Strategies for Identifying Champions in B2B Accounts

Emma Hanevelt · 2025-08-01 21:11:14.753822+00

Hey all! I'm currently prioritizing ways to identify champions in our b2b accounts, specifically our targeted or key accounts. Has anyone had any success identifying champions and inviting them to your advocacy programs? If so, what channels or campaigns have you found most successful. Thanks!

Strategies for Identifying Champions in B2B Accounts | CMAweekly Customer Marketing and Advocacy Slack

9 comments

· Sorted by Oldest

Perri Chaikof
·
i have a few indicators:
positive NPS score (sent out regularly by our CS team)
renewal/expansion deal closes - I like to build on momentum, someone buying more of our product is definitely happy with us!
I rely on laudable to identify positive quotes in our recorded calls, and I follow up with the speakers
Erin Koerpel
·
I frequently partner with Customer Success and Sales to identify champions. Often times Sales will have worked with the decision makers (higher title) on the account, while CS can identify power-users who know the product well.
Amy Ng
·
Events are a great channel for recruitment since folks who have invested time and money to attend your annual conference are likely to be big fans of your brand too. If you create a recruitment 'kit' for events (e.g. slideware, handouts, talking points, booth, signage, etc.) you can typically recycle it for regional or even third-party events to get the most bang for your buck
💡1
Emma Hanevelt
·
Thanks everyone for the help! These are great ideas.
🙌1
Amy Ng
·
Let us know how it goes for you Emma Hanevelt! To Erin Koerpel’s point above, internal nominations can be a great way to start—if there's a way to have a 'nominate' button / form set up where your teams operate day-to-day (e.g. Sales in Salesforce, CSMs in Gainsight) that could make it easy for other teams to help you.
Emma Hanevelt
·
Another great idea! Our biggest struggle is that traditionally, our CSMs don't know who our "champions" are, as their contact is someone in IT or procurement, not necessarily the end or superuser. We also find that we want to find champions across different departments. For instance, CX signs the deal, but we want a champion in marketing to help with expansion and advocacy.
Amy Ng
·
Hmm if you're looking for end or super users, is there a way to track product usage inside your product (could be through in-app analytics or an add-on like Pendo)?
Erin Koerpel
·
Great point Emma Hanevelt. Amy-That was my next thought too, is if product (or another relevant team) can you help identify users who are in your product regularly. Another avenue to pursue could be looking at user feedback in the form of NPS surveys or external review sites (though you may or may not get enough identifying information to determine who the user is). We sometimes source references from G2, users that have left a G2 review and selected the option to be a reference. Not sure if that's only available with the paid version.
Emma Hanevelt
·
Thanks, both! I don't believe we use Pendo, but we can work with our data scientists team to identify power users.
🙌1

Perri Chaikof
·
i have a few indicators:
positive NPS score (sent out regularly by our CS team)
renewal/expansion deal closes - I like to build on momentum, someone buying more of our product is definitely happy with us!
I rely on laudable to identify positive quotes in our recorded calls, and I follow up with the speakers
Erin Koerpel
·
I frequently partner with Customer Success and Sales to identify champions. Often times Sales will have worked with the decision makers (higher title) on the account, while CS can identify power-users who know the product well.
Amy Ng
·
Events are a great channel for recruitment since folks who have invested time and money to attend your annual conference are likely to be big fans of your brand too. If you create a recruitment 'kit' for events (e.g. slideware, handouts, talking points, booth, signage, etc.) you can typically recycle it for regional or even third-party events to get the most bang for your buck
💡1
Emma Hanevelt
·
Thanks everyone for the help! These are great ideas.
🙌1
Amy Ng
·
Let us know how it goes for you Emma Hanevelt! To Erin Koerpel’s point above, internal nominations can be a great way to start—if there's a way to have a 'nominate' button / form set up where your teams operate day-to-day (e.g. Sales in Salesforce, CSMs in Gainsight) that could make it easy for other teams to help you.
Emma Hanevelt
·
Another great idea! Our biggest struggle is that traditionally, our CSMs don't know who our "champions" are, as their contact is someone in IT or procurement, not necessarily the end or superuser. We also find that we want to find champions across different departments. For instance, CX signs the deal, but we want a champion in marketing to help with expansion and advocacy.
Amy Ng
·
Hmm if you're looking for end or super users, is there a way to track product usage inside your product (could be through in-app analytics or an add-on like Pendo)?
Erin Koerpel
·
Great point Emma Hanevelt. Amy-That was my next thought too, is if product (or another relevant team) can you help identify users who are in your product regularly. Another avenue to pursue could be looking at user feedback in the form of NPS surveys or external review sites (though you may or may not get enough identifying information to determine who the user is). We sometimes source references from G2, users that have left a G2 review and selected the option to be a reference. Not sure if that's only available with the paid version.
Emma Hanevelt
·
Thanks, both! I don't believe we use Pendo, but we can work with our data scientists team to identify power users.
🙌1