Glossary
Stakeholder mapping
Stakeholder mapping in B2B sales is identifying everyone who influences a purchase at an account, their role in the decision, their stance toward your solution and their relationships, so the seller can engage each one deliberately.
What Is Stakeholder Mapping?
In short A stakeholder map lists each person with their role in the buying decision: economic buyer, champion, technical evaluator, user, legal or procurement, and blocker.
For each one you note what they care about, how much influence they have, and whether they support you, are neutral or oppose the deal. Unlike an org chart, the map shows influence and the dotted lines between people, not just reporting lines.
B2B purchases rarely rest on one person. Finance, the users, IT, legal and procurement can each slow or stop a deal, and a deal that depends on one contact stalls when that person goes quiet, changes jobs or turns out to lack authority.
Stakeholder Mapping Example
Example map for a $90,000 data platform deal at a retailer: CFO (economic buyer, neutral, cares about cost), Head of Analytics (champion, supportive), Data Engineering Lead (technical evaluator, skeptical about migration effort), IT Security (approver, unknown) and Procurement (paper process, unknown). The next steps target the two unknowns and the skeptic: a security review pack and a migration plan.
Stakeholder Mapping in Practice
Sales teams build the map during discovery and keep it on the opportunity. Outbound teams start earlier: before the first email, they identify several likely stakeholders at the account and run a coordinated sequence to each, with a message tuned to that person's role. This is multi-threading, and it raises the chance that someone at the account replies.
FAQ
What is stakeholder mapping in sales?
It's the practice of listing everyone at an account who can influence a deal, with their role, influence and stance toward you, so you know who to engage and how.
What is the difference between a stakeholder map and an org chart?
An org chart shows reporting lines. A stakeholder map shows influence: who decides, who influences, who supports or opposes you and how they connect, including people outside the reporting line.
How do you build a stakeholder map?
List everyone at the account who could affect the decision, label each with a role (economic buyer, champion, evaluator, user, procurement, blocker), rate their influence and stance, and note who influences whom. Update it after every meeting.
Who should be on a stakeholder map?
At minimum the economic buyer, your champion, the people who will use the product, the technical evaluator and whoever runs legal or procurement. Add anyone who could block the deal, including a team that prefers a competitor.
Do This in Ken
Do This in Ken
Look up the people at an account in Ken Search to find likely stakeholders before you write to anyone. Searching is free; each valid email costs 1 credit.
- Module
- Ken Search
- Open in Ken
- /features
The new Ken opens to the waiting list in batches.
Related
Sources
| Source | Checked |
|---|---|
| Salesforce: Relationship Maps, the People Who Make or Break Every Sale | |
| Salesforce: Strategic Selling | |
| Altify: What Is Stakeholder Mapping? |
Changelog
- Page published.