AMA: Splunk Director of Customer Success, Ed Sowden on Stakeholder Management

This is type of situation can often arise in the business world with cross functional teams. The key is to focus on the business / customer outcomes. What is it we are trying to achieve and how does it impact the business or customer. It's important to focus on collaboration, clarity and customer value - things that are important to all stakeholders. Think to consider are: Clarify Roles: Review your RACI's if they exist or consider setting up a session to map out who leads what. Collaborate: Ens ...Read More

For me the two most important skills above all else for a CSM are Resilience and Problem Solving. In your role as a CSM you are the are the face between the customer and the company. Which means you bare the brunt of both the customer when things aren't going well and are the voice of the business when a message has to be delivered good or bad. Resilience allows you to adapt, recover, and keep performing well when faced with challenges, setbacks, or constant change. In customer-facing, fast-pace ...Read More

No matter who the stakeholder is or what function they lead it's important to understand what drives them as an individual and what the goals of their function are. Understanding these points will allow you to consider how you position your messaging so that the stakeholder clearly understands how it will help them, the company and their function. Everyone is busy so it's important for the stakeholder to understand what's in it for them. Are you helping their function, are they helping the wider ...Read More

It's not easy to do this but it is feasible and it's something I've done successfully in the past when leading a CHR project at Cornerstone. Thinks to consider include: Set a clear outcome and strategy Set up a regular communication cadence Clarify roles, responsibilities and set tasks Provide regular progress updates Build trust and build relationships Win together and learn together Empower cross functional leaders Review and feedback If you can be successful in leading these types of cross fu ...Read More

Clear and regular communication is key for any successful launch. Once the go live has been set and the project or product completed for go live it's fundamental that you get your communication strategy on point. Make sure that everyone has all the information they need in a clear, concise and timely manner. If you are going live with a new way of working internally you'll need to think about the following: Communication, awareness and buy in from senior stakeholder Enable and train your leaders ...Read More

I think it's important to understand what has caused the historical challenges. Having seen this myself in the past, from my own experience it generally occurs when there are competing priorities or differing targets. For example it could be that something the other function is doing is helping them to hit their own target, but at the same time having a negative impact your own. Sometimes things that help drive the sales target could have a negative impact on the renewals target for example. Tak ...Read More