One-liner: Build a buyer-reality map for a sport or fitness offer by identifying payers, economic buyers, technical buyers, champions, users, blockers, and governance functions. Time: 20–30 min
Deliverable: One-page stakeholder matrix: columns = role, name or function, decision power (0 to 3), success metric, risk, required proof. Include a single paragraph: your primary champion plan and your primary blocker plan.

Learning goal

You will be able to: Build a buyer-reality map for a sport or fitness offer by identifying payers, economic buyers, technical buyers, champions, users, blockers, and governance functions.

Success criteria (observable)

One-page stakeholder matrix: columns = role, name or function, decision power (0 to 3), success metric, risk, required proof. Include a single paragraph: your primary champion plan and your primary blocker plan. is completed
Success criteria are written as yes/no checks
Next step, owner, and date are defined

Output you will produce

Deliverable: One-page stakeholder matrix: columns = role, name or function, decision power (0 to 3), success metric, risk, required proof. Include a single paragraph: your primary champion plan and your primary blocker plan.
Format: 1 table + short bullets
Where saved: your course folder or CRM notes

Who

Primary persona: Sales lead or founder selling B2B sport or fitness solutions in USA
Secondary persona(s): Commercial lead, marketing, delivery/ops, and a technical contact (if relevant)

What

What it is

Value chain and stakeholder map for U.S. B2B sport sales.

What it is not

A long document. The goal is a working artifact you can use today.

2-minute theory

U.S. sport sales often involve multiple stakeholders and formal processes.
Speed comes from clarity: roles, process, and a next step with an owner and date.
Your job is to reduce risk for the buyer and effort for the committee.

Key terms

ICP: Ideal Customer Profile, defined by problem, budget, and buying process
Buying committee: The group that influences or approves the purchase

Where

Applies in

Selling to clubs, leagues, federations, venues, academies, and sport brands
Selling to agencies that deliver sport activations
Selling to fitness chains and local operators (if your offer fits)

Does not apply in

One-off consumer sales (B2C) without committees or procurement

Touchpoints

Website and proof assets
Email and calls
Proposal and contract
Pilot delivery

When

Use it when

A deal has many 'yes' signals but no decision
You are unsure who owns budget
You need to design a pilot

Frequency

Weekly during active pipeline building.

Late signals

Meetings repeat with no new information
No written next step
Buyer asks for a proposal too early

Why it matters

Practical benefits

Shorter sales cycles
Fewer surprises in procurement/legal
Higher win rate through clearer fit

Risks of ignoring

Stalled deals
Discount pressure
Scope creep and delivery failures

Expectations

Improves: decision clarity and buyer confidence
Does not guarantee: immediate revenue or fast procurement

How

Step-by-step method

Define the target account type and what a 'good deal' looks like.
List the roles involved and the most likely decision owner.
Write 3 decision criteria the buyer will use (cost, risk, impact).
Create a simple table that captures your findings.
Write the next step you will ask for, with date and owner.

Do and don't

Use concrete language and numbers when you can
Write next steps as a calendar action

Don't

Do not rely on verbal enthusiasm as proof
Do not send a proposal before discovery is complete

Common mistakes and fixes

Too broad ICP: Narrow by problem + buyer type + delivery constraints
No next step: End every interaction with owner + date + exit criteria

Done when

Sport Sales Value Chain Map is saved
Next step is written with owner + date
Top stakeholder roles are listed

Pro tip: Keep everything short enough to update in 5 minutes.

Guided exercise (10–15 min)

Inputs

A blank doc or sheet
Your target market or sport category

Steps

Choose one real offer (yours or a known sport-tech/fitness offer).
Step 1: list every party who touches the deal from first contact to delivery.
Step 2: assign each party a role label (payer, economic buyer, champion, user, technical evaluator, procurement, legal, finance).
Step 3: write one sentence per role stating what they fear and what they want.
Step 4: identify the single role that can stop the deal late and write the prevention action.

Output format

Field	Value
Deliverable name	Sport Sales Value Chain Map
Top segment
Top 3 stakeholders
Decision criteria
Next step (owner + date)

Independent exercise (5–10 min)

Task

Repeat the guided exercise for a different U.S. target account or partner.

Use the same deliverable format: One-page stakeholder matrix: columns = role, name or function, decision power (0 to 3), success metric, risk, required proof. Include a single paragraph: your primary champion plan and your primary blocker plan..

Output

Same table format. Add 3 notes about what changed.

Self-check (yes/no)

I can name the decision owner role for my target accounts
I wrote a next step with owner and date
I can explain why this deliverable reduces deal risk
I saved the deliverable where my team can find it

Baseline metric (recommended)

Baseline metric: number of target accounts mapped today (target: 5)
Date: YYYY-MM-DD
Tool used: your CRM or a spreadsheet

Bibliography (sources used)

SPIN Selling — Neil Rackham (book).
The Challenger Sale — Matthew Dixon & Brent Adamson (book).
https://hbr.org/2015/03/making-the-consensus-sale — Canonical source (URL). Read: https://hbr.org/2015/03/making-the-consensus-sale
https://hbr.org/2012/07/the-end-of-solution-sales — Canonical source (URL). Read: https://hbr.org/2012/07/the-end-of-solution-sales
The New Rules of B2B Sales and Marketing — HBR. Read: https://hbr.org/2014/07/the-new-rules-of-b2b-sales-and-marketing

Sport and fitness value chain map