The meeting you're not in is the one that determines everything. I've seen this failure mode repeatedly in foodtech commercialisation - the champion loves the science but can't sell it to procurement when the room goes cold.
What you've named the 'fear question' is the one I now bake into every partnership brief before anyone shakes hands.
True, decisions are social before rational. It’s not so much about being in the room but enabling your champion to navigate politics safely and effectively.
Exactly, you need to de-risk the situation for the champion. Otherwise, they're not going to put their career on the line for a random vendor that doesn't really matter to them. They need to feel bulletproof when recommending your product.
Nearly 10 years and engaging with every nearly every e-commerce player in India, primarily for sales, and hundreds of retail brands makes the experience quite varied. To summarize, and that too to massively, what works for me eventually, and did not work for me in my earlier days, were the CXO relationships that I cultivated.
I’ve celebrated “great meetings” that quietly died the same way.
The idea that deals don’t die in the room, but in the meeting you’re not in reframes a lot of past losses for me. Especially the part about champions not fighting for you; they fight for themselves.
the reality: the real job isn’t impressing people, it’s giving them the confidence (and cover) to defend the decision when you’re gone.
In large enterprise deals, people often stick with the current vendor because changing feels risky. If something goes wrong, their career takes the hit. That means asking a champion to fight for you internally is a high risk ask. Your use case has to be rock solid, and they need to believe this decision will help their career, not put it on the line.
Great article. I've spent almost a year working on a potential deal , just to find out - after my champion was fired - that he has never defended or formally brought the deal to his board. He wanted to test if the idea would be informally accepted , so he would present it as his own idea, and only then bring us onboard to implement 'his idea'.
A year. That's brutal. And it proves the point. He wasn't your champion. You were his test case. If it worked, it was his idea. If it flopped, you never existed.
A sharp reminder that in B2B sales, deals rarely die in the room you’re pitching. They die in the unseen meetings, making it crucial to arm your champion with clarity, proof, and answers to fear questions
That disconnect is exactly it. Liking is free. Championing costs something. The nodding room is the most dangerous place to be. Feels like progress, but nothing's actually moving.
The meeting you're not in is the one that determines everything. I've seen this failure mode repeatedly in foodtech commercialisation - the champion loves the science but can't sell it to procurement when the room goes cold.
What you've named the 'fear question' is the one I now bake into every partnership brief before anyone shakes hands.
True, decisions are social before rational. It’s not so much about being in the room but enabling your champion to navigate politics safely and effectively.
Exactly, you need to de-risk the situation for the champion. Otherwise, they're not going to put their career on the line for a random vendor that doesn't really matter to them. They need to feel bulletproof when recommending your product.
Random corporate executive: "Should I coast and stay quiet, or should I fight for this guy who nobody has heard of before?"
You know what the most common answer is...
and many senior sales execs get upset when this random corporate executive decides not to fight for their random product internally.
Great article, Martin! I have seen this happen so many times and yet, it is hardly ever spoken about.
Appreciate that. It's the quiet killer. Easier to blame something else than admit you never armed your champion. What was your experience?
Nearly 10 years and engaging with every nearly every e-commerce player in India, primarily for sales, and hundreds of retail brands makes the experience quite varied. To summarize, and that too to massively, what works for me eventually, and did not work for me in my earlier days, were the CXO relationships that I cultivated.
I’ve celebrated “great meetings” that quietly died the same way.
The idea that deals don’t die in the room, but in the meeting you’re not in reframes a lot of past losses for me. Especially the part about champions not fighting for you; they fight for themselves.
the reality: the real job isn’t impressing people, it’s giving them the confidence (and cover) to defend the decision when you’re gone.
In large enterprise deals, people often stick with the current vendor because changing feels risky. If something goes wrong, their career takes the hit. That means asking a champion to fight for you internally is a high risk ask. Your use case has to be rock solid, and they need to believe this decision will help their career, not put it on the line.
Great article. I've spent almost a year working on a potential deal , just to find out - after my champion was fired - that he has never defended or formally brought the deal to his board. He wanted to test if the idea would be informally accepted , so he would present it as his own idea, and only then bring us onboard to implement 'his idea'.
A year. That's brutal. And it proves the point. He wasn't your champion. You were his test case. If it worked, it was his idea. If it flopped, you never existed.
I’ve seen it many times; from both sides of the fence.
did you ever lose an opportunity you were sure you won?
It's why I hate sales and love marketing. There's so much time wasted on outbound activites that could have been spent on inbound results.
Totally get that. Though even the best inbound lead can die in the meeting after yours. The internal sale doesn't care how they found you.
A sharp reminder that in B2B sales, deals rarely die in the room you’re pitching. They die in the unseen meetings, making it crucial to arm your champion with clarity, proof, and answers to fear questions
That disconnect is exactly it. Liking is free. Championing costs something. The nodding room is the most dangerous place to be. Feels like progress, but nothing's actually moving.