Stakeholder discovery maps the people who can affect a purchase. Champion discovery tests who will carry work inside the account after the call ends. What the contact does inside the account is the strongest signal. An internal champion is an employee at the prospect's organization who supports the product and can use internal influence, provide company information, and introduce you to decision makers.1 They can also provide information about stakeholders and how the account makes buying decisions.2 Treat every role as a hypothesis until the person shows influence through what they share, arrange, or own.
Build the stakeholder map
Start with the decision path you need to understand. Ask for the people and roles before planning the next meeting.
Stakeholder mapping identifies whom to target.3 The best way to identify buying team roles is simply to ask.4 Use questions that expose formal approval, informal influence, and seniority:
- Ask, "Who needs to be involved?".5
- Ask, "If we both come to an agreement, is there anybody else that formally or informally needs to be involved in the approval of this project or purchase?".6
- Ask, "What's the highest level we've met with?".7
Record each person's role, communication preference, and route for escalation.8 A stakeholder can be a champion, end user, economic buyer, influencer, or technical buyer.9 Add the person's reason for caring, the decision they can affect, and the person they point to next.
Continue once you have a named person or a clear gap for each role that can affect the decision. The map should change who you contact next instead of sitting as a list in your notes.
Test each stakeholder
A title or meeting seat is a starting point. Test the person's influence through questions and actions.
Ask directly and respectfully: "Are you leading this project or committee? Who else feels this pain? Who else will be part of the decision?".10 Listen for ownership and a specific view of the decision, then look for a clear path to other people. An end user may have little influence on the organization's buying decisions.11
Use observable evidence to update the role. Budget ownership, stakeholder introductions, buying process detail, requested follow-up, stated pain, timeline, or approval responsibility strengthen the stakeholder hypothesis.12 A contact who cannot explain their role or point to the next person remains a stakeholder to investigate.
Confirm likely teams and decision makers with your champion and learn about their internal buying process.13 Continue after the contact has explained where they fit and shown one action that gives you a clearer route through the account.
Test the champion
Champion discovery starts after role testing. The label belongs to a contact who will take action inside the account.
Run strong discovery with each stakeholder to understand why that person would benefit from the solution.14 Ask, "What will internal stakeholders need to believe before they support the decision?".15 Then ask what the contact will do to help those people reach that belief.
Request a concrete action. Ask for an introduction to a decision maker or help navigating the buying process.16 A contact who shares internal information can also help you understand the stakeholders and the way decisions happen.2
Keep the contact as a stakeholder while the support stays inside the conversation. Promote the contact to champion after they create access, clarify the process, or take responsibility for moving the decision forward. Agreement alone does not qualify.
The contact has earned the champion label when they take an action that increases access or clarifies the path. A champion should make the account easier to understand and easier to move through.
Turn the map into meetings
Discovery should produce a meeting plan, not a static organization chart. Use each new fact to decide who needs to be in the next conversation.
When discovery identifies an important stakeholder, invite that person to join the demo.17 Use what you learned during discovery to decide whom to include in the process.18 Ask, "Would it make sense to include them in the next conversation?" while the buyer is still describing the organization. This turns the authority map into a next step.19
Include relevant people early, learn what matters to each one, and invest in those relationships to develop potential influencers and champions.20 For each invite, prepare the decision that person affects, what they need to believe, and the evidence that will help them support the purchase.
The next meeting is ready when it has a clear purpose and includes the people needed to test the next part of the decision. If a stakeholder matters to approval, adoption, risk, or implementation, give them a place in the process before the decision is already formed.
Check for internal agreement
A complete map can still stall when people inside the account do not agree. Use the champion to expose disagreement while there is still time to address it.
Stakeholder engagement helps buyers build the internal consensus that can separate a stalled opportunity from a decision.21 Buying teams can experience unhealthy conflict during the decision process.22 Ask, "Who could disagree with this? What would they need to see? What happens if they do not agree?"
Add those answers to the map. Give each stakeholder a reason to support the decision and a clear requirement for moving forward. Ask the champion to confirm who owns each requirement and how the group will resolve an open disagreement.
The contact is ready to move forward when they can describe how support is built across the people involved. A positive conversation with one person is insufficient when the rest of the group has not been brought into the decision.
What not to do
These mistakes leave the map looking complete while the decision remains out of reach.
- Do not focus on one friendly contact and assume the deal is progressing.23
- Do not call an end user your champion without testing influence, because an end user may have little influence on buying decisions.11
- Do not forecast a deal when you have no champion.24
- Do not assume one champion covers a complex buying group.25
- Do not treat every champion persona as able to advance the process, because some can hurt your chances.26