CHAMP

What is CHAMP?

CHAMP is a sales qualification framework that evaluates prospects based on four key criteria: Challenges, Authority, Money, and Prioritization. Unlike traditional qualification methodologies like BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline) that lead with budget questions, CHAMP prioritizes understanding the customer's challenges and pain points first, positioning solutions in the context of business problems before discussing budget considerations.

Developed as a more consultative alternative to older qualification frameworks, CHAMP reflects the modern B2B buying process where solutions are often discovered through problem-solving conversations rather than predetermined purchasing decisions. The framework guides sales representatives through discovering what challenges the prospect faces, who has decision-making authority, what financial resources exist to address those challenges, and how urgently the organization prioritizes solving the identified problems. This approach aligns particularly well with B2B SaaS sales where products solve specific business challenges and where value-based pricing requires demonstrating ROI before discussing costs.

CHAMP has gained widespread adoption in consultative and solution-selling environments because it naturally leads to more substantive business conversations. By starting with challenges rather than budget, sales teams avoid the common objection of "we don't have budget" early in conversations before value is established. Instead, the framework helps salespeople demonstrate how their solution addresses critical business challenges, build economic justification with decision-makers, and understand organizational priorities—ultimately leading to better qualification accuracy and higher win rates when opportunities are properly qualified.

Key Takeaways

• Challenges-first approach: CHAMP begins by understanding prospect pain points and business challenges before discussing budget, enabling more consultative, value-focused sales conversations

• Better for solution selling: The framework aligns well with B2B SaaS and complex solution sales where demonstrating value and ROI precedes pricing discussions

• Four qualification criteria: Challenges (problems to solve), Authority (decision-making power), Money (financial capacity), and Prioritization (urgency and importance)

• Alternative to BANT: CHAMP addresses BANT's limitation of leading with budget questions before value is established, reducing premature "no budget" objections

• Qualification scoring: Sales teams can assign point values to each CHAMP criterion to create objective lead qualification scores and prioritize opportunities systematically

How It Works

CHAMP operates as a structured conversation framework that guides sales representatives through four sequential discovery areas during prospect qualification. The qualification process typically unfolds across multiple conversations, with each criterion building on insights from previous discussions.

The process begins with Challenges discovery, where sales reps use open-ended questions to understand the prospect's business problems, pain points, and operational inefficiencies. Questions like "What's the biggest challenge your team faces with [relevant process]?" or "What happens when [problem scenario] occurs?" help surface both explicit challenges the prospect recognizes and implicit challenges they haven't yet articulated. The goal is to connect the sales solution directly to specific business challenges, establishing the foundation for value-based conversations.

Next comes Authority qualification, identifying who makes purchasing decisions and who influences those decisions. In modern B2B sales, this extends beyond finding a single decision-maker to mapping the buying committee including economic buyers, technical evaluators, and end-user champions. Questions explore the prospect's role in vendor selection, who else needs to approve purchases, and what the typical approval process looks like. Understanding authority early prevents investing time in opportunities where your contact lacks the power to move deals forward.

The Money criterion assesses the organization's financial capacity to invest in solving their challenges. Rather than asking "What's your budget?" upfront, CHAMP-trained sales reps first establish value through challenges discussions, then explore questions like "What's the cost of not solving this challenge?" or "Have you made similar investments in the past?" This approach frames budget conversations around ROI and business impact rather than arbitrary spending limits, often revealing that "no budget" actually means "no perceived value yet."

Finally, Prioritization determines how urgently the organization needs to solve the identified challenges and where this solution ranks among competing priorities. Questions uncover whether this is a critical initiative with executive visibility or a nice-to-have project that could be deferred. Understanding prioritization helps sales teams forecast accurately, allocate resources to high-urgency opportunities, and create urgency when prospects lack it.

Key Features

• Challenges-led discovery that establishes business value before introducing pricing and budget considerations

• Consultative selling alignment that positions sales reps as problem-solvers rather than product pushers

• Flexible conversation flow allowing reps to address criteria in different orders based on prospect signals

• Scoring compatibility enabling objective qualification through weighted scoring models across CHAMP dimensions

• Buying committee mapping built into Authority assessment, recognizing modern consensus-driven B2B purchasing

Use Cases

Use Case 1: SaaS Sales Qualification

A B2B SaaS company selling marketing automation software uses CHAMP to qualify inbound leads. Sales reps begin discovery calls by exploring marketing challenges: "What's preventing your team from scaling campaign personalization?" and "How are you currently measuring campaign attribution?" These challenge-focused questions reveal pain points around manual workflows and incomplete attribution. The rep then maps the buying committee, identifies the VP Marketing as economic buyer with MarTech Manager influence, explores the cost of current inefficiencies to establish ROI justification, and assesses prioritization by asking about marketing goals for the upcoming quarter. This CHAMP-based qualification determines whether the lead becomes a sales qualified lead worth pursuing.

Use Case 2: Enterprise Software Multi-Threading

An enterprise software vendor uses CHAMP to navigate complex deals with multiple stakeholders. After initial challenge discovery with a director-level contact who raised data integration pain points, the sales team applies the Authority criterion by asking "Who else on your team experiences these integration challenges?" This leads to introductions with IT, operations, and finance stakeholders. The rep conducts separate CHAMP discovery with each stakeholder, uncovering different challenges per department, mapping authority across the buying committee, and assessing whether each stakeholder prioritizes solving integration issues. The resulting multi-threaded approach increases deal velocity and win rates by ensuring all key stakeholders see relevant value.

Use Case 3: Lead Scoring Automation

A revenue operations team builds a CHAMP-based lead scoring model in their CRM. They create custom fields for each CHAMP criterion, assign point values based on qualification strength, and train sales reps to complete CHAMP fields during discovery calls. Leads with high Challenge scores (critical business problems), confirmed Authority (contact is decision-maker or direct report), established Money (budget allocated or ROI justifies new budget), and high Prioritization (top-3 initiative this quarter) receive maximum scores and fast-track to proposal stages. Leads weak on multiple CHAMP criteria get routed to nurture campaigns for relationship development before intensive sales engagement.

Implementation Example

Below is a practical CHAMP qualification scoring model that B2B SaaS sales teams can implement in their CRM to objectively assess opportunity quality:

CHAMP Qualification Scoring Model

Scoring Interpretation:
- 80-100 points: Highly qualified opportunity – proceed to proposal/demo
- 60-79 points: Moderately qualified – continue discovery to strengthen weak areas
- 40-59 points: Poorly qualified – nurture relationship before intensive sales effort
- <40 points: Disqualified – move to marketing nurture or disqualify

CHAMP Discovery Question Framework

These questions help sales teams systematically gather qualification information across each CHAMP dimension:

CHAMP Discovery Questions
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
<p>CHALLENGES<br>├─ What's the biggest challenge your team faces with [process]?<br>├─ How is this challenge impacting your business metrics/KPIs?<br>├─ What have you tried so far to address this challenge?<br>├─ What happens if this challenge isn't solved in the next 6 months?<br>└─ On a scale of 1-10, how painful is this problem today?</p>
<p>AUTHORITY<br>├─ What's your role in evaluating and selecting [solution category]?<br>├─ Who else on your team would need to be involved in this decision?<br>├─ What does your typical approval process look like for purchases like this?<br>├─ Have you made similar technology purchases before? What was that process?<br>└─ Who controls the budget for this type of initiative?</p>
<p>MONEY<br>├─ What's the cost to your business of not solving this challenge?<br>├─ Have you allocated budget to address this problem?<br>├─ What's the ROI threshold you typically look for on new investments?<br>├─ Have you made similar investments in the past year?<br>└─ How do you typically justify new technology purchases?</p>

CHAMP vs Other Qualification Frameworks

Understanding how CHAMP compares to alternative frameworks helps sales leaders choose the right approach:

For detailed analysis of alternative qualification frameworks, see Gartner's research on sales qualification methodologies and HubSpot's guide to sales qualification frameworks.

Related Terms

• BANT: The traditional Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline qualification framework that CHAMP evolved from

• MEDDIC: An alternative enterprise sales qualification framework focusing on Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain, and Champion

• Sales Qualified Lead: A lead that has been qualified by sales using frameworks like CHAMP and deemed worthy of active sales pursuit

• Buying Committee: The group of stakeholders involved in B2B purchase decisions that CHAMP's Authority criterion helps identify

• Lead Scoring: The methodology for assigning numerical values to leads, often incorporating CHAMP criteria as scoring factors

• Discovery Call: The sales conversation where CHAMP qualification typically occurs

• Account Qualification: The process of assessing whether an account meets ideal customer profile criteria, often preceding CHAMP opportunity qualification

• Sales Intelligence: Tools and data that help sales teams gather information needed for CHAMP qualification

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CHAMP in sales?

Quick Answer: CHAMP is a sales qualification framework based on four criteria—Challenges, Authority, Money, and Prioritization—that helps sales teams assess whether prospects are worth pursuing by starting with business problems before discussing budget.

CHAMP guides sales representatives through a consultative qualification process focused on understanding what business challenges the prospect faces, who has decision-making authority, what financial capacity exists to address those challenges, and how urgently the organization prioritizes solving the problems. By leading with challenges rather than budget, CHAMP enables more substantive value-based conversations and reduces premature "no budget" objections common with traditional qualification approaches.

What's the difference between CHAMP and BANT?

Quick Answer: CHAMP starts with Challenges (problems to solve) before discussing budget, while BANT leads with Budget questions, making CHAMP better suited for consultative solution selling where value must be established before pricing discussions.

The fundamental difference is conversation sequencing. BANT's budget-first approach often triggers premature "we don't have budget" objections before value is demonstrated. CHAMP reverses this by first establishing what challenges exist, who can make decisions, and how critical solving those challenges is—building economic justification before money conversations. This makes CHAMP particularly effective for B2B SaaS and complex solution sales where ROI must be demonstrated to create or justify budget allocations.

How do you use CHAMP to qualify leads?

Quick Answer: Use CHAMP by conducting discovery conversations that explore prospect challenges, map decision-makers and influencers, assess financial capacity through ROI discussions, and determine how urgently the organization prioritizes solving identified problems.

Begin qualification calls with open-ended questions about business challenges and pain points rather than immediately pitching your solution. As challenges emerge, explore who experiences those challenges and who would be involved in selecting solutions (Authority). Once value is established through challenge discovery, discuss the cost of the current state and explore budget or ROI thresholds (Money). Finally, understand where this initiative ranks among competing priorities and what timeline exists for implementation (Prioritization). Document findings in your CRM using CHAMP fields and assign qualification scores.

Can CHAMP be used for automated lead scoring?

Yes, CHAMP criteria translate effectively into automated lead scoring models. Create custom fields in your CRM for each CHAMP dimension, assign point values based on qualification strength (e.g., 25 points for critical challenges vs 5 points for minor pain points), and train sales teams to complete these fields during discovery. Marketing automation platforms can then calculate total CHAMP scores and route leads based on thresholds. Many revenue operations teams also incorporate CHAMP scoring into their predictive lead scoring models, using historical CHAMP data to train machine learning algorithms that predict which opportunities will close.

Is CHAMP or MEDDIC better for enterprise sales?

CHAMP and MEDDIC serve different purposes in enterprise sales. MEDDIC provides more detailed qualification for complex enterprise deals with its focus on Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain, and Champion identification. CHAMP offers simpler, faster qualification suitable for mid-market and transactional enterprise sales. Many sales organizations use both: applying CHAMP for initial qualification and pipeline entry, then overlaying MEDDIC's additional rigor as deals progress to later stages. The choice depends on your sales cycle length, deal complexity, and team sophistication—simpler products favor CHAMP, while enterprise software with 6+ month sales cycles often benefit from MEDDIC's comprehensive framework.

Conclusion

CHAMP has emerged as a leading sales qualification framework for B2B SaaS and consultative selling environments because it aligns with how modern buyers actually evaluate solutions—by first understanding whether a vendor can solve their business challenges before considering budget implications. By restructuring qualification conversations to lead with challenges rather than budget questions, CHAMP enables sales teams to establish value, build economic justification, and reduce premature objections that derail sales qualified leads before meaningful discovery occurs.

For sales leaders implementing qualification frameworks, CHAMP offers the right balance of structure and flexibility—providing clear criteria for objective opportunity assessment while remaining simple enough for rapid team adoption. Marketing and revenue operations teams can operationalize CHAMP through CRM custom fields, lead scoring models, and sales enablement training that equips reps with discovery questions for each criterion. The framework's compatibility with both manual qualification and automated scoring makes it adaptable across different sales motions and GTM strategies.

As B2B buying processes become more complex with larger buying committees and longer evaluation cycles, qualification frameworks like CHAMP that emphasize deep problem understanding, stakeholder mapping, and priority alignment will continue growing in importance. Sales teams that master CHAMP qualification improve forecast accuracy, increase win rates, and allocate resources more efficiently by pursuing opportunities with genuine business challenges, accessible decision-makers, justifiable economics, and organizational urgency.

Last Updated: January 18, 2026