Qualify Your Prospects Better By Using the CHAMP Framework

Qualification is a crucial stage of the sales process. Sales teams must prioritise their time towards prospects who match the company’s offering and enable the sales team to make profitable business. When qualifying a lead, the sales representative must identify if the prospect has a real need for their solution with a budget and intention to fix that need.

If a salesperson fails to do qualification or discovery correctly, the best case is a prolonged sales process; at worst, there is no deal, and both the salesperson and the company do not reach their targets. A failure at the early stages of the sales process might, for example, lead to a situation where a competing company has identified the main decision-makers and speaks directly to them, supported by a perfectly personalised and customised sales demo. In contrast, your team talks only on a general level to those not calling the shots. A fledging account executive might spend most of his time with companies that cannot make purchasing decisions even during the next fiscal year.

What is CHAMP?

CHAMP is a simple but effective qualification framework that helps sales teams identify and prioritise the most promising opportunities. It focuses on understanding the prospect's challenges, decision-making authority, available budget, and project prioritisation to determine if there's a good fit between the seller's solution and the buyer's needs.

Multiple qualification frameworks exist to help sellers target their efforts correctly. Some are complex and thorough, while others are lighter and more agile, like CHAMP. Because CHAMP is relatively lightweight, it can be used during initial outreach over the phone or as part of the first meeting with the prospect. Thus, both an account executive and SDR can qualify the prospect.

The strength of CHAMP comes from its initial focus on the customer.

The strength of CHAMP comes from its initial focus on the customer. The sales reps start by discussing the potential customer's problems and needs. Beginning with the prospect's interests and needs instead of the sales rep's should increase the likelihood of good-quality sales discussions and higher opportunity win rates.

The Components of the CHAMP Framework

Challenges: What are the challenges the prospect is facing at the moment?

Example questions to ask:

• What are the main challenges you are currently facing (that prompted you to look for a solution like ours)?
• Can you describe a recent situation where these challenges affected your business operations?
• What are the consequences of not addressing these challenges?
• How have you tried to solve these issues in the past?
• What does the ideal solution to these challenges look like for you?

Authority: Who belongs to the decision-making unit in this opportunity?

Example questions to ask:

• Are you the best person to speak with regarding this topic?
• What is your role in the decision-making process?
• Who else in your organisation needs to be involved in the decision-making process for this kind of purchase?
• Can you walk me through your typical decision-making process for a purchase like this?
• Would you prefer to meet with all your colleagues, or would it be easier if I reached out to them independently?

Money: How much of their budget is allocated to solving the challenge?

Example questions to ask:

• What budget has been allocated to solve this problem?
• Do you have a timeline for making the budget for this project available?
• How does this investment fit into your financial planning for the (next) fiscal year?
• Who controls the budget for this department, and how can we get their buy-in?
• What are the financial implications if this issue is not addressed?

Prioritisation: Is solving the challenge essential or urgent?

Example questions to ask:

• How does this project align with your strategic goals for the year?
• How urgent is it to address these challenges?
• What timeline are you looking at for implementation?
• What are the other projects competing for resources right now?
• What could change your priorities in the coming months?

A sales representative's inability to answer some of these questions should be a warning sign. This means the seller does not entirely control the sales opportunity nor manage the stakeholders. The sales representative should follow up to better qualify the prospect.

Note: This article was originally published on April 20, 2024, and has since been edited for clarity.