Targeting the stakeholders that matter most

By Brad Addison - CoFactor Managing Partner; and communication, engagement and reputation management specialist
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Most businesses will have a stakeholder network that extends to tens or hundreds of people across different groups. Your efforts and resources are best spent engaging with those who are most essential to achieving your company’s objectives.

It’s alarming how many businesses aren’t paying attention to highly influential stakeholders. Examples that pop up regularly include not building strong relationships with the key individuals at Client X who have vast influence over a substantial amount of the company’s revenue. Or a key business partner essential to its operation.

So, how do you know who you should be engaging with?

First, get clear on what you want

Authentic, mutually beneficial stakeholder engagement is really important. Equally so is knowing why you’re engaging in the first place.

Are you launching a new product? Hiring a new leader? Going through a round of fundraising? Is this a whole-of-company exercise to bolster your effectiveness? Or a specific project or set of circumstances that requires speaking to specific stakeholders?

We recommend taking an ‘outcomes approach’ to stakeholder engagement. Focus on where stakeholder engagement can have the biggest impact on your strategy and operations. Use your organisation’s strategy and key objectives to determine the stakeholders you need to engage:

• What are your key objectives?
• What issues and challenges are related to that objective?
• Who are the influential stakeholders around those issues?
• What does success look like?

Having a clear purpose will help focus your objectives and maximise the impact of your activities - including good use of your time and the likelihood of a successful outcome. Once you’ve identified your objective and stakeholders influential to achieving them, you can turn to who is most important.

Who is most important to your business objectives?

1. Does the stakeholder have a strong impact on you achieving your business objectives?
2. Can you clearly identify what you want from the stakeholder?
3. Do they show interest in you (are they prepared to engage)?
4. Do they have expertise on your important issues?
5. What responsibilities does your company have to this stakeholder (think regulators, shareholders, business partners or the wider community)
6. Can you exist without or easily replace the stakeholder?

This is just the beginning

With these questions in mind, consider how well you’re currently engaging with your stakeholders. Is it clear why you’re interacting with them, what you want from them and how you’re creating mutual value? Crucially, are you growing your influence and consistently moving closer to achieving your objectives? These are just some of the aspects to consider when targeting stakeholders.