The same person can play more than one role.
Different people can play the same role.
In marketing and pipeline generation, profiling the typical persona who plays certain roles helps optimize GTM strategy. For example, top-of-funnel messaging (website, outreach, etc) focuses on the potential Champions in the audience.
In sales and especially for open opportunities, real individuals are mapped to the role they are playing in order to ensure one is connected to all relevant people to win the opportunity.
Champion
A person who actually cares about the pain you solve, for this reason pushes for your product, and has internal power and influence to secure a purchase decision.
A Champion is the person who looks for your product in the market, pushes within their organization selling the product on your behalf, and becomes your supporter and evangelist when the product has been purchased and their pain has been solved.
You should try to attract Champions through your demand generation activities.
Once you connect with one, you should stay well connected throughout the whole purchase process and sell to them until they are convinced.
Champions may introduce you to other roles, if required. If you are selling up-market, they will become the keystone of your multi-threaded strategy as you connect with other people.
In some cases they may not connect you with a Decision Maker, but rather sell to the Decision Maker on your behalf. In this case, you should provide them with all required resources.
Coach/Supporter
A person who actually cares about the pain you solve, for this reason supports your product, but has no internal power or influence to secure a purchase decision.
A coach is basically a Champion without internal power and influence.
They are useful to navigate the account, gather information, validate your sales strategy. However, they will not introduce you to decision makers or secure your sale.
Decision Maker
The person who has the final call on the decision to purchase.
The closer you are to talking with the Decision Maker, the more likely you are to close the sale.
You may not connect with a Decision Maker from the get-go and in certain cases you will not connect to them at all. In such cases, you rely on Champions, Influencers, and other roles to progress the opportunity. Even in such cases, however, a Decision Maker will be involved in the purchase.
Economic Buyer
The person who holds and controls the budget for the product.
They can be, but aren’t necessarily the same person as the Decision Maker.
For example, the Decision Maker may not have their own budget, or may have one but still need green light from finance. The Economic Buyer’s requirements need to be satisfied as well in order to close the sale.
Blocker
A person who does not support your product and can block the sale.
A Blocker may support an alternative product or have requirements which are not compatible with your product.
For example, a person in a similar position to your Champion may be the Champion of a competitor. The CIO may support a policy not to use cloud providers.
It is importarnt to identify blockers early enough and come up with a strategy to overcome their objections.
End User
A person who will actually use your product.
End users may not be decision makers and even champions. However, they will be impacted by using the product and are likely to be consulted for the purchase.
In product-led growth it is particularly important to place a strong focus on end users and convert them to coaches and, ideally, champions.
Operations
A person who does not an active role in the purchase decision or in using the product, but is involved in the purchase or adoption process.
For example, legal and compliance who need to review terms and conditions, finance who needs to manage payment, or IT who needs to configure the product.
They may have specific requirements and possibly slow down the process towards the end of the opportunity. For this reason, it is importan to uncover such requirements as early as possible in the process.