How Do You Build Cultural Champions in Each Function?
You build cultural champions by selecting credible insiders in every function, equipping them with a shared revenue and customer narrative, and giving them real responsibility for modeling behaviors, running rituals, and translating culture into day-to-day decisions. When every team has a champion, culture becomes how work gets done—not just a slide in a town hall.
You build cultural champions in each function by intentionally identifying influencers (not just people with big titles), aligning them on a clear set of principles, and embedding champion responsibilities into their goals. Give them a shared language (such as revenue marketing principles), equip them with playbooks and storytelling assets, and recognize them for behaviors that reinforce the culture in sales, marketing, CS, product, finance, and operations. Champions become the local translators who make an enterprise-wide culture feel relevant to each team.
What Matters When Building Cultural Champions?
The Cultural Champion Enablement Playbook
Use this sequence to stand up a network of cultural champions that makes your customer and revenue culture real in every function.
Define → Select → Enable → Activate → Measure → Refine
- Define the culture you’re scaling: Translate your aspiration (e.g., revenue marketing, customer-first, data-driven decision-making) into 3–5 practical principles. Make them specific enough that champions can say, “This is what it looks like in my function.”
- Select champions with intent: Partner with leaders to identify respected influencers across Sales, Marketing, CS, Product, Finance, and Ops. Look for people who collaborate well, coach peers, and already act in line with your principles.
- Enable champions with shared language and tools: Run a focused enablement series (or cohort program) using assets like Key Principles of Revenue Marketing and a common revenue narrative so champions are aligned on “the why” and “the how.”
- Activate champions through real work: Ask each champion to own 1–2 high-impact behaviors in their function (e.g., joint account planning, using a shared revenue dashboard, acting on VoC) and to run micro-rituals such as huddles, story shares, or retros.
- Measure cultural impact by function: Track adoption and outcomes using indicators like campaign-to-revenue visibility, NRR, win rates, and engagement with revenue dashboards. Pair quantitative data with qualitative feedback from champion networks.
- Refine the champion model over time: Adjust expectations, onboarding, and recognition as your culture matures. Rotate new champions in and alumni out so the network stays fresh and diverse.
Cultural Champion Network Maturity Matrix
| Dimension | From (Ad Hoc Advocates) | To (Structured Champion Network) | Owner | Primary KPI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Champion Selection | Volunteers without clear criteria | Intentional selection of respected influencers in every function | People & Culture / ELT | Functional Coverage & Champion Tenure |
| Principles & Messaging | Generic values posters | Clear, revenue- and customer-linked principles used in daily decisions | CEO / CMO | Principle Recall & Usage |
| Enablement & Tools | One-time training session | Ongoing enablement with guides, content, and dashboards (e.g., revenue marketing dashboards) | RevOps / L&D | Champion Enablement Completion & Tool Adoption |
| Operating Rhythm | Ad hoc check-ins | Structured champion councils, function-level huddles, and feedback loops | Change Office / PMO | Champion Meeting Cadence & Action Closure Rate |
| Impact on Behavior | Isolated stories of good behavior | Observable shifts in how teams plan, collaborate, and act on data/VoC | Functional Leaders | Behavior Adoption Index |
| Customer & Revenue Outcomes | Culture impact not quantified | Clear link between champion-led behaviors and NRR, win rate, and CX outcomes | CRO / CCO | NRR, Win Rate & CX Uplift |
Client Snapshot: Function-Level Champions Driving Revenue Change
A B2B enterprise moving toward a revenue marketing operating model launched a cross-functional champion network across Sales, Marketing, CS, Product, and Finance. Champions were trained on shared revenue marketing principles and equipped with dashboards and playbooks to run local experiments. Over time, this network helped align lead management, campaign planning, and account strategy—contributing to meaningful revenue impact, similar in spirit to the transformation highlighted in Transforming Lead Management: How Comcast Business Optimized Marketing Automation and Drove $1B in Revenue .
Cultural champions work best when they are embedded in the work, not parked on the sidelines: give them direction, tools, and permission to experiment—and then listen to what they learn from each function.
Frequently Asked Questions about Cultural Champions
Turn Functional Influencers into Aligned Cultural Champions
We help you define principles, stand up champion networks, and connect culture to revenue marketing outcomes—so every function moves in the same direction.
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