Champion Tracker Template
A fill-in tracker for who your internal champion actually is, what they personally gain, what they need from you to sell it upstairs, and when they last went dark — because 'we have a champion' isn't verified until this template is filled in.
What's inside
- Champion name, title, and account/deal field
- Personal-benefit field — what the champion gains if the deal closes
- What-they-need-from-you field — the internal pitch materials the champion requires
- Delivered-internal-pitch tracking field with date
- Internal approval-chain field (who they still need to convince)
- Political-capital rating (Low/Medium/High)
- Last two-way contact date field, defined strictly as their reply, not your outbound
- Trend field (warming/steady/cooling)
- Backup champion field
- Risk-flags field
- A fully filled-in worked example row
Use one row per champion — a deal can and often should have more than one.
The tracker
| Field | Entry |
|---|---|
| Champion name & title | |
| Account / Deal | |
| How they benefit personally if this closes (promotion, quota relief, personal pain solved, political win) | |
| What they need from you to sell it internally (business case, ROI model, reference call, security doc, pricing flexibility) | |
| Have they delivered that internal pitch yet? (Y/N + date) | |
| Who do they need to convince, specifically (name + title)? | |
| Their internal political capital (Low / Medium / High) — have they won an internal argument like this before? | |
| Last two-way contact date (not your last outbound — their last reply) | |
| Trend: warming / steady / cooling | |
| Backup champion identified? (Y/N — name if yes) | |
| Risk flags (role change rumored, reorg pending, competing priority, going quiet pattern) |
Fill-in example (for reference)
| Field | Entry |
|---|---|
| Champion name & title | Priya Shah, Director of Ops |
| Account / Deal | Meridian Health — Ops Platform |
| Personal benefit | Promised a promotion to VP contingent on this efficiency initiative landing |
| What they need from you | ROI model showing headcount-hours saved; one reference call with a healthcare customer |
| Delivered internal pitch? | Y — 07/14, to her VP |
| Who they need to convince | Daniel Ruiz, CFO (budget) and Legal (data handling) |
| Political capital | Medium — has won smaller budget asks before, first time this size |
| Last two-way contact | 07/22 |
| Trend | Steady |
| Backup champion | N — single-threaded, high risk |
| Risk flags | Single-threaded; CFO not yet met directly |
Instructions
- One row per champion, not per deal — a deal with two genuine champions should have two rows.
- Update "last two-way contact" only on replies, never on your own outbound — an unanswered email is not contact.
- Trend is a judgment call, but justify it in one line each time you update it — "steady" without evidence is just optimism restated.
- No backup champion identified is itself a red-flag — cross-reference with the companion Deal Risk Red-Flag Checklist (single-threaded contact).
- Review every entry before a deal review — if you can't fill in "what they need to sell it upstairs," you don't yet have a real champion, you have a friendly contact.
The single most important question this template forces
"What does this person personally get if the deal closes?" If you can't answer it — money, promotion, credit, solved pain, political win — you likely have an information source, not a champion. Downgrade your confidence in the deal accordingly and go find the real one.
How to use it
Add a row for every internal advocate on an active deal, fill in what they personally gain and what they need from you to pitch it upstairs, and revisit the 'last two-way contact' and 'trend' fields weekly to catch a champion going quiet before it costs you the deal.