Imagine a situation where your customer is a small-medium enterprise, and your champion is highly engaged and supportive.
All looks good. A few months into the first year of the relationship, the stakeholder left the company and handed over to his successor. She knew our product, and we were not strangers to her. At that time, she was too busy and “handed us over” to someone else in her team with whom we had no relationship. This person asked us for some time to settle as he also had a few other vendors to manage. Eventually, he avoided most of the communications we initiated and showed little interest in our value and deliverables.
A few months later, the customer churned.
What did we learn?
💡The “chain” (relationship) was not as strong as its “weakest” link. The relationship only had one link.
💡We focused our efforts on our champion as it was easy. He was responsive, engaged, and happy to work with us. However, this strategy proved to be a double-edged sword. We inadvertently ignored other vital stakeholders, such as his deputy, who eventually succeeded him. This oversight led to a significant loss of business when our champion left.
💡 We found out about his departure “late in the game” and had very little time to respond in a timely manner.
💡Regaining the momentum without a solid relationship was not just challenging, it was a daunting task. We found ourselves trying (unsuccessfully) to sell the product again (now, to a new stakeholder). This experience underscored the importance of maintaining multiple stakeholder relationships to ensure business continuity.
If only we could predict this change in advance and have sufficient time to manage the consequences of engaging only one stakeholder. This experience highlighted the need for a predictive framework that could help us anticipate such changes and take proactive measures.
Following this introduction, let me share a framework to help you predict the “stakeholder change role” scenario.
Early indications and signals for stakeholder changing role
🔎 Verify the “mileage” of your stakeholder in their existing position. As part of a stakeholder mapping exercise, we spend time researching the stakeholders we work with. One piece of information to record is their time in their existing role. Assuming that it is not about “IF” they move but “WHEN” they will proceed, we better assess the likelihood of such change as early as possible.
🔎Engagement slows down – While the one-off delay in response from stakeholders does not indicate a future role change, few signals will help predict the your stakeholder's near future.
📌 What is the “average rhythm” of the engagement? First, verify the level of engagement you have already established. Emails are responded to within 1-2 days. Does the meeting take place every week? Questions regularly raised by your stakeholders? What is the level of collaboration?
📌With that in mind, keep an eye on this “average.” Is there a one-off “deviation” or a constant decline in the engagement? To what extent are plans and actions agreed upon before now put on hold? This deviation does not consider holidays, sick days, or other ad-hoc absences.
📌There is no rule of thumb here, as the CSM is best positioned to assess this situation using common sense.
📌Engagement “slow down” is not a “standalone” indication and is tightly related to the next signal.
🔎Someone else is getting involved.
This person could be from the same team you have engaged with, which is the more optimistic scenario. Conversely, the successor may be from a different team or someone who joined the customer’s organization. This person might already be taking over specific responsibilities from your current stakeholder, while there has been no official announcement about the change. There could be different reasons why “no one told you about it,” and all of them don’t matter. If I go back to the story I shared at the beginning of the article, we made the same mistake. We assumed “someone” would tell us. However, the reality was different; we were not alerted that the 2nd in command was taking more responsibilities while our leading champion gradually became less involved. We could have spent a few weeks preparing and addressing her concerns about our product but did not spot it on time. In the meantime, she made a few assumptions that were not aligned or verified with us, and by the time we found out, we were 95% out of the game.
🔎Proactive Questioning
The signals listed above can get the CSM to a certain point that requires a more proactive approach to substantiate the possible prediction about our stakeholders.
There are three possible courses of action when it comes to proactive questioning:
📌Ask your stakeholders. It is not simple nor straightforward to ask someone if they are about to leave their role. Instead, you can “reach out for help”. If the stakeholders are busy, they might leverage your offer to help them until they re-engage as they used to do. If they are on their way out, they might share their plans with you so you can ask them for directions and guidance. Suppose you are “re-directed” to someone else on the team. In that case, you can then establish a new relationship that will prove helpful if the prediction about your stakeholder's next move is accurate.
📌Sometimes, your stakeholders are not responsive (to the extent that you are unable to schedule a call with them). This is another sign to take into consideration when assessing this situation. In this scenario, I use to ask one of the following questions:
“I noticed John Smith has not been responsive. Who should we contact as we
have a few items to follow up on?”
“Is John Smith on a long holiday? I could not get hold of him for a while.”
“Has John Smith mentioned anything about a few follow-up items we agreed on?”
I am sharing below a few of the answers I used to get that helped me refine my prediction:
“He is busy with another team/another project.” You should contact this person instead.”
“He was busy with another project but expected to return soon. Please allow a few days before re-engaging.
“I will call him later today and let him know about your inquiry.”
“He has been dealing with other priorities, and I am unsure about his availability. You may need to approach his manager.”
Other answers can shed some light on your stakeholders' present and future. The important thing is to understand your position and whether you need to consider plan B and actively approach other people.
📌Assuming you are at a dead-end and not sure who you need to deal with, then approaching the manager of your stakeholder can be an appropriate next step, assuming this person knows who you are. In parallel, you can chat with the sales team and, with their help, approach one or more stakeholders involved in earlier stages, which can help point you in the right direction. This move can be considered “aggressive” or riskier; however, waiting for someone to respond can lead to losing momentum, and customers may eventually churn. You will need to use your common sense again to determine if this is the right action, or you should be patient and wait for your stakeholders to re-engage.
🔎The Playbook
The “Stakeholder change” playbook should be part of the vendor's customer success methodology. I am sharing a few practices that worked well for me (especially when the formal stakeholder change was not announced).
📌Research the person whom you suspect will be the successor.
📌LinkedIn is an excellent place to start. Check their background. Do they have the relevant domain knowledge related to your product? Do they know anyone in your team or organization? Has anyone in your network engaged with them before and can give you a reference?
📌Ask for an introduction from someone you trust. The person can be from the customer team or your organization (usually, it will be the sales team).
📌Intro call/meeting should be well orchestrated (”No second chance for first impression”). You can briefly introduce yourself, followed by an overview of your organization, value, and the outcomes your product enabled.
📌If you need to follow up on action items/ next steps agreed upon with the “missing” stakeholders, then raise them gently and ask for some guidance.
📌You should end the intro meeting with concrete next steps that will help you to promote your agenda and establish communication with your new stakeholders.
Stakeholder management is a continuous process. CSMs invest time and effort in building professional relationships, while later stakeholders may leave and hand over to someone else. And we are back to square one.
It is part of the CSM's responsibility to manage such situations, where prediction is essential in mitigating obvious risks. Then we expect proactive actions to get to know the successor promptly to onboard them leaving minimum time for them to make unfavorable assumptions on our behalf.
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