The champion can't get you the meeting
They are enthusiastic and cannot get you in front of their boss.
Getting to power fails when a deal stalls below the person who controls the budget. Getting to power affects sellers whose champion is genuinely convinced and cannot carry the case upstairs. PacedRevenue builds the business case that survives a room you are not in, and the motion that reaches the buyer who signs.
What we fix
Your champion is convinced. The person who signs has never heard of you.
This presents as a closing problem and is not one. Conviction formed, but it formed in someone who does not control the budget, and they have been sent upstairs with a product story to defend in a conversation about money. The deal does not lose to a competitor. It stops.
SpansActivatePosition
What this looks like from the inside
Deals stall at the same point
The reason given is vague, and it is the same vague reason every time.
The business case arrives late
You are asked for one late, and you build it late.
The buying group keeps growing
More people join and nobody in it has actually said no.
You've never met the budget holder
You have not spoken to the person whose budget this comes from.
The diagnosis
Conviction formed in the wrong person. Champions are convinced by the product, and economic buyers are convinced by consequence: what this costs, what it returns, and what happens if the decision waits another quarter. A champion handed the product story has to translate it into that language themselves, in a room you are not in, against other people asking for the same money. Most cannot, and the deal stops without ever being lost.
ActivatePosition
What we rebuild
01
We write the case in their language
Written to the economic buyer's accountability rather than the champion's enthusiasm. Cost of inaction, expected return, and what changes on their P&L line.
02
We arm the champion to carry it
The material a champion needs to make the argument without you: numbers they can defend, an answer to the obvious objection, and a reason it is this quarter.
03
We engineer access instead of requesting it
Reaching the economic buyer designed into the deal from the first call rather than asked for once the deal is already stalling.
04
We make multi-threading the default
More than one relationship inside the account, so a single person going quiet is a delay rather than the end.
Where we've done it
7
CxO opportunities, in half as many weeks
Outbound was reaching users rather than the executives who hold the budget. The motion was rebuilt around the economic buyer and the meetings changed shape.
“7 opportunities with CxOs in half as many weeks. The quality is high, exactly what we wanted.”
Mike Newman, Founder, My1LoginIdentity and access management
What changes
| Before | After | |
|---|---|---|
| Conviction | Formed in a champion. | Formed in the person who signs. |
| The case | The product story, retold upstairs. | Cost, return, and the cost of waiting. |
| Access | Requested when the deal stalls. | Engineered from the first call. |
| Threads | One relationship. | Several, so silence is a delay not a death. |
| Forecast | Optimistic and repeatedly wrong. | Based on who has actually been reached. |
Frequently asked questions
Should we go around the champion?
No, and it usually costs you the deal. The aim is to arm the champion and to reach the economic buyer with their help, not instead of them. A champion who feels bypassed stops advocating, and they were the one person inside the account who wanted this to happen.
What if the champion insists they can handle it?
Take them at their word and check what they are carrying. Ask what they will say when the finance question comes, and listen for whether the answer is about your product or about their numbers. If it is about your product, they are about to lose an argument they do not know they are in.
Is this the same as losing to no decision?
They are neighbours. Getting to power is failing to reach the person who decides. No decision is reaching them and watching them choose nothing. The first is an access failure, the second is a conviction failure at the moment of commitment, and the fixes are different.
When is this not the problem?
When you are reaching economic buyers and they are saying no for reasons you can name. That is a positioning or pricing answer rather than an access one, and it is a considerably better position to be in than silence, because a stated objection can be tested and a disappearing champion cannot.
Sources
- Gartner sales survey, May 2025, on buying-team size and conflict. gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025-05-07-gartner-sales-survey-finds-74-percent-of-b2b-buyer-teams-demonstrate-unhealthy-conflict-during-the-decision-process
- Challenger, on indecision rather than competition ending stalled deals. challengerinc.com/losing-to-customer-indecision/
- MEDDICC, on champion, economic buyer and paper process as named roles. meddicc.com/what-is-meddpicc
- Mike Newman, Founder, My1Login. PacedRevenue client case study.
Measure the engine, not the number.
Five gates, multiplied rather than averaged. Four minutes tells you which one is costing you the most.