How to Use your Champion and Economic Buyer to Unblock Legal and Procurement.

The deal has stalled inside the buyer's organisation - security is slow, legal is redlining endlessly, or procurement has gone quiet - and you have no direct access to the people causing the delay.

You cannot email the buyer's InfoSec team directly. You cannot push their legal counsel to prioritise your MSA. The only people who can do that are inside the organisation. Your champion is your internal project manager for the paper process. Your economic buyer is your escalation path when functions drag. If you have not set up those roles explicitly before the deal enters procurement, you will spend weeks chasing updates instead of removing blockers.

Where it goes wrong

Without a champion who owns the internal process and an EB who has agreed to unblock delays, every stall becomes invisible to you. You hear 'legal is still reviewing' for three weeks running. You have no idea whether that means two more days or two more months. Meanwhile your forecast date is fiction and your manager is asking for answers you do not have.

What you'll be able to do

You can set up your champion to own the internal paper process and your economic buyer as a pre-agreed escalation path, so a legal, security or procurement stall becomes visible and movable instead of a silent delay you can only chase.

How to do it

Before the deal enters paper process, have an explicit

Before the deal enters paper process, have an explicit conversation with your champion: 'I want to make sure this lands on time. Can you own the internal coordination - keeping security, legal, and procurement moving - and flag me when something is blocked?' Get a yes or a no. A reluctant yes tells you something important.

Arm your champion with what they need to manage

Arm your champion with what they need to manage internally: a short value brief covering the problem, the metric, and the strategic priority; a one-page FAQ for security and legal covering your data handling, certifications, and standard clause positions; and a copy of the MAP with their name on it.

Agree with the economic buyer on the go-live date

Agree with the economic buyer on the go-live date and what a slip costs the business. Then ask directly: 'If security or legal timelines start threatening that date, are you comfortable stepping in to prioritise?' Get that commitment before you need it.

When a function stalls, go to your champion first

When a function stalls, go to your champion first with a specific ask, not a vague update request. 'Security has had the questionnaire for twelve days. The SLA we agreed was ten. Can you check with your InfoSec lead today and find out what is blocking them?'

If the champion cannot unblock it, bring the EB

If the champion cannot unblock it, bring the EB in with context, not complaint. 'We are at risk of missing the go-live date you and I agreed on. Legal has been in review for three weeks. I think a note from you to your legal lead would move this in the next forty-eight hours. Would you be willing to do that?'

See the difference

You can set up your champion to own the internal paper process and your economic buyer as a pre-agreed escalation path, so a legal, security or procurement stal

How you'll know it's working

You have got it when your champion can tell you, without prompting, where each paper process step stands and what they are doing to move it - and when your EB has already agreed, on record, to step in if a function stalls.

Questions people ask