Blueprint | 06 Remote Stakeholders Meetings

B L U E P R I N T REMOTE STAKEHOLDER MEETINGS Learn the process of getting to the stakeholder meeting, make sure the stakeholders want to be there, and then keep them engaged all the way through to agree to next steps. Stakeholder Meeting STAKEHOLDER MEETING Consider who will be attending the meeting. You will learn about this from your champion. Have your champion introduce you as the expert to help figure out if they’re going to move forward with evaluating your initiative. Set this up by having a call before the call with your champion. By your champion starting the call saying “The reason I brought you here today…” and then introducing you, it changes the framing of the call from a sales call to an expert wanting to help with a business problem. You’re not the only expert in the room. Each person in the room is there for a reason and has their own expertise. Your role is to combine all of their expertise and priorities and build consensus. Co-creating something together - Use a shared document like Google Docs so you can build ideas and a plan together. Start with their current situation and pain and transition to discussing their future state and how altogether you can work to solve their pain. HOW TO ENGAGE EVERYONE IN A STAKEHOLDER MEETING When running a stakeholder meeting the most important thing is to get everyone involved. Call before the call with your champion Will help you understand who will be on the call and what they want to get out of it. Intros can waste time in a remote meeting, and oftentimes the people you want to hear from the most end up saying the least. Instead, lead with what you know (from the research you did using CrystalKnows)

B L U E P R I N T REMOTE STAKEHOLDER MEETINGS Asking questions Sometimes you ask questions to the whole group Point out certain people by name, trying to rotate through everyone in the room, set the context, and then ask the question. This way you set up others for success in answering the question. Don’t forget, everyone needs to have their camera on and with their own screen. 3 PARTS OF THE STAKEHOLDER MEETING Part 1 - What is the situation and pain of the present state of the company? - Summarize your diagnosis to get everyone on the same page. Part 2 - The dream - what is the end state that you’re all building towards. I.e. brand awareness. Your job in this stage is to align what they want to achieve with what you know about them Co-creation - show them your idea and how to get there. Part 3 - Next steps - Don’t be complex. This should be one main thing you can accomplish to move onto the next step. If more than one main thing is needed, consider using an action plan. List milestones and be clear about who needs to do what on each side to reach that milestone. INFLUENCING THE GATEKEEPER TO UNBLOCK The gatekeeper is someone that has the power to block you from moving forward. How do you get to this position, avoid it, and unblock them? At what point do you reach the gatekeeper Initiator → Champion → Decider → GATEKEEPER → Buyer The gatekeeper is someone that has a vested interest in making sure your solution doesn’t go in, usually because they feel threatened in some way. Don’t go around them, because gatekeepers usually have enough power in the business to negatively affect any future possibility for you to work with that company. Do leverage an influencer. Introduce the gatekeeper to someone with the same title at another company. This person will help them see things they didn’t see, such as how the solution you’re offering can actually help them. Rational impact. HOW TO CREATE URGENCY WITH PERSONAL AND COMPANY PRIORITIES Rational Impact Most of the time you think that people care about the money - “How much will this cost and How much will I make from it?” Emotional Impact

B L U E P R I N T REMOTE STAKEHOLDER MEETINGS In reality, people are very motivated by emotional factors. You can drive urgency by blending the things individuals are looking to improve upon with company initiatives. We’ve discussed having the champion introduce the meeting when it begins. When we have a big idea that everyone is aligned on this helps everyone focus on the one big goal that everyone can achieve together. Then point out how each different person can be affected by achieving that dream. Drive urgency so when it comes time to build that next step, everyone feels like they’ve co-created the perfect plan that works for everyone. TOP MISTAKES TO AVOID WHEN RUNNING REMOTE STAKEHOLDER MEETINGS DON’T let people join the meeting unprepared. DO include in the calendar invite that the meeting will be on video and it is important that each person has their own video for maximum engagement DON’T go into the meeting without being prepared. DO know who will be in the meeting and doing some research about each person and ask your champion what each attendee expects. DON’T conduct a meeting as a pitch or monologue. DO make the stakeholder meeting a conversation - leverage everyone’s expertise to co-create a plan to do business together.