CHAMP Methodology

Challenges
Your prospect buys things because they have a challenge. If you have a solution for the
challenges that your prospect and their company are facing then you have a real
beginning of an “Opportunity” and some potential to sell to this prospect and account. It
is the first fundamental part of sales qualification so it deserves the first spot in the
modern sales qualification acronym. A challenge is a need and a pain that your
prospect has been dealing with. And you need to solve this challenge with your solution
– only then you will get a sale.

Asking questions early in the selling cycle like, “What are your business’s biggest
challenges that you’re dealing with and how have you been solving them so far?” and
“What are your personal challenges when trying to do your job?” help you gain the
information you need to understand the nature and scope of the opportunity. In the later
stages, these questions help you determine if your product or service represents
the best fit for the defined opportunity.
The best way to gain insight on your prospect’s pain or need (i.e. their challenge) is to
ask them questions and listen carefully to their answers.

Challenge Questions:
 What challenges is your business facing and what problems do you need to solve?

 What is driving your interest in our solution?

 How long have you had this challenge or problem? What made you decide to
solve this problem now?

 What objectives are you looking to achieve by solving this pain?

 What are the likely consequences if the pain is not solved?

The answers to these questions will enable your sales team to determine whether your
product or service is a match for your prospect. You’ll know you’re a match if you
believe your product or service will satisfy the prospect’s needs.

Authority
Authority is not a blocker – it’s a call to action. (Tweet this!)
It is often the most misunderstood step in the lead qualification process. Many sales
reps believe that “Authority” means you should disqualify leads with low-influencing
contacts. NOT the case! “Authority” means you must ask your prospect questions
that help you map out their company’s organizational structure.
It doesn’t matter if the initial contact on the lead has low authority – they can help you
get an idea of who the decision-makers are. Who are the 5 key influencers you need to
get in touch with? Are they the CEO, the CFO, the CMO, VP Sales, a Board member, a
manager? Your prospect has that valuable insight, and you as a sales rep just need to
find out.

Once you know who the decision-makers are, it is your job as a salesperson to reach
them. I recommend reading our blog posts on how to turn low-authority contacts into
customers and how to get past the gatekeeper and reach decision-makers quickly to
learn tips and tactics on reaching high influencers.
Authority Questions:
 Who, in addition to yourself, is involved in making this solution happen at your
company?

 How are purchasing decisions made for products like ours and who is involved in
looking at this solution?

 Who in addition to yourself is the decision maker with most clout? And next to that
person, who is the next person? How important is it that they be on board with the
decision?

 What concerns do you think they may have? If they have any potential concerns,
how do you think we should handle them?
  Would it make sense for us to schedule a call together with them to answer any
potential questions they may have?

 Are you comfortable, perhaps prior to our next meeting, if I call (Name of Decision-
maker / Influencer) to have a brief conversation? My experience has been that
while everyone in the organization is pretty aligned on the needs, typically
everyone has got a little bit of a different perspective as to what they are looking
for in a solution like this. That way everyone will have input in this. And, by the
way, if I get a different perspective from him/her, would you mind if I give you a
call? What I hope is that you all have a consensus as to what the solution should
look like for our next meeting. Fair enough?

Money
Money is a critical factor in any buying decision. If your prospect can’t afford your
product or service, you won’t be able to sell to them. Once you’ve qualified their
challenges and needs, it is time to find out their expectations for the investment they’ll
need to make to fulfill these needs. Have they set aside a budget to solve this
challenge? If they don’t have the funds now, will they in the future? What else are they
spending money on? Now is also a good time to mention the typical ROI for your
product or service to remind them why the investment is worth it.

Money Questions:
 What are your expectations for the investment necessary to purchase the
solution?

 Do you have a portion of your budget allocated to this?

 Is your finance team or CFO involved in approving this? (Note: While this can
come off as an “Authority” type of qualifying question, it is equally indicative of how
the budget approval process works at the company depending on the prospect’s
answer)
  What is your typical budget allocation process from when you need to invest in a
solution like this that was outside of the original budget?

 When do you plan to ask for budget allocation for this investment?

Prioritization
BANT calls this “Timing”. And timeline is a function of prioritization. When a prospect
says they need to solve this problem by their next board meeting in 2 weeks, what
they’re really saying is “this is a top priority.” So ask your prospect: how important is
solving this problem relative to other priorities? What date or event is their priority
attached to (end of month, end of quarter, by a certain event)? Is it a top priority for Q2,
or is it a goal they want to solve at some point before the end of the fiscal year? If they
don’t need a solution until the end of 2014, that means it is in a queue of other priorities.
Find out what they are to get an idea of your prospect’s business plan.

Prioritization Questions:
 Do you currently have a contract? If so, when is it due for renewal? Is there a
cancellation fee?

 When were you planning on starting the implementation?

 So when is the latest when you would want to make a decision? So you wanna
have a decision made no later than 2 months. And ideally, when would prefer to
get this done?

 So what’s a realistic kind of timeframe that we should be targeting here? When

would you like to have have the problem solved?

 How important is this to you and where does this stack up in terms of priority an
d urgency? What are some of the other priorities now?

 Do you have the time and bandwidth to begin implementation now?

  Would you like to hear about how other people I’ve worked with have implemented
plans like these? (If they are interested then it indicates that this is important and
high on the list of priority and timeline)

Prioritization can also be related to how you are ranked relative to your competition.
Here are questions that will help you find out:

 Are you looking at or evaluating any other similar solutions to help you solve the
problem?

 Where do we stack up in terms of functionality and pricing when compared to

these other solutions you’ve been looking at?

 What is your relationship like with your current vendor? (If they have one)

Final thoughts
Asking these CHAMP questions and listening closely is the key to correctly qualifying
your opportunities. If you don’t ask questions with genuine interest while actively
listening, then you will not successfully qualify them.

In addition to CHAMP, you should remember that, to truly move the deal forward, it is
critical to for you to understand the “D” or Decision Process (or Buying Process) and “C”
or Competition (note that competition to you maybe simply “status quo” or
“complacency” in which case there is a possibility that you haven’t really gone through
the “Challenges” discovery as well as you could have).

Also, don’t forget that after you go through your CHAMP list and qualify, you should
always have next steps. Here are a few last questions that will help you with that:

 Do you have a calendar and what is the best date and time to schedule our next
meeting?

 Ideally, what would be the focus of our next meeting?

  What would be the best way to get to you everything that you may need such as
customer references and other information about the solution as a right fit for you
and so you feel comfortable making the decision in the timeframe that you
mentioned?

If you take anything away from this article, it is that discovering your prospects’
challenges and needs should take priority over any other qualification questions. And
the other questions, when they flow in the right order, will help each one of your reps to
become a Champ if they use the CHAMP methodology!