Whether you’re a sales manager or a sales leader, the goal is always to generate revenue through selling your product or service. In order to do this effectively, it’s essential to make sure that you have the right people in place who will help you close more deals.
CHAMP is one of the lead qualification frameworks that will help you do that.
Here’s how!
What Is The CHAMP?
The CHAMP lead qualification framework is a simple, straightforward, and systematic process of qualifying leads that determines whether you should move forward with the sale. It allows you to focus on the more likely prospects among all your inquiries.
CHAMP is an acronym of Challenges, Power, Money, and Prioritization.
It is very similar to BANT in that each CHAMP phase is reversed (more or less) into the BANT phase. There are two crucial differences, however.
Challenges Precede The Budget
Focusing on the challenges rather than the budget will help you better identify a prospect and identify unique opportunities to reduce their problems with your product or service.
When a prospect understands exactly how your offering can improve their lives and help them overcome their problems, the budget is far less than a bottleneck.
If you started on a budget, you might have skipped it because you sold it for the price and refused to give up a number.
Timing is Only Part of The Prioritization
Knowing the expected timeframe of potential customers is helpful, but knowing your solution’s real priorities and the right place will help you develop and execute a realistic business plan.
Moreover, this will help you understand how your product fits into the business process.
The CHAMP Framework
Let’s go through CHAMP one step at a time.
CHallenges
Critical thinkers see obstacles as opportunities, which salespeople are no exception to.
With the CHAMP framework, the salespeople can focus on helping potential customers, identify their most challenging problems, and create opportunities.
This method helps sellers with basic skills, gives them solution-oriented artillery, and makes selling to a potential customer easier.
Power
When using the CHAMP framework, it is essential to speak to someone qualified to make purchasing decisions.
You know the time and effort it takes to close the deal, and if you forward it to the wrong person, you’ll have to repeat the process.
However, accept low-penetration connections. They may not be able to complete a purchase, but they can almost certainly give you information about the company’s business and the people you need to contact.
Money
Money is a delicate topic, and it’s no different from sales.
While the BANT framework starts with the budget, which may be inappropriate for some, the CHAMP framework allows sales professionals to facilitate monetary dialogue.
This method allows sellers to first research potential customers’ problems and then show how their product or service solves the problem.
The money step is all about determining the budget available and when it will be available. Also, to show the return on investment of your product or service.
Prioritization
Prioritization requires planning.
This shows how business goals can often affect departmental goals, even when departmental goals seem to be a top priority.
The second point to consider is whether there is a time limit on the program, e.g., the end of the quarter, the end of the year, or anything else the company is working on. This also determines the urgency of the customers.
Common Question using CHAMP to Qualify Leads
CHallenges
In this phase, you can ask the following questions:
- Tell me about the problems your organization is facing.
- Tell me about the top issues that you need to address.
- How long have you struggled with this problem, and why are you looking for a solution now?
- When you face this challenge now, what will your company look like?
Authority
When you reach the appropriate authority, you can ask them the following questions:
- How are shopping opportunities determined in your company, especially for products/services like ours?
- Who else should be involved in your organization to make your solution a reality?
- What are your problems, and how can we best solve them?
- Can you call us to speak, or would you like me to schedule a group meeting with you to understand your needs?
Money
As you enter this CHAMP level, consider the following questions:
- What is the fund allocated for the solution?
- When do you plan to invest?
- Who should participate in the purchase confirmation process?
- What is the standard procedure for obtaining approval for investments beyond the initial budget?
Prioritization
In the prioritization step, you should ask the following questions:
- When do you want to solve this problem?
- How does this relate to the priorities of the department/company?
- When does your current solution expire? Will you be charged any fees if you cancel?
- When do you plan to implement this solution? Are you now looking for other alternatives to this problem?
Wrap Up!
The CHAMP sales framework is a powerful tool in your sales arsenal, not only because it works but also because the term itself is complementary.
Using the CHAMP framework, you can follow a process that will help you overcome challenges and achieve your budget.
By defining and breaking down your goals into smaller components, defining challenges to overcome those obstacles, executing an action plan to overcome those challenges, and finally monitoring progress against those objectives, you can successfully reap the rewards.
