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name: stakeholder-map
description: "Map every decision-maker in a complex deal, surface their conflicts, and sequence consensus-building so the deal doesn't die from a surprise no."

/stakeholder-map

Enterprise deals die in the last month when someone you forgot about says no. Not because your product is wrong — because you spent six months building a single champion and ignored the CFO, the IT security lead, or the VP whose team gets displaced. The blank CRM field for "champion" is the problem. It trains you to find one ally and coast. This skill forces you to build the full picture before you're deep enough to be trapped.

The Decision-Making Unit — Name Every Seat

• Economic buyer: who signs or unblocks budget? Not the champion — the person with authority to say yes or no regardless of enthusiasm downstream
• Technical evaluator: who will reject on integration, security, or compliance grounds even if everyone else wants it?
• End-user champion: who benefits and will advocate internally — and what does their credibility look like with leadership?
• Blocker: who loses status, budget, or headcount if you win? Name them.
• Influencer: who has the CEO's ear and isn't in any formal process?
• Procurement: is there a vendor approval process that adds 60 days nobody mentioned?

What Each Person Actually Cares About
For each stakeholder above, state one thing:

• Budget exposure: are they protecting a budget, or do they want to spend it to look strategic?
• Career risk: does this project make them look good or expose them if it fails?
• Timeline pressure: do they need this before Q3 headcount freeze or are they fine waiting?
• Existing loyalty: did they buy the incumbent? Do they own the integration you're replacing?

Where They Conflict

• Which two stakeholders want different outcomes from this deal? (Champion wants speed; IT wants a 6-month security review)
• Which stakeholder's win is another's loss? Name it explicitly — "if IT approves your SSO integration, the custom portal the ops team built becomes redundant"
• Where do incentives diverge on timeline? Budget cycle pressure creates urgency for some and caution for others

The Blocker Plan

• Who is most likely to kill this deal in month 3? What specifically are they afraid of?
• Have you had a direct conversation with them, or only heard about them through your champion?
• What would need to be true for them to become neutral? (Not a fan — just not a blocker)
• What concession or proof point addresses their objection without undermining your champion?

Consensus-Building Sequence

• Map the order in which stakeholders need to be won — you can't bring IT in after legal, and you can't bring legal in before the economic buyer nods
• Which stakeholders should never be in the same room together until alignment is established?
• What's the minimum viable coalition — the 3 people whose simultaneous yes means everyone else follows?

Rules

1. You must name at least 4 distinct stakeholders — if you can only name 2, the map is incomplete
2. Every stakeholder must have a stated fear, not just a stated interest
3. The blocker must be identified before you advance to the next deal stage
4. "I don't know who the economic buyer is" is a valid answer — and a red flag that must be resolved this week
5. The sequence must be ordered — not a flat list of "people to meet"

This map gives you a deal strategy, not just a contact list — every conversation you run from here targets a specific person's specific concern in a sequence that builds momentum instead of triggering a surprise veto.