What is Champion Tracking in B2B Sales?

Picture this: Your star champion at a major client just landed a C-suite position at a Fortune 500 company. Would you know about it? In today's B2B landscape, where relationships make or break deals, missing such career moves isn't just a missed opportunity—it's leaving money on the table. Enter customer champion tracking, the game-changing strategy that's revolutionizing how B2B sales teams turn relationships into revenue.

With over 50% of professionals considering job changes in 2024, the traditional approach of blindly monitoring your entire CRM for role changes is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Smart B2B teams are getting laser-focused through champion tracking—a strategic approach that zeros in on your most valuable advocates.

In this comprehensive guide, we'll unlock the secrets of customer champion tracking and reveal why it's becoming the cornerstone of successful B2B sales strategies.

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What is Customer Champion Tracking in B2B Sales?

Champion tracking in B2B sales is the strategic process of identifying, engaging, and monitoring key individuals, known as Sales Champions, that actively advocate for your product or service within the organization. These Champions capitalize their influence and trust to facilitate smoother communication, overcome internal objections, and push the deal forward.

How To Start Champion Tracking?

Champion tracking is a strategic approach to building and maintaining relationships with influential advocates who can drive sales success. Here’s how to get started:

1. Identify Key Advocates: Use tools like CRM integrations and champion tracking software to find individuals who demonstrate enthusiasm, influence, and alignment with your solution.
2. Monitor Career Movements: Track job changes, promotions, and organizational shifts to stay connected with your champions as they move through their careers.
3. Engage and Empower: Build trust through genuine engagement and provide champions with resources like case studies or pitch decks to advocate for your product effectively.

Now let’s explore why champion tracking matters in B2B sales and how it transforms deal outcomes.

Why Champion Tracking Matters in B2B Sales?

In B2B sales, where deals often involve multiple stakeholders and complex decision-making processes, building and maintaining strong internal advocacy is critical. Champion tracking ensures you’re capitalizing on the right individuals to move deals forward, mitigate risks, and create lasting partnerships. 

Here’s why champion tracking should be an integral part of your B2B marketing strategy.

1. Strengthening Relationships

Champion tracking helps build and sustain long-term relationships with influential stakeholders. By identifying and nurturing Sales Champions, sales teams can foster trust and collaboration, making Champions more effective advocates for your product or service. 

Tools like Lantern emphasize the importance of maintaining consistent engagement to keep these relationships strong and impactful.

2. Improving Deal Outcomes

Sales Champions are key to driving decisions in your favor, and tracking them ensures their proactive involvement throughout the sales cycle. By staying connected and equipping them with tailored resources, you increase win rates and accelerate deal closures. This approach ensures your solution remains top-of-mind and well-positioned within the organization.

3. Churn Prevention

Customer champion tracking helps mitigate churn risk by maintaining relationships with multiple advocates within an account. When a champion moves roles, tracking their career allows you to reengage and pitch your solution in their new position, preserving the customer connection and business continuity.

4. Bigger Deal Sizes

Deals involving previous champions are 54% larger, as they trust and understand your product’s value. Using customer champion tracking enables you to identify and engage these advocates, presenting opportunities for bigger investments and driving significant revenue growth.

5. Mitigating Risk

Champion tracking helps sales teams identify and address risks early. For example, when a Champion changes roles or leaves the company, tracking tools like Lantern provide real-time updates, allowing teams to adapt quickly and secure a new advocate within the organization. This minimizes disruptions and keeps deals on track.

6. Enhancing Alignment Across Teams

Champion tracking doesn’t just benefit sales; it aligns marketing, customer success, and product teams by centralizing insights about key stakeholders. With everyone working from the same data, organizations can create more cohesive and effective strategies, ensuring Champions receive consistent support at every stage.

7. Driving Sales Velocity

By tracking Champions’ activities and engagement, sales teams can eliminate bottlenecks in the decision-making process. Champions help cut through organizational red tape, and tracking their progress ensures that no opportunities are missed, resulting in faster deal cycles.

8. Building Post-Sale Advocacy

Champion tracking doesn’t stop at closing the deal. By continuing to monitor Champions post-sale, you can strengthen relationships, encourage product adoption, and identify new opportunities for upselling or cross-selling. This helps convert Sales Champions into long-term advocates and partners.

Champion tracking not only accelerates sales cycles but also builds lasting partnerships that drive long-term success. To maximize the impact of champion tracking, using the right tools and technologies is essential. 

Let’s explore the platforms and solutions that make champion tracking seamless and efficient.

Tools and Technologies for Champion Tracking

From CRM integrations to specialized platforms and AI-driven automation, champion tracking tools streamline the process of identifying, engaging, and monitoring sales champions.

1. CRM Integrations

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools can play a vital role in champion tracking by centralizing data and simplifying communication. By integrating champion-related information into CRMs, teams can ensure seamless follow-ups, better visibility into customer relationships, and growth acceleration.

2. Specialized Platforms

Dedicated champion tracking offers unique features like automated champion detection, real-time notifications of career changes, and integrations with existing workflows. Lantern, for instance, not only offers user-friendly interfaces and robust analytics but also drives measurable results—helping sales teams increase win rates by 26.3% and boosting revenue by 9%.

3. Automation and AI

Advanced AI-driven technologies are revolutionizing champion tracking by enhancing accuracy and efficiency. These platforms use machine learning to identify patterns, predict potential champion movements, and automate updates to keep data current and relevant. As noted by Forbes, AI-powered solutions are increasingly essential for staying ahead in competitive industries.

Level Up Your B2B Strategy

In the fast-paced world of B2B sales, customer champion tracking isn't just another tool in your arsenal—it's your secret weapon for sustainable growth. Think about it: while your competitors are blindly navigating organizational hierarchies, you're building and nurturing relationships with the exact people who can champion your success. These champions aren't just decision-makers; they're your advocates, your inside track, and often, your bridge to bigger opportunities.

The numbers speak for themselves: with champions driving 54% larger deal sizes and significantly faster close rates, the impact of strategic champion tracking is undeniable. But perhaps most importantly, it transforms transactional relationships into lasting partnerships that continue to deliver value long after the initial deal closes.

As organizations continue to evolve and professionals increasingly move between roles, the ability to track and maintain these champion relationships becomes not just valuable—it's essential. Tools like Lantern take this strategy to the next level, combining intelligent tracking with actionable insights to help you stay one step ahead of champion movements and capitalize on new opportunities the moment they arise.

Ready to transform your B2B relationships into a powerful engine for growth? Start your champion tracking journey today and discover how staying connected to the right people can accelerate your success in ways you never imagined.

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