Arm Your Champion, an Inbound Marketing Strategy

Of all the roles involved in a complex B2B sale – influencers, subject matter experts, decision-makers, etc. – we recommend that your inbound marketing strategy focuses first on your champion.

We've discussed this before, but the buyer's journey has three stages. First, we have excitement where your version of their future looks better than where they are now or where they can go on their own. Second, it's all about preference where we show that our solution really is uniquely positioned to solve their needs. Finally, we have to build trust where they believe in us and will move forward with a purchase.

But this is a wasted effort if you don't have someone getting excited about what you have to offer. We call them our champion.

Who is your champion?

Where many B2B marketers fail, is in understanding that your champion must be armed to carry your flag to the all important decision-makers.  Our champion is the individual that will gorge themselves on our content in order to gain as much mastery as possible, as quickly as possible.

The decision-maker who our champion is trying to get the attention of, is sometimes referred to as a VITO, very important top officer, and is typically characterized by having little to no free time, while still having a responsibility that is much broader than that of our champion. Think of a VITO as a Vice President, Senior Vice President or Chief X Officer. They care about results; ROI, time to value, lowest TCO, highest market share, etc. Which means we as B2B marketers need to empower our champion!

Are you giving your champion the tools they need?

For your champion to effectively carry your flag, they need tools provided to them that enable them to get permission to move forward with exploring your solutions, in 5 minutes or less. Assets like short pitch decks, battle cards and case studies are good marketing enablement tools to provide your champion to do battle on your behalf.

So saddle up and get cranking on these sales enablement tools. In order to take you buyer from excitement to trust, and ultimately to close, you need to arm them appropriately. Let them fight your battle internally and come out a champion.