Pain is an important driver and implication drives urgency.
However there is always an owner with a personal interest to get this pain solved. This personal interest drives the person to collaborate with peers, consultants and vendors to attack the pain as soon as possible.
The goal should be to identify these individuals. Even if they don’t carry the official management head, they can be spotted as they are well accepted by their peers, are very influential and usually have a good track-record of successful projects that make them visible in the chain-of-command.
If you once recognised your potential Champions goals, you will be able to develop the relationship by enabling him how to address the pain, i.e. to link them to the subject matter experts of your company, invite him/her to the right seminars or link them together with your references so they can learn from their experience handling projects like his.
Once you’ve built up a real Champion, he will recognise your support and understand that you will be able to help him solving the pain moving forward. It will become a joint effort and your Champion a true defender of the cause, selling on your behalf whenever you’re not around.
Questions to ask?
- Why is this person a champion?
- Has the person influence?
- What is his/her personal interest?
- Will he/her stand up for you and sell for you when you are not there?