B2B marketers face many stakeholder challenges.
- Compliance officers and legal teams who simply say 'no' to any marketing initiative that is remotely unconventional.
- Sales teams who think marketing is a 'waste of time'.
- Accountants who want to cut marketing budgets at any and every opportunity.
And these are just some internal stakeholder challenges. There are numerous external stakeholder challenges as well.
Is it any wonder that many marketers feel overwhelmed, undervalued and frustrated that they simply cannot get on with the job of delivering great marketing?
So here are 7 tips to help you manage those challenging stakeholders better in 2023:
- Stakeholder Mapping - Not all Stakeholders are equally important. We often waste time on unimportant stakeholders, whilst ignoring or not giving enough attention to critical stakeholders. To identify who you should focus your efforts on create simple 2x2 grid. List your stakeholders. Now Score each stakeholder group by power/value and the strength of your relationship. Consider a score of 0 to 100 for each axis. Any score above 50 is consider high.
- Focus your efforts on stakeholders who score above 50 for both power/value and strength of relationship.
- Priotitise - Go to work to improve your relationships with this those who score above 50 for per / value but less than 50 for strength of relationship. Minimise your efforts with those stakeholders who are low value and have a weak relationship with you.
- To improve the strength of your relationship with these stakeholders consider these key influence techniques developed by Robert Chialdini and others. Here are three proven techniques.
- Reciprocity - give first before receiving. When we receive a gift, the human condition feels obliged to respond in kind. At a food market, the likelihood of purchase significantly increases when the stall holder offers a sample. We can apply this principle to key stakeholders. For example forwarding an article they might be interested in. Assuming the gift is unexpected and valuable, this simple gesture will build trust and rapport.
- Building on the Small 'Yes' - look for and ask for small commitments. Humans do not like to back out of commitments. We like to be consistent. Ideally try to generate commitments that are voluntary, active and public. Where possible try to get a written commitment. Even an innocuous statement e.g. "Better Stakeholder Management is an important challenge for the business" followed by a question such as 'would you agree?' creates an initial 'yes'. You can then build on that 'yes' to higher levels of commitment.
- Consensus - we look to others for guidance and reassurance that what we are doing has precedent. Our chimp brains have a strong desire to be accepted, to be part of a troop. As a result, we don't like to go against the crowd, we call this consensus or social proof. When people are uncertain about a course of action, they tend to look to those around them to guide their decisions and actions. People want to know what everyone else is doing, particularly their peers. When dealing with challenging stakeholders, point to examples of precedent such as respected rival companies or other departments.
Try out these techniques. You will be amazed how effective they can be. Who knows, you might find that you can win over the most cynical and challenging of stakeholders.
Do let me know how you get on.
For a deeper dive into effective Stakeholder Management, check out Liz Whitaker's brilliant book - The Power of Personal.
Alternatively, you can book a QU workshop - call Quentin on 07775 808210 or email: quentin@quco.uk