How to Build Your Customer Stakeholder Map & Free eBook

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Today I want to show you why understanding your customers and your stakeholders is paramount for you to win.

I’m not talking about whether you should make certain decisions, I’m talking about mapping out how well you know your customer, how well your customer knows you, your offerings, and where you stand with the people who pull the strings…to say yes to you winning your contract.

And why you need to emphasize this on your bids, especially before they get to a Go / No-Go decision.

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What I’m going to cover the following in this newsletter:

1. Why Stakeholder Mapping is Important

2. Why You Should Care…Every Time

3. Why You Need to Invest in This…Every Time

4. Where to Start and How to Do It

By the way, I have a NEW eBook that focuses specifically just on this. Do you want to get your own copy? Check it out below!

Why This is Paramount for Your Business

Over the years, this was one of the most essential elements of any project that I worked on. We would spend time understanding the customer and the decision-makers, where we stood with the customer, whether they wanted our offerings, us or someone else, etc.

Can things be improved, should we submit, bring in partners with stronger past performance to improve our chances, or can we position ourselves for additional growth? What can we do to improve our probability of winning?

The bigger the opportunity, the more eyeballs on it. The more cooks in the kitchen. The more dynamics you need to think about to make sure you are front and center in the decision-making tree.

The stakeholders that are making the decisions to move forward with a project (or program) cover many areas before they decide to go forward and make an ultimate yes.

Let’s position you so you can get to the yes and the decision-makers want you.

Let’s dance.

First Touch - Who Are the Decision Makers

Building your pipeline requires time, energy, and effort.

Building an effective pipeline requires all of the above, but also getting to know the people in the opportunities.

When you review your opportunities with your senior management, you want to discuss the people making the decisions, what you can do to get in front of the right individuals, or, what you need to do to position yourself ahead of the competition.

You don’t want to lose a bid because you didn’t know someone who makes a decision or because they didn’t know who you were.

Not sure who the decision-makers are? Here’s what to do.

Build a map out of your opportunity and the individuals who are responsible for awarding the opportunity. Breakdown the following areas:

1. 𝗥𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 Customer 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻-𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

   1. Decision-Maker

   2. Influencer

   3. Advisor

   4. User

Starting a mind map of who’s who within the overall decision-making tree can help you understand where you stand and where you need to spend time developing relationships.

Need a mind map? Check out the ones here, here, and here to get started.

Let’s build on that.

Second Touch - Add in Details

Part of every decision-marking tree is the essential details behind who they are, what matters to them, and how you and your solution sit with this specific opportunity.

Things to consider.

1. Do they know you? As in are you on a first-name basis with them?

2. Can they trust you?

3. Are they even interested in doing business with you?

4. Why would they change their existing vendors to go with you?

5. Where in the procurement processes are they?

There are many more. But add context to the people who pull the strings and who you need to know. Never assume that you are a sure lock.

Do You Remember When? Last Contact = Critical

When was the last time you spoke with your potential customer? Yesterday, last week? 3 months ago? Not every opportunity moves quickly (or as fast as your boss wants it to go).

Your CRM might say that you’ve updated an opportunity recently, but when was the last time you spoke with the decision-maker on an opportunity? They are different things.

Having relevant details will be critical if you are looking at an opportunity and deciding whether to Go/No-Go on it.

Pack Some Additional Punch

Adding context around your opportunities will do absolute wonders for structure and pinpointing what opportunities are worth pursuing, and others not. Here are a few additional thoughts:

1. If there are gaps, recommend to your executive team that you need support (i.e., I need help meeting these people, introduce me to so and so, etc.). It gives specific targets for senior leadership to focus on.

   1. Don’t generalize. If you need to focus on a specific person (i.e., the CEO, that Lt. Col, the City Manager, whomever) then put that down.

2. Stakeholder maps force account managers and business development teams to write down their relationships, there will be gaps. It’s not anything personal, just need to know where to focus.

3. Build relationships and deep relationships. If you only have strength with 1 or 2 people, build more relationships as a result of this exercise. Never assume that those (1 or 2) individuals can champion you in a deal, especially the bigger (think $$$) the opportunity.

4. This is a living document. It changes. New people come in, people leave, people have a change of hearts, people learn, and people build relationships.

Check out these resources below so you can now draft up your stakeholder map. I’ve built out what you should look for

Build towards it, don’t jump the gun.

Relationships are critical. You don’t want to admit that you lost a deal because you didn’t know all the individuals that decide the deal.

Each deal is different, each customer is different. But take charge of where you need to focus and never assume that you have all the customers saying yes to your offerings.

Want to go deeper? Check out my recent eBook above.

People make decisions. People want to know who you are and that you are reliable and can execute the work

Have a great week this week. See you next week.

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