With roles and titles a poor measure for who actually matters inside your customer, finding the right stakeholders in a deal can be daunting. Fortunately, the best strategic account managers are ace detectives and even better amateur psychologists – two very helpful characteristics when qualifying power and influence within the buying group.

OK, but how do you actually…you know…DO IT?

1. Put on your deerstalker hat and make like Sherlock Holmes. Who’s willing to talk and share pain? To be forthcoming with information beyond what’s covered in documented requirements? To speak candidly about their company’s challenges and strategies for overcoming them? These people demonstrate a strong connection to their company’s pain points and represent the most likely people to be invested in finding solutions.

2. Create your buyer personas. This will vary depending on the customer, but typical buyer personas include Approver, Buyer Type (Business, Technical, etc.), Influencer, User, Legal/Procurement, External Consultants, etc.

3. Use LinkedIn to identify hidden influencers. Who’s connected to whom inside your customer? Study who is sharing, liking and commenting on topics and pain points your products and solutions address. This can offer invaluable insight into who is invested in driving change and pushing your customer’s organization forward.

4. Identify your “Mobilizers.” These are the people within your customer who care above all else about driving action that serves the greater good of their company. They demonstrate a healthy skepticism and will never shy away from asking pointed questions of you.

5. Ask questions. Lots of them. As a strategic seller, you’re exceptionally skilled at asking questions and finding hidden insights. Leverage your existing customer network to ask probing questions about the buyer decision-making process.

Ask:

• Who is driving the initiative at hand?
• Who needs to sign off on it?
• Who stands to gain (or lose) if a deal goes forward?

If you’re lucky, you will uncover potential “mobilizers” who may be willing to advocate for you inside your customer. Just as critically, you may find hidden “blockers,” those people with the power (and inclination) to spike a deal.

Now it’s time to build a simple (yet awesome) relationship map.

Once you’ve identified the right customer decision makers, you need to gain an overview of who knows whom — to make sure the right person from your company is always in contact with the right stakeholder inside your customer.