How to Use your Champion to Reach the Economic Buyer.
You have a strong internal contact who likes your solution, but the person who owns the budget has not been in the room yet.
A champion who believes in you is valuable, but they cannot approve the deal. The economic buyer can stop a purchase with one word, even after months of work. Getting to that person through your champion - rather than around them - is faster, warmer, and far less likely to backfire. The champion knows the buyer's priorities, their language, and the right moment to make an introduction.
Where it goes wrong
Deals that never reach the budget owner stall at procurement or die quietly. The champion says 'I'll handle it internally' and then goes silent. You find out late that someone senior had concerns you never got to address.
What you'll be able to do
The AE can ask a champion for a specific, purposeful introduction to the economic buyer without making it feel like a sales escalation.
How to do it
Validate the champion's read first
Validate the champion's read first. Ask who owns the budget for this initiative and who typically signs off. Confirm your champion is not also the buyer before you ask for an intro.
Frame the intro around the buyer's priorities, not your
Frame the intro around the buyer's priorities, not your product. Tell your champion the two or three business numbers you want to share - cost, risk, revenue impact - and ask if those match what the buyer cares about.
Make the ask specific and low-pressure
Make the ask specific and low-pressure. Ask for a 15-minute conversation, not a full presentation. Give your champion a sentence they can use to set it up.
Offer to help your champion look good
Offer to help your champion look good. Position the intro as something that gives the champion visibility on a business problem, not as you going over their head.
See the difference
Rep to champion: 'Is there any way to get me in front of your CFO? I'd love to show her the full platform.'
Rep to champion: 'Based on what you've shared, the cost of the current process looks like it's running around $400k a year in manual work. Would you be open to introducing me to whoever owns that budget? I'd keep it to 15 minutes and focus on those two or three numbers - nothing product-heavy.'
The AE can ask a champion for a specific, purposeful introduction to the economic buyer without making it feel like a sales escalation.
How you'll know it's working
You have got it when your champion sends an introduction on your behalf and the economic buyer agrees to a short, agenda-led conversation - not a demo.
Questions people ask
How do you use your champion to reach the economic buyer?
A champion who believes in you is valuable, but they cannot approve the deal. The economic buyer can stop a purchase with one word, even after months of work. The AE can ask a champion for a specific, purposeful introduction to the economic buyer without making it feel like a sales escalation.
What is the most common mistake to avoid?
Deals that never reach the budget owner stall at procurement or die quietly. The champion says 'I'll handle it internally' and then goes silent.
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