Stakeholder Mastery - Verify and Validate

Hey, it's Jermaine Edwards, your customer growth guide. If you're new, welcome. If you're old, welcome back to the fold. And if you're joining us on video number 2, we're in our Key Customer Mastery series talking about stakeholder mastery and the importance of how we engage with our most important customers. Now, if you haven't seen video number 1, I suggest you go do that now, otherwise this won't make any sense to you at all. So now we're going to get started on this whole idea of verifying and validating— Let's talk about verifying and validating. So once we've now gone through the process of thinking about the stakeholders that we want to communicate with, We've looked at the group benefits, we've looked at the individual benefits, we've put them on the framework of thinking about where they might fall in the stakeholder map. Now what we want to do is to verify and to validate this. Why is that important? Well, we don't want to make any assumptions. We want to be really clear on the benefits and if the benefits of those specific contacts are aligned, properly aligned, to the products and services that we have. So we can make adjustments or ensure that we're making adjustments for future opportunities with those contacts as well. So we're going to start with this whole idea of verification. And verification is really important here. And we're going to do this with your main contact or contacts, those people who you're in contact with, those supporters, speaking in reference of those areas of the key account and stakeholder mapping. Those people who we're going to verify with are going to be those people who have a view generally of most of the business because they're owning the result, they're owning the engagement with you and that product or service. And so the first thing we want to do is to invite them into the discovery, the discovery that you've taken the effort that you've put in to understand and to map all of the different individuals within their business that you're communicating with. You've looked at the individual benefits, you've looked at the group benefits, you've looked at the motivators, the implications of not using your products and services well or at all. You've looked at the advantages that they can get from engaging with you directly and the value you can provide through that. They have not done that work. Your supporters haven't done that work. So the moment you come to them and say, hey, I've actually gone through this process. We as an organization have done this, and through that activity, we've discovered the common benefits, the individual benefits, the ways in which we can add significant value to each of those specific contacts to ensure that you can get best use of the product and service and actually achieve your results. That is something really powerful that they wouldn't have gone through as an exercise, but you have. And the moment you do that, they now feel much more confident. They'll be more willing to go out to the business because you know you have answers, or they know you have the answers to be able to communicate to that business and make them look really good in the process. So we want to invite them to that discovery and have that conversation. The next thing you want to do is to share that you'd like to have a group call. And the reason for the group call is for you to verify that this is all correct. So you're gonna share this with them, obviously invite them into the discovery, share what you've actually found, walk them through it, and then say, hey, would this be of value for us to have a group call to verify if all this is correct so that we can then execute on the right things that allow you and the business to get best use of the product and service? Now, anybody who's reasonable will say, absolutely, that sounds like a great plan. And there may be some logistics that are part of putting that together. But it's actually a very viable, uh, plan because you've already set them up with the invite into the discovery. You've told them why, you've told them what you've discovered, you've shown it to them. They're going to be much more engaged and much more compelled to do things with you and collaboratively with you into that next stage. That's all about the verification, inviting them into discovery, and then arranging that group call, sharing that you'd like to do that. So let's move into validating. So let's imagine now we have the call, we're on this group call, and we want to have a really positive environment, a very positive conversation. The first thing we want to do even before we get to the call is what I call friend people. So we want to friend people there that the contacts are now part of. So we want to friend these people beforehand, meaning get in contact and say, hey, looking forward to being in the conversation, got some great insights to share with you. Begin to do that, friend those people up front, just like you would on Facebook or LinkedIn. Send that initial message so they know you up front. And here's why: most people will be much more engaged with people that you've already been in contact with. So we want to make sure that we're setting the environment for success. Right from the beginning. Get in contact with those people in advance to let them know you're looking forward to the conversation and they will get a lot of value from the conversation as well. Next thing we want to do is while we're on the call— I don't need to tell you this, but I still need to say it— is actually to listen really well, because the whole point of this area is that we want to validate that the information that we have is actually correct. So how do we do that? Well, we have to, we have to listen to them. We have to really listen carefully, eliminate distractions. I know we're going to have our discovery and the things that we've done already, but we need to be open to be wrong and to correct those things inside the call. If we're open to the discovery of new insights on the call, uh, then we're most, most likely going to get more accurate information and be able to take more specific and intentional actions after the call. So listening is really, really important. The next piece here, and the final piece here, is to document. So whatever's being said and whatever's been done, we want to make sure that that's been documented. And throughout this process here of friending and listening and documenting, what we should now have at the end of this particular phase is a fully reworked customer map document from stage 1 that allows you now to think about the next step, which is the communication for each of those contacts and how you'll do that well. And guess what? Because you're on the call doing this with them, you can actually ask them inside the call, hey, what's the best way for us to communicate this? What's the best way for us to engage and get the most value together? Get them involved, get them connected, and you'll be sure to have greater overall stakeholder engagement. And guess what? You haven't had to do that, say, doing 50 different calls. You've done it in one call with one process to get one validated experience. And now you, with confidence, you can go back to the business and know exactly how to communicate with them well. So download the workbook because I've got all this stuff written out for you so you can follow it line by line, step by step. And in video 3, I'm going to talk to you about how exactly to reshape and to reorganize how you communicate with all of these different contacts.