meaningful reason to take that risk.
No personal or professional win means no compelling reason to champion change.
Do not assume you know their motivation based on their title.
Build trust, ask thoughtful questions, and validate it.
Questions might include:
Why is solving this important to you?
What would success mean for your team?
How will leadership measure the outcome?
Who will notice if this initiative succeeds?
What happens to you and your team if nothing changes?
Is this something you want to be known for solving?
3. They Sell for You When You Are Not There
This is the ultimate test.
Enterprise deals are often won or lost in meetings sellers never attend.
Your Champion must be able and willing to:
Explain the business problem
Defend the need for change
Communicate your differentiation
Handle internal objections
Build consensus
Challenge a competitor’s narrative
Reinforce the cost of delay
Sell the business case to executives
Keep the initiative prioritized
Help control the decision process
John McMahon has long emphasized the importance of Champions within disciplined enterprise qualification. MEDDPICC is best viewed as a roadmap for identifying and addressing the risks that can prevent a deal from closing—and a weak or unproven Champion is one of the largest risks.
Your Champion is not simply your contact.
They are your internal salesperson.
What Is the Economic Buyer?
The Economic Buyer is the person with the authority to make the final financial decision.
They can approve the funding, redirect the money, accept the business risk, or stop the purchase.
The Economic Buyer is not always the person who signs the contract.
The signer may have delegated administrative authority.
The Economic Buyer is the person who can ultimately say:
“This is worth the investment. Move forward.”
Or:
“This is not important enough. Stop.”
The Economic Buyer Owns the Business Decision
The Economic Buyer typically evaluates the purchase through an executive lens:
Is the problem important enough to solve?
Is the outcome aligned with our strategy?
Is the financial impact credible?
What happens if we do nothing?
Is this the best use of our resources?
What are the risks of the investment?
Can the organization successfully implement it?
Why should we prioritize this now?
Do I trust the people recommending it?
Your product features may matter indirectly.
But the Economic Buyer usually cares more about:
Business outcomes
Financial impact
Risk
Strategic alignment
Organizational readiness
Time to value
Cost of delay
This is why meeting the Economic Buyer without a business case can be worse than not meeting them at all.
You may gain access but waste the opportunity by presenting information that does not matter at their altitude.
Champion vs. Economic Buyer: How Are They Different?
A Champion and Economic Buyer can occasionally be the same person.
But in many complex deals, they are different stakeholders.
The Champion mobilizes the organization around your solution.
The Economic Buyer determines whether the outcome justifies the investment.
Area | Champion | Economic Buyer |
Primary role | Internal advocate and seller | Final business decision-maker |
Main responsibility | Builds support and drives the deal | Approves or rejects the investment |
Influence | Strong across the buying group | Usually the highest relevant authority |
Budget ownership | May or may not own it | Controls or authorizes it |
Personal risk | Risks credibility and political capital | Owns financial and organizational risk |
Involvement | Often active throughout the process | May enter at key decision points |
Main question | “How do we make this happen?” | “Is this worth doing?” |
Key value | Mobilizes consensus | Authorizes commitment |
The Champion should help you prepare for the Economic Buyer.
They should explain:
What the Economic Buyer cares about
How the Economic Buyer makes decisions
What concerns they are likely to raise
Which metrics will resonate
Who the Economic Buyer trusts
How the initiative should be positioned
When and how access should occur
The Champion provides leverage.
The Economic Buyer provides authorization.
You usually need both.
The Influence and Authority Matrix
One useful way to map potential Champions is to evaluate each stakeholder based on two dimensions:
Influence: Can this person shape opinions and move people?
Authority: Can this person approve decisions or commit resources?
This creates four stakeholder profiles.
NINA: No Influence, No Authority
These contacts may be interested in your solution and can provide useful information, but they cannot materially affect the outcome.
They may become users or supporters, but you should not build your deal strategy around them.
Use these relationships to learn.
Do not mistake activity with them for deal progress.
NIA: No Influence, Authority
These stakeholders have formal authority but limited influence over the broader organization or buying group.
This category is less common but can include leaders who technically own an area yet depend heavily on others for recommendations.
They may be able to approve something but struggle to mobilize people around it.
Formal authority does not always mean organizational influence.
INA: Influence, No Authority
This is where many Champions live.
They may not control the final budget, but they are respected, connected, and capable of shaping the decision.
They can build internal consensus, guide requirements, gain executive access, and make a compelling recommendation.
A person with influence but no authority can be more valuable to the seller than someone with authority but no influence.
IA: Influence and Authority
These are the most powerful stakeholders.
They have both the organizational influence to mobilize support and the authority to make or approve decisions.
The Economic Buyer commonly sits here.
In some deals, an IA stakeholder may also become the Champion. When that happens, the deal can move quickly—but you must still validate their motivation and advocacy.
Do not automatically label every IA person a Champion.
Influence and authority indicate power.
Champion status requires evidence that they are using that power on your behalf.
The Evidence Test: Coach or Champion?
A relationship should be qualified through behavior, not optimism.
Evidence | Coach | Champion |
Provides information about the company and competition | Yes | Yes |
Guides you through the sales process | Yes | Yes |
Has an interest in your winning | Often | Yes |
Has meaningful influence in the company | Maybe | Required |
Gives access to key stakeholders | Sometimes | Yes |
Provides access to the Economic Buyer | Rarely | Yes |
Sells for you when you are not present | Not consistently | Required |
Has formal authority | Maybe | Maybe |
Co-authors the decision criteria | Rarely | Yes |
Provides internal metrics for the business case | Sometimes | Yes |
Helps control the decision process | Rarely | Yes |
Risks political capital for the initiative | Rarely | Yes |
Notice that having authority is not an absolute Champion requirement.
A Champion may have influence without final budget authority.
The non-negotiable requirements are:
Influence
A meaningful win
Active internal selling
Without all three, you may have a useful relationship—but not a fully qualified Champion.
How to Test Whether Your Champion Is Real
Sellers often declare someone a Champion based on friendliness, responsiveness, or product enthusiasm.
Those are encouraging signals.
They are not proof.
A Champion must be tested.
Test 1: Ask for Access
Ask them to arrange a meeting with an important stakeholder or the Economic Buyer.
You are not testing whether the meeting happens instantly. There may be legitimate reasons to delay access.
You are testing how they respond.
Do they:
Understand why access matters?
Help build the strategy?
Explain what must happen first?
Sponsor the meeting when the time is right?
Prepare you for the conversation?
Or do they repeatedly block access without a credible explanation?
A Champion creates access or provides a believable path to it.
Test 2: Share Something That Requires Action
Give the person an internal task:
Gather a metric
Validate the cost of the current state
Confirm the decision process
Review the business case
Map the stakeholders
Socialize a recommendation
Obtain executive feedback
Real Champions act.
Friendly contacts agree.
Test 3: Ask Them to Challenge Your Position
Ask:
“Where is our strategy weak, and what could cause us to lose?”
A Champion provides direct, uncomfortable, useful feedback.
They tell you:
Which stakeholder is unconvinced
What the competitor is saying
Why the business case may not survive
Which objection could kill the project
Where you have lost credibility
What must change
A Coach may also provide this information, but the next test reveals the difference.
Test 4: Observe Whether They Act on the Problem
Do they merely tell you an obstacle exists?
Or do they work with you to overcome it?
Champions do not only report the news.
They help change the news.
Test 5: Watch What Happens When the Deal Gets Hard
Champions reveal themselves when there is resistance.
Pay attention when:
Procurement pushes back
A competitor gains support
The Economic Buyer questions the value
Legal raises concerns
The budget is threatened
The timeline slips
Internal priorities change
Do they remain engaged and fight for the initiative?
Or do they disappear and wait for you to solve everything?
You do not truly know your Champion until their influence and motivation are tested under pressure.
The Modern Reality: One Champion May Not Be Enough
My original writing focused heavily on finding the Champion.
That principle remains important, but today’s buying groups often require a broader network of internal support.
With an average of 13 internal stakeholders involved in business purchases, relying on one person can create significant concentration risk.
The person may:
Leave the company
Change roles
Lose political influence
Become distracted
Get overruled
Stop believing in the initiative
Lack credibility with another department
For complex enterprise deals, consider building a Champion ecosystem.
You may need:
A Business Champion
Connects the solution to business value and executive outcomes.
A Technical Champion
Establishes technical credibility and handles architecture, security, and implementation concerns.
An Operational Champion
Understands how the solution will be adopted and helps prove that the company can successfully implement it.
An Executive Champion
Provides senior sponsorship and protects the initiative when priorities or budgets are challenged.
One person may fill several of these roles.
The point is not to collect as many contacts as possible.
The point is to avoid depending entirely on one relationship in a complex organizational decision.
How AI Can Help—And Where It Cannot
AI can make sellers much better at preparing to navigate an account.
It can help you:
Research stakeholders and their backgrounds
Summarize earnings calls and strategic priorities
Develop an initial organizational map
Identify likely executive motivations
Prepare questions by persona
Analyze meeting transcripts
Surface changes in stakeholder sentiment
Identify missing relationships
Draft a Champion-ready internal business case
Role-play the Economic Buyer
Stress-test your value proposition
For example:
Based on these meeting notes, identify which participants appear to have influence, authority, access to senior leadership, and a personal or professional reason to support the initiative. Separate confirmed evidence from assumptions that still need to be tested.
That is a powerful use of AI.
But sellers must be careful.
AI can help identify patterns in what people say.
It cannot reliably determine:
Who is respected internally
Who controls the real decision
Who has political capital
Who is secretly opposing the project
Who will take action when the seller is not present
Whether the supposed Champion is exaggerating their influence
AI can help you prepare the test.
Only customer behavior can provide the proof.
Common Qualification Mistakes
Mistaking Friendliness for Champion Behavior
Fast responses, personal rapport, event attendance, and product enthusiasm are positive.
They do not prove influence.
Mistaking Title for Authority
A senior title may indicate formal power but not decision authority for your particular initiative.
Always ask how the specific decision is made.
Assuming the Champion Is the Economic Buyer
Your Champion may influence the decision without controlling the funds.
Failing to reach the Economic Buyer leaves a major qualification gap.
Going Around the Champion
Executive access matters, but bypassing a legitimate Champion can damage trust and undermine their internal standing.
Build the access strategy together.
Over-relying on One Person
Multithread the account while preserving a clear primary Champion.
A complex buying group requires broad support, not random activity.
Equipping the Champion With Product Content Instead of a Business Case
Your Champion does not need another 40-slide product deck.
They need a clear internal narrative:
Why change?
Why your approach?
Why now?
What is the measurable impact?
What happens if the company does nothing?
How will the risk of implementation be managed?
Final Thoughts
Coaches, Champions, and Economic Buyers each play an important role in enterprise sales.
A Coach helps you navigate.
A Champion helps you mobilize the organization.
An Economic Buyer authorizes the investment.
The Coach tells you what is happening.
The Champion influences what happens next.
The Economic Buyer decides whether the outcome is worth the cost and risk.
Do not diminish the importance of Coaches. They often provide the insight that allows you to identify and develop a Champion.
But never confuse access, information, or enthusiasm with influence.
And never confuse influence with final authority.
Complex deals are won when sellers build strong relationships with all three roles and correctly understand the value each person provides.
Use Coaches to learn.
Develop Champions to mobilize.
Engage Economic Buyers to confirm the business decision.
And qualify every role through evidence—not hope.
Coaches open doors. Champions create momentum. Economic Buyers make the decision.
The buying process may be more digital, more informed, and more complex than it was six years ago.
But the fundamental truth remains timeless:
No Champion. No deal.
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