Your largest customer account has 50 users. Three of them love your product. The other 47 are indifferent. When renewal time comes, those three champions will fight for you—if you've identified and supported them.
Most companies don't know who their champions are within customer accounts. They treat all users equally, missing the opportunity to activate the passionate users who would gladly advocate internally.
This is the champion identification problem: power users and advocates exist in your customer base, but you don't know who they are or how to empower them.
After building champion programs at multiple B2B companies, I've learned: companies that systematically identify and activate champions achieve 25-35% higher retention and 40-50% more expansion revenue than companies with unidentified, unsupported champions.
Here's how to find and activate your internal champions.
Why Champions Matter
The champion advantage:
Champions drive adoption:
- Onboard new teammates
- Share best practices internally
- Train colleagues
- Build internal documentation
Champions drive retention:
- Defend renewal during budget discussions
- Advocate during competitive evaluations
- Navigate procurement and approvals
- Build internal business cases
Champions drive expansion:
- Evangelize to other departments
- Request features that enable expansion
- Pull in budget for upgrades
- Recommend to colleagues at other companies
The business impact:
Accounts with identified champions:
- Renew at 90-95% rates (vs. 75-85% without)
- Expand 2-3x more
- Provide 5x more advocacy actions
- Require 50% less CSM intervention
The Champion Identification Framework
Champion Signal 1: Product Usage Intensity
Indicators:
- Daily active user
- Uses product for 20+ hours/week
- Explores advanced features
- Adopted multiple product areas
- Early adopter of new features
How to identify: Query product analytics for:
- Users in top 10% of session frequency
- Users in top 10% of total time spent
- Users who've adopted 5+ features
- Users who test beta features
Champion Signal 2: Community Engagement
Indicators:
- Active in community forum
- Answers questions from others
- Shares tips and best practices
- Attends user events
- Participates in webinars
How to identify: Check community platforms for:
- Most active contributors
- Most helpful answers
- Highest engagement scores
- Event attendance records
Champion Signal 3: Advocacy Actions
Indicators:
- Provided testimonials or reviews
- Participated in case studies
- Served as reference customer
- Referred colleagues
- Shared success on social media
How to identify: Review customer advocacy database:
- Reference customer list
- Review contributors
- Case study participants
- Referral sources
Champion Signal 4: Positive Sentiment
Indicators:
- High NPS scores (9-10)
- Positive support interactions
- Enthusiastic CSM conversations
- Glowing feedback
- Unprompted praise
How to identify: Analyze sentiment across:
- NPS responses
- Support ticket tone
- CSM conversation notes
- Email communications
Champion Signal 5: Internal Influence
Indicators:
- Invites teammates to product
- Runs internal training
- Creates internal documentation
- Mentioned as "product expert" by colleagues
- Budget/decision-making authority
How to identify: Look for users who:
- Invited 3+ teammates
- Have job titles suggesting authority
- Are referenced by colleagues
- Appear in multiple stakeholder meetings
The Champion Scoring Model
Build composite champion score (0-100):
Product usage (30 points):
- Daily active: 10 points
- Top 10% time spent: 10 points
- 5+ features adopted: 10 points
Community engagement (20 points):
- Active in community: 10 points
- Helps others: 10 points
Advocacy actions (25 points):
- Provided testimonial/review: 10 points
- Reference customer: 15 points
Positive sentiment (15 points):
- NPS 9-10: 10 points
- Positive support sentiment: 5 points
Internal influence (10 points):
- Invited teammates: 5 points
- Authority title: 5 points
Champion tiers:
Tier 1: Active Champions (70-100 points)
- Multiple signals present
- High engagement across dimensions
- Clear advocacy behavior
Tier 2: Potential Champions (50-69 points)
- Strong product usage
- Some advocacy signals
- Could be activated with support
Tier 3: Emerging Champions (30-49 points)
- Good usage patterns
- Positive sentiment
- Early in champion journey
The Champion Activation Strategy
For Tier 1: Active Champions
Goal: Deepen relationship and maximize advocacy
Tactics:
Exclusive access:
- Early beta access to new features
- Direct line to product team
- Advance notice of roadmap
- Private champion community
Recognition:
- Champion badge/status
- Featured in customer spotlights
- Speaking opportunities
- LinkedIn recommendations
Empowerment:
- Internal advocacy toolkit
- Data/insights to build business cases
- Executive sponsorship connections
- Co-marketing opportunities
Ask frequency: Monthly - they're engaged and want to help
For Tier 2: Potential Champions
Goal: Activate latent advocacy potential
Tactics:
Engagement opportunities:
- Invite to webinars and events
- Offer advanced training
- Solicit product feedback
- Include in beta programs
Support:
- CSM check-ins
- Success planning sessions
- Resource access
- Community introductions
Recognition:
- Acknowledge their expertise
- Feature success stories
- Peer connections
Ask frequency: Quarterly - building relationship
For Tier 3: Emerging Champions
Goal: Develop into active champions over time
Tactics:
Education:
- Advanced training offers
- Feature adoption campaigns
- Best practice content
- Power user tips
Community:
- Community invitations
- Peer learning opportunities
- Success story exposure
Relationship building:
- Regular CSM engagement
- Gather feedback
- Understand goals
Ask frequency: Biannually - too early for heavy asks
The Champion Enablement Program
What champions need from you:
Enablement 1: Internal advocacy toolkit
Provide:
- ROI calculators with their data
- Slides for internal presentations
- Success metrics and benchmarks
- Competitive positioning materials
- Executive summary one-pagers
Purpose: Make it easy to advocate internally
Enablement 2: Product expertise development
Provide:
- Advanced training and certification
- Product roadmap previews
- Direct access to product team
- Beta feature access
- Power user documentation
Purpose: Maintain their expert status
Enablement 3: Executive connections
Provide:
- Executive Business Reviews
- Strategic planning sessions
- Executive sponsor relationships
- Board-level conversations
Purpose: Give them air cover and support
Enablement 4: Career development
Provide:
- Speaking opportunities (conferences, webinars)
- Thought leadership platform (blog, LinkedIn)
- Professional networking
- Skills development
- Resume/portfolio building
Purpose: Make championing you good for their career
Enablement 5: Peer network
Provide:
- Private champion community
- Peer learning sessions
- Customer advisory board
- Exclusive events
Purpose: Connect them with like-minded champions
The Champion Communication Strategy
Monthly champion newsletter:
- Product updates champions should know
- Beta opportunities
- Speaking/content opportunities
- Champion spotlights
- Exclusive insights
Quarterly champion events:
- Virtual roundtables
- AMAs with product/exec team
- Advanced training sessions
- Networking opportunities
Annual champion summit:
- In-person gathering
- Product roadmap previews
- Networking and celebration
- Recognition and awards
1:1 touchpoints:
- CSM quarterly check-ins
- Thank you for advocacy actions
- Milestone celebrations
- Birthday/work anniversary recognition
The Champion Metrics
Identification metrics:
- Champions identified per 100 customers
- Champion tier distribution
- New champions identified monthly
- Champion score trends
Activation metrics:
- % of identified champions actively engaged
- Advocacy actions per champion
- Champion program participation rates
- Champion satisfaction scores
Business impact:
- Retention rate: Champion accounts vs. non-champion
- Expansion rate: Champion accounts vs. non-champion
- Advocacy pipeline from champions
- Internal adoption driven by champions
Benchmarks:
- 10-20% of users are potential champions
- 3-5% are active champions
- Champion accounts retain 25-35% better
- Champions provide 5x more advocacy actions
Common Champion Program Mistakes
Mistake 1: No systematic identification
Relying on gut feel or anecdotal observations. Use data to identify systematically.
Mistake 2: Not differentiating champions
Treating all customers equally. Champions deserve special treatment.
Mistake 3: Over-asking
Burning out champions with constant requests. Respect their time and give value back.
Mistake 4: No recognition
Champions who feel unappreciated stop championing. Recognize and reward.
Mistake 5: Only activating for advocacy
Champions want to influence product and feel heard. Don't just use them for references.
Mistake 6: Forgetting new champions
Only focusing on existing champions. Continuously identify and develop new ones.
The Reality
Champions exist in your customer base right now. They're using your product daily, loving it, and would gladly advocate—if you identified them and gave them tools and recognition.
Build the scoring model. Segment by tier. Activate appropriately. Provide value. Measure impact.
That's how champion programs become retention and advocacy engines.