Simplify Your Strategy with Stakeholder Mapping Template
Dealing with multiple people and losing track of who you’ve reached out to for what can be a daunting task to remember. It’s only when you feel the pinch of it that you really look out for a solution that will simplify the whole process. Because honestly, pulling out a sheet and listing names and designations is not a viable solution especially when there are multiple projects and targets to juggle. You don’t have to start color-coding your Excel sheets either. A stakeholder mapping temple is the holy grail you need in this situation. It makes things even more efficient especially when you have to collaborate with teams remotely. Thankfully there are plenty of tools out there that can help you do this. All you need is to figure out which tool works best for your organisation. We’ve made a handy list on that too! A stakeholder mapping template is a visual tool that you will use to define the relationship between various key stakeholders and/or the relationship between the stakeholders and the project. It could be a chart, a grid or a simple flow. You can choose templates based on the nature of your project to easily visually represent the whole list of stakeholders, including sponsors, the project team, contractors, project managers, and end-users of the product or service being delivered. This allows for equal access to information for all involved in the project, ensuring transparency and addressing any potential conflicts of interest from those with vested interests through effective stakeholder management. The stakeholder mapping template also helps identify the levels of influence and interest of each stakeholder, allowing for a more streamlined approach in managing their involvement. Why is stakeholder mapping important? Identifying key partners and their influence on the project can help create clear communication lines. It will set expectations as to who has to be involved in various process timelines and how can they contribute. Furthermore, a stakeholder map also helps you identify possible areas of conflict or misunderstanding that can be avoided right at the beginning so they don’t manifest as bigger problems at a later stage. Additionally, a stakeholder map is important because it helps identify and involve all relevant stakeholders, including project stakeholders and key players responsible for decision-making, in the project and ensures a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities. This exercise should be done regularly to account for any changes and updates in the project. Three prominent ways of grouping your stakeholders Based on the relationship to the project This group determines how much influence a set of people has on the outcome of the project or the product. They can be further categorized as primary, secondary, and tertiary stakeholders. Of these, primary stakeholders are of utmost priority as they have a direct impact on the project. One example could be customers. Based on power and legitimacy Definitive stakeholders have both power and legitimacy and require active engagement. Dominant stakeholders have power and legitimacy but may not be urgent, while dependent stakeholders lack power but have legitimate and urgent claims. Dormant stakeholders have power but lack urgency and legitimacy. Based on their role This categorization differentiates between those within the organization (internal stakeholders) and those outside of it (external stakeholders). Internal stakeholders are involved in day-to-day operations, while external stakeholders, such as customers or regulators, have an interest but are not part of the organization. Ok, now that you have your groups listed and remember, you can also further bifurcate your stakeholder grouping based on impact, support or geographical location. The first step is to identify all of your potential stakeholders and then have a picture on how these stakeholders are related to each other with respect to the project. And this is where we ideally start charting out the stakeholder map on a whiteboard or shared space. Are there different types of stakeholder mapping templates available? Yes, there are various stakeholder mapping templates available. Some common types include the power-interest grid, influence-impact grid, and salience model template. Choosing the right template depends on the project’s objectives and the level of stakeholder engagement needed for successful implementation. 1.The Salience Model The Salience Model is all about figuring out which stakeholders are most important for your project. It helps you prioritize based on three key factors: power, legitimacy, and urgency. Let’s break down what each type of stakeholder means: Definitive Stakeholders: These are your top priority. They have a lot of power, their involvement is legitimate, and they need things done urgently. Think of your project sponsor or a key client who needs results now. Dominant Stakeholders: These folks also have significant power and a legitimate role in your project, but they’re not in a hurry. They might be senior executives who support your project but don’t need daily updates. Dependent Stakeholders: These stakeholders have a legitimate interest in your project and need things done urgently, but they lack the power to influence decisions directly. They might be end-users who need the project to succeed but can’t make big decisions themselves. Dangerous Stakeholders: Watch out for these! They have a lot of power and want things done quickly, but their legitimacy is questionable. They could be influential critics who might derail your project if their concerns aren’t addressed. Dormant Stakeholders: These people have the power to impact your project but aren’t currently active or interested. They might be high-level managers who aren’t involved unless something goes wrong. Discretionary Stakeholders: They have a legitimate interest in your project but neither the power nor the urgency to act. These could be community members who support your project but don’t have the influence to change its course. Demanding Stakeholders: These stakeholders need something urgently but don’t have power or legitimacy. They might be vocal customers who want immediate improvements but don’t have much sway. 2.Stakeholder Knowledge Base Chart The Stakeholder Knowledge Base Chart, from the Gower Handbook of Project Management, is a handy tool for understanding where your stakeholders stand in terms of
Top Stakeholder Mapping Tools for Sales Success in 2025
Driving high-value leads into the pipeline and turning them into deals is all about knowing the right people on the other side of the spectrum. As a Key Account Manager (KAM), your success depends not just on having the right products and services, but on understanding the key stakeholders that influence decision-making, budget allocation, and future growth in your accounts. Without a clear view of these relationships, you’re missing out on crucial opportunities and wasting valuable time on less impactful contacts. This is where stakeholder mapping software comes in – a stakeholder relationship management tool that helps you identify, analyze, and engage with the right individuals in a way that maximizes your impact. What is Stakeholder Mapping in Key Account Management? Stakeholder mapping in Key Account Management is the process of identifying and analyzing the key players involved in your account’s decision-making process. These are the individuals who either influence or make decisions related to budget, contracts, and long-term strategic goals. Understanding who these stakeholders are, what drives them, and how to best engage with them is crucial to effectively managing and growing your key accounts. By mapping these relationships, you ensure that your efforts are focused on the right people at the right time, driving meaningful and measurable outcomes for your organization. Stakeholder mapping software helps KAMs efficiently visualize and manage these relationships, while tools for stakeholder engagement ensure proactive and targeted outreach strategies. Why Stakeholder Mapping is Crucial for Key Account Managers? Simply identifying stakeholders isn’t enough. As a KAM, you need a clear, visual representation of these relationships so you can make better, more informed decisions and prioritize your efforts effectively. When you map out your stakeholders, you can: Identify the key decision-makers who hold the budget or power to influence purchasing decisions. Understand the dynamics within your accounts, including any internal conflicts or power struggles that could impact your relationship. Pinpoint potential champions who can advocate for your solution and help you push through barriers. Anticipate risks by understanding the perspectives and potential objections of detractors or non-supporters. A visual stakeholder map not only helps you understand who is who but also allows you to adjust your strategy to each individual’s influence and interest in the project or partnership. Using stakeholder management software can make this process much easier by automating the analysis and providing real-time insights. Stakeholder mapping tools come with certain specific features that help bring out efficient results. Relationship Mapping Software: Helps visualize and analyze the connections between stakeholders, identifying key influencers and potential areas of conflict. Stakeholder Mapping Templates: Pre-designed templates that simplify the process of creating stakeholder maps. Stakeholder Analysis Tools: Provide detailed insights into stakeholder interests, influence, and impact, aiding in better decision-making and strategy formulation. How to Map Stakeholders Effectively in Key Account Management? Effective stakeholder mapping involves three critical steps: Identification, Analysis, and Visualization. Identification: Start by identifying all the key stakeholders in the account. These could be decision-makers, influencers, champions, detractors, or anyone who has a significant role in the project or ongoing relationship. Consider factors like: Decision-Makers – Who is responsible for the final purchasing decision? These are typically your primary stakeholders. Influencers – Individuals who may not make the final decision but have substantial influence over it. Champions – Internal advocates who will support your solutions and can help you navigate challenges. Detractors – Stakeholders who may oppose your solution and could be obstacles to progress. Analysis: Once you have identified your stakeholders, it’s time to analyze their influence, interest, and potential impact on your account’s success. Evaluate their: Level of influence – Do they have the power to veto a decision, or do they just influence others? Interest and needs – What motivates them? What are their goals and how can you align your solution to meet them? Relationship with you – Are they a champion, or do you need to nurture trust with them over time? Visualization: The final step is to create a visual stakeholder map that clearly outlines the relationships between stakeholders and their level of influence on the account. A well-designed map helps you prioritize engagement efforts and focus your resources on the most critical stakeholders. You can use various stakeholder mapping software or stakeholder relationship management tools to create these visualizations. They allow you to map out connections, analyze the influence dynamics, and plan your engagement strategies accordingly. Best Stakeholder Mapping Tools in 2025 1. DemandFarm DemandFarm is a comprehensive AI-powered stakeholder mapping tool designed to provide teams with the visibility and engagement necessary for successful stakeholder management. DemandFarm simplifies the process of identifying, analyzing, and visualizing stakeholders, making it an invaluable asset for any organization aiming to streamline its stakeholder management practices. Key Features: Visual Maps: DemandFarm helps create intuitive and customizable stakeholder maps. These visual maps allow you to easily identify and understand the relationships and influences between different stakeholders. Whether you’re mapping out internal team members, external partners, or community groups, DemandFarm’s visual tools help you see the bigger picture with clarity and precision. You can drag and drop elements, adjust connections, and annotate maps to suit your specific project needs, ensuring that every detail is accounted for. Analytics: Understanding the impact and priorities of your stakeholders is crucial for effective project management. DemandFarm provides detailed analytics that offer deep insights into stakeholder behavior, influence, and engagement. Integration: One of DemandFarm’s standout features is its seamless integration with top Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. By integrating with your existing CRM, DemandFarm provides a holistic view of stakeholder data, eliminating the need for manual data entry and ensuring that all relevant information is accessible in one place. Collaboration: Effective stakeholder management often involves multiple team members working together. DemandFarm’s collaborative features are designed to facilitate teamwork and ensure everyone is on the same page. Team members can collaborate in real-time, share insights, and update stakeholder information collectively. Auto-create stakeholder maps: DemandFarm AI does 100% of the grunt work that goes into building complex stakeholder charts. Why Choose DemandFarm? DemandFarm stands out as an excellent choice for organizations looking to elevate their stakeholder management practices. Here’s why:
4 account penetration strategies to take your retention revenue to the next level
One of the most important laws of growing a SaaS business commands that every company has to face the proverbial “valley of death”—long and dry spells of famine caused by several factors. It’s par for the course that most high-growth SaaS companies stall out in the range of $20–$40 million ARR despite a breezy initial success in scaling their business from 0–1. Other times, external market forces—such as the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic—can cause growing businesses to hit a plateau in their growth trajectory. In many ways, such episodes of growth impediment are sort of trial by ordeal to test the perseverance of a business and its teams. If a company is able to storm the rough weather, it will likely come out of it stronger and ready to take on any challenge. If they don’t survive the challenge—too bad, they probably didn’t have the mettle, to begin with. One way ambitious companies and their GTM teams cope with the rough times is by shifting their focus on an area that is often overlooked, i.e. their existing customers. Of course, it’s tempting to double your business just by pounding out hundreds and hundreds of new leads every month. It’s the exact kind of growth playbook that makes you a VC darling and helps you secure several rounds of funding initially—but not when you hit a wall. When your company is tumbling down the death valley, it’s more logical to focus on your existing base of users to extend a helping hand than to scream for help in a vacuum. There are many upsides to refocusing on your current users to expand your retention revenue. An average sales cycle when selling to existing accounts is 50% shorter than closing deals with new accounts. That means little to no investment in new customer acquisitions, exploiting new revenue channels, and expanding your TAM potential. In a long time horizon, most B2B companies earn 70% of their revenue from 20% of their customers. Taking that as an average, it’s only logical to have a pre-emptive account planning strategy to enable sales opportunities on your immediate radar. Here are four strategic account penetration tips to expand your revenue potential, improve customer lifetime value, and enrich sales velocity. 1. Leverage account-based customer marketing Account-based selling and marketing are nothing but evolved, perhaps more refined, versions of account management or account farming. Sales coaches and theoretical consultants keep adding new templates and playbooks around this topic to reframe it as a new concept, which has made ABS and ABM more complex topics than they actually are. The result? In one of its recent findings, CSO Insights reports that 54.9% of B2B companies have gaping holes in their account penetration strategies. Often, the culprit is the broken hand-off processes between cross-functional teams and information silos even when the teams are catering to serve the same account. For account-based customer marketing to succeed, you should have a proactive strategy to implement your campaigns—not a reactive approach to upsell and cross-sell when an account matures. Start by identifying the target accounts and engage in frequent conversations with them to understand their broader business requirements. This will help you gain visibility into their business environment, sales pipelines, revenue targets, growth bottlenecks, and end-customer needs. Once you have the data, create powerful content stories and messaging to show them the opportunity cost around wasted money, process delays, and long conversion cycles. Strategically position your solution—through a blend of display and retargeting ads—to showcase how using your solution can help them not just to overcome their current problems but achieve their revenue milestones. The idea here is to present your team and solution as strategic partners in their growth rather than mere software vendors or implementation partners. Here’s yet another strategy to leverage account-based sales and marketing to expand revenue growth—use whitespace analysis for farming key accounts. It’s basically a tool to help you identify whitespace farming and mining opportunities, discover areas where you can grow your account, and align or map your resources to accomplish your goals. Whitespace analysis gives you the advantage of strategically positioning second-order selling opportunities with a clear view of the account landscape. For instance, you can use whitespace analysis to identify potential cross-sell and upsell opportunities within your existing key accounts. With whitespace mapping, you can easily find opportunities for additional account penetration and expansion based on an account’s past performance, similar purchase patterns, and competitive landscape. A well-done whitespace analysis of key accounts will help you identify your best selling offerings or products, see gaps in product or service lines, spot revenue opportunities with little to no competition, anticipate and build capacities, and maintain a high-growth pipeline. To pull off most of the ABM campaigns successfully, you would need a solid partnership between marketing and sales because the silos between the two teams would jeopardize your chances of exploiting lucrative revenue opportunities. A tight alignment between marketing and sales can lead to a 32% increase in year-over-year revenue growth. When the two teams join forces with each other, the partnership opens new doors of business opportunities for expanding your retention revenue. For example, sales enablement is an arena where the two teams can come together to improve their team KPIs while bumping up their companies’ revenue. According to stats, businesses that have sales enablement as an integral part of their sales process have a 49% win rate on achieving forecasted deals. This lends itself over to account penetration too. The marketing already has core first-party data that they can leverage to create impactful content assets and create account-based email drip campaigns. They don’t have to open their purse to spend a dollar on acquiring new customers while the sales can borrow marketing’s expertise to create valuable sales collaterals like pitch decks, comparison docs, business cases, and so on. The collaboration is a win-win tactic for both teams and you can even tether the two teams to a common KPI to encourage a tighter alignment.
Stakeholder Mapping for Key Accounts- How Digital Account Planning Tools can make an Impact?
Stakeholder management is gaining more and more traction in recent years with ever-evolving customer needs and the advent of technological solutions for integrating relationship-building channels and capabilities. The expectations from both external and internal stakeholders are getting increasingly higher and pushing the envelope of stakeholder relationship management. Fred Reichheld, the Bain Fellow and Management Consultant at Bain & Company says that “For every customer that complains, there are 26 who don’t say anything. And instead of vocalizing their frustrations to your team, they simply stop buying from you and cancel their subscription.” This might not seem like much in traditional low-value sales where sellers have a large number of customers to cater to but it makes a massive difference in your bottom line when you are dealing with high-value key accounts. In fact, a study by Bain & Company states that by improving customer retention merely by 5%, the company’s profits can go up by as much as 95%. When you look at these two facts in tandem, it becomes critical to focus on the key stakeholder relationships not only for their sake but for yours as well. Who are the Stakeholders? Stakeholders in its general sense is a very broad term that can go on to include any individual or group whose decisions can either affect you and your business or be affected by the decisions you take for your business. These could be your customers, employees, partners, consultants, investors, and so on. In the context of key account management, the stakeholders are the people within your key accounts that have a say in the buying process, also known as external stakeholders, and the people within your organization that are overlooking and ensuring the buying process is not only a success but as smooth as possible are the internal stakeholders or the relationship owners. The unfolding of the modern B2B sales process has given rise to buying groups that consist of a group of people that increasingly possess more product knowledge and technical awareness that not only require their expectations to be met but need to be wowed too. This places the onus on your key account management team to step up their game and craft and execute an account-centric stakeholder relationship building and management strategy. Gartner Research reports that your customer is no longer relying on your sales and support team for attaining the information about your product or solution, they are conducting independent research and relying on both offline and online channels to make up their mind. A report by UserIQ states that 87% of respondents from SaaS organizations that have a churn rate of less than 1% report that, they are fully or somewhat aligned on key customer relationship management. To keep the churn rate at its minimum, you will need to keep your communication with your key accounts authentic, targeted, and relevant to keep your account engaged which is made possible by data-backed stakeholder mapping. What is Customer Stakeholder Mapping? 1. Definition of the Stakeholders’ Goals Stakeholder Mapping begins with defining the interests and goals of the buying centers in your key accounts. Knowing what they need and want can not only enable you to assess if the account is a good fit but will also help you provide a tailored offering that the stakeholders won’t be able to refuse. The key account buyer not only demands convenience in terms of accessing the information they might need but also want the communication and the expert consulting services to be authentic, targeted, relevant, and timely. 2. Segmentation of Stakeholders The next step in the stakeholder mapping process is to segment the individuals or buying groups with respect to their roles, attitude, influence, and the amount of budget they control. This Relationship attribution is the key to stakeholder analysis as it provides data-backed insights into understanding your stakeholders’ interests and goals. When analyzed properly it could also help you comprehend who is on your side and who is against, what pressure they are under with respect to meeting certain goals, and what are the internal dynamics of the organization so that you can strategize accordingly. Your key account managers need to know how to strategically map these individuals within accounts with respect to their role, their stances, and the amount of budget they control. All this stakeholder intelligence needs to be actioned upon and monetized to expand and grow that account. 3. Mapping of Stakeholder Relationships The next step in stakeholder mapping is to dissect the relationships that your internal stakeholder team has with the external team and also the ones that the individuals within their team have within themselves. This would help you learn who can positively or negatively influence who and to what extent? We all know that the account-based selling scenario can get very complex with multiple buying centers and buying committees that are responsible for these buying jobs. Individuals within these committees not only hold the power to influence the buying decisions (for example, by just delaying the purchase process and preventing it from progressing to the next stage) but can also influence other decision-makers within the committee to rule in their favor. Your key account managers need to know how to strategically map these individuals within accounts with respect to their role, their stances, and the amount of budget they control. 4. Nurturing the Stakeholder Relationships Stakeholder management does not end once the deal is closed but is an ongoing process that lasts throughout the customers’ lifetime which needs to be extended as long as the mutual business interests are sustained. Developing these long-lasting relationships turns recent adopters into loyal long-term customers. Once you have the above attributes of your stakeholders mapped out, you will have clarity on what communication needs to be directed at whom and when. Maintaining an Engagement cadence with the key contacts is as important as the level of engagement. Maintaining an Engagement cadence with the key contacts is as important as the level of engagement. e.g
Key Account Retention – The 4 Key Dos
The better your Key Account Management, the better the chances of your Key Account Retention. Key Account Retention is a straight derivative of how you build your relationship with your Key Accounts. It is not a data or a numbers game, but a relationship-building regimen. It is something you work at, for the long haul. There are certain Key Dos for Key Account Retention. We spell them out so that you don’t leave anything hanging loose when it comes to keeping your Key Relationship under a tight fist, yet nurturing it in a way that blossoms and keeps growing into a richer and mutually rewarding business association. The 4 Key Dos Look at KAM as a joint venture A vendor-buyer relationship takes away the ‘joint’ and ‘trusted’ feeling from a relationship. It becomes more of an association that a relationship. But if you work with your Key Accounts for a joint win, make joint plans with clear metrics, you will succeed at super speed in winning your customer’s trust. Joint objectives, joint strategies, joint plans, and joint ownership is the best way to look at your Key Account Relationships. Measure it to grow it Every plan is only so good as it is measurable. Without tangible figures to showcase the success of your plan or otherwise, there is no way you are going to win the trust of your customer. It is best to clearly define the measurable at the beginning of a relationship and measure it periodically as decided. This sets the tone of expectation, ownership, transparency and, therefore, trust. Every plan, every step, every point of value-added, is only as good as its measure of success. Numbers are important, keep them looped into your plan and be open for discussion. Timely reporting is key As support to #2 above, it is important to keep the flow of communication open on both ends between you and the customer. This establishes and nurtures trust because relationships are about being open about everything, including setbacks. Timely and periodical reporting with facts and figures help to keep the strategy on track as also the relationship. Build one-on-one relationships Your relationship cannot happen with an organization. It is built with real people. It pays to understand the hierarchy, the straight lines, the dotted lines and everything in between. It helps to know people at all levels in your customer’s organization and especially those who are influential, seniors, your brand champions and even those who play the devil’s advocate. This way you can build an individual relationship with every person in the customer’s organization who you think is instrumental in building and growing your Key Account. There is no substitute for hard work when it comes to building a one-on-one relationship with your customer’s key people. Explore the complete guide to Cross-selling and Up-selling to identify unexplored opportunities for your business as well as your clients’ business and grow better in 2021.