Stakeholder map template for complex deals

Short answer: A stakeholder map lists every person or role who can help or block a deal, with their part in it, what they care about, how much influence they have, where they stand today, and what you will do next. Write "unknown" freely: it shows where to research next.

A technical deal has more than one buyer. The engineer who asks for a trial, the manager who owns the team's tools, the reviewer who checks security and the person who signs are often four different people. A stakeholder map is a table that keeps them straight. This article gives you the table to copy, explains each column, and shows a filled-in example.

Some teams call it a buying committee map. It is the stakeholder section of an account plan, pulled out into its own table once a deal involves several teams.

The template

One row per person or role. Keep the column names; they each do a job.

The roles to look for

You do not need a row for everyone at the company. Start with the roles that show up in most technical deals:

• The person who feels the problem. Uses the tool or lives with the pain. Often a staff or senior engineer. They can say yes to a trial.
• The owner of the team. A manager or director who decides whether the team takes on a new tool and what it replaces.
• The reviewer. Security, architecture or risk. They can stop a trial. Their name is often unknown early, and that is fine.
• The budget holder. Whoever pays. In a larger deal this may be one level above the team owner.
• The owner of the tool you would replace. Someone chose it. Their view of it matters, and they are worth meeting early.

To find real names for each role, use how to find the right person at a large company. It starts from the team, not the title.

How to fill in each column

Part in the deal

Use one of the roles above, in plain words. "Can block a trial" is more useful than "stakeholder".

What they care about

One line, tied to a fact. "Fewer pages that nobody acts on" is a concern. "Cares about innovation" is not. If you cannot write the line, write "unknown" and make learning it your next action.

Influence

High, medium or low, based on what they can approve or stop. Rank it by what they can do to the deal, not by their title.

Stance today

For, neutral, against or unknown. Mark a stance only when you have something they said or did, with a date. If you haven't spoken to them, the answer is "unknown". Writing "neutral" for someone you have never met turns a guess into a fact.

Evidence and date

What you saw and when: a job post, a talk, a reply to your note. This column is what keeps the map honest, and it shows you when a row has aged. A row from six months ago is a lead.

Next action

One action and one date for each person you want to move. "Ask the engineer who reviews new tools, by Friday" is an action. "Build relationship" is not.

A filled-in example

The company, people and dates are invented. The deal is a reliability tool sold to a logistics software company.

Look at the stance column: all "unknown". That is the honest answer before a first reply, and it is the point of the map. Each "unknown" is a question, and the next-action column says how you will answer it. After the first call, the stance on one or two rows changes, and the evidence column says why.

Common mistakes

• Mapping only the person who likes you. A deal that rests on one friendly engineer stalls when that person is busy or leaves. Map at least the team owner and the reviewer too.
• Treating a title as influence. A senior title can mean little power over a tool, and a staff engineer can decide a trial. Ask who decides.
• Guessing stances. Fill "unknown" freely, and replace it only with evidence.
• Never updating it. Review the map before each call. People move, and a row you checked last quarter may be wrong now.
• Collecting private details. The map is about roles in a deal. Keep it to work: role, team, public work.

Keep it alive

Update the map the same day as any contact. Add the date and what you learned to the evidence column, change the stance only if you have a reason, and set the next action. If you work from a strategic account plan, the weekly review is where the map gets its checkup.

Put it in a plan

The free account plan generator has a People section for this map, and it builds the rest of the one-page plan around it.

Where Repclose fits

Repclose gives you the first draft of the people. For the top-ranked accounts it lists about 10 people, gives the top 5 a profile check, and writes a short card on why each might care, with a source for each point. The stance and influence columns are yours: Repclose cannot know who is for or against you, and it will not guess. You add that from your calls. See the sample brief, or start with your first 5 plans free.