Stakeholders¶
Stakeholders are the people and roles mapped during discovery who influence, approve, or benefit from a value initiative. Accurate stakeholder mapping ensures messaging is personalized and decisions are aligned.
Who this is for¶
End User Admin Executive
Prerequisites¶
- A ValuePact account created in the system
- Access to the Intelligence workspace
- Optionally, CRM integration (Salesforce or HubSpot) for automatic contact sync
Overview¶
Stakeholder records include name, title, department, persona, influence level, and decision role. They are linked to value hypotheses and business cases so that narratives can be tailored by audience.
Stakeholder roles¶
| Role | Description | Typical concerns |
|---|---|---|
| Economic buyer | Controls budget and signs contracts | ROI, payback, risk |
| Champion | Internal advocate for the solution | Outcomes, feasibility, timeline |
| Evaluator | Assesses technical or operational fit | Capabilities, integration, roadmap |
| Compliance/Legal | Reviews regulatory and legal requirements | Risk, auditability, data handling |
| Operational user | Uses the solution day-to-day | Ease of use, training, support |
Persona mapping¶
Each stakeholder is linked to a persona from your value pack ontology. Personas define:
- Priorities — top strategic objectives for this role
- Pains — common friction points experienced
- Messaging themes — value narratives proven to resonate
- Preferred proof points — benchmarks, case studies, or analyst reports
When generating a business case, the platform selects messaging themes and proof points based on the persona of the intended audience. A CFO receives financial narratives with benchmark data. A technical evaluator receives capability mappings with integration roadmaps.
Mapping stakeholders¶
Automatic enrichment¶
If CRM integration is enabled, ValuePact pulls contacts from the account's opportunity and enriches them with LinkedIn data. The platform infers decision roles based on title patterns.
Manual entry¶
- Open the account's Intelligence workspace.
- Click the Stakeholders tab.
- Click Add Stakeholder.
- Enter name, title, and email.
- Select a persona from the value pack ontology.
- Set influence level: High, Medium, or Low.
- Set decision role: Economic buyer, Champion, Evaluator, Compliance, or Operational user.
- Click Save.
Bulk import¶
Upload a CSV with columns: name, title, email, department, persona_id, influence_level, decision_role. The system validates persona IDs against the account's value pack.
Engagement tracking¶
Stakeholder engagement is tracked across touchpoints:
- Business case views — which stakeholders opened which deliverable view
- Meeting notes — linked to stakeholder records
- Feedback — validation notes from hypothesis reviews
- Sentiment — inferred from email tone or meeting transcripts (if enabled)
Influence matrix¶
The influence matrix visualizes stakeholders by decision role and influence level:
| High influence | Medium influence | Low influence | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Economic buyer | Primary approver | Secondary approver | Inform only |
| Champion | Mobilizes support | Provides references | Passive advocate |
| Evaluator | Gatekeeper | Technical advisor | End user |
| Compliance | Regulatory blocker | Policy reviewer | Not involved |
Use the matrix to identify gaps. An initiative with no high-influence champion is flagged as "at risk" in stakeholder health.
RACI mapping¶
For complex initiatives, stakeholders can be assigned RACI roles per project task:
| RACI | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Responsible | Does the work |
| Accountable | Owns the outcome |
| Consulted | Provides input |
| Informed | Kept up to date |
To configure RACI, open the initiative's Stakeholders panel, select a stakeholder, and toggle RACI assignments for each milestone.
Permissions required¶
| Role | Permission | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Admin | Configure persona ontologies | Organization |
| User | Add and edit stakeholders | Assigned accounts |
| User | View engagement history | Assigned accounts |
| Executive | View stakeholder maps across initiatives | Organization |
stakeholders:write to add or edit; stakeholders:read to view.
Limits and guardrails¶
Limit A maximum of 100 stakeholders per account.
Limit CRM sync runs every 4 hours. Manual sync is available once per hour.
Limit Engagement sentiment analysis is available only when the Microsoft Teams or Slack integration is enabled.
Troubleshooting¶
Issue: CRM sync creates duplicate stakeholders
Cause: The same contact exists in multiple CRM objects (lead, contact, opportunity contact role). Resolution: In Settings > Integrations > CRM, enable Deduplicate by email and run a manual resync.
Issue: Stakeholder persona is not available in the dropdown
Cause: The account's value pack does not include the requested persona, or the value pack is outdated. Resolution: Contact an admin to update the value pack ontology in Administration > Value Packs.
Issue: Engagement tracking shows no data for a stakeholder
Cause: The stakeholder has not been linked to a delivered business case, or email tracking is disabled. Resolution: Confirm the stakeholder is added to the account and that Email Tracking is enabled in workspace settings.
Issue: Influence matrix shows a missing champion for an account
Cause: No stakeholder is tagged with the Champion role, or the champion was accidentally archived. Resolution: Review the stakeholder list and add or restore a champion. Accounts without champions are flagged in pipeline reviews.
Related pages¶
Escalation path¶
For CRM sync or integration issues, contact your admin or integration owner. For ontology or persona gaps, escalate to Value Engineering via Slack #value-packs.
Stakeholder import template¶
A sample CSV header for bulk import:
name,title,email,department,persona_id,influence_level,decision_role
Alice Chen,CFO,alice@example.com,Finance,cfo_v1,High,economic_buyer
Bob Smith,VP Engineering,bob@example.com,Engineering,vpe_v1,Medium,evaluator
persona_id must match an entry in the account's value pack ontology.