What advice do you have for navigating multiple stakeholders with conflicting feedback when creating sales enablement?

I have one stakeholder who really should only be an inform but is acting like a decision-maker, and the conflicting feedback I'm getting is prolonging the creation process 5x. I've also got a design team that needs a lot of handholding, which is difficult for me since it's not my specialty.

Answer

7 Answers

Sales Adoption Stakeholder Management

Leah Brite

Gusto Head of Product Marketing, Benefits • 4y

A few things come to mind to try: Create a brief for the sales enablement assets upfront. Succinctly outline what your objectives are in priority order, who the target audience is, and some brief details on what’s important and likely to appeal to them. This brief is also a great place to outline your RACI/DACI/RAPID to create clarity on what each person’s role is in the project. When conflicting opinions arise, try to leverage your brief to realign the stakeholders around what is important. Bri ...Read More

2,224 Views
Jason Perocho

Amperity SVP, Head of Marketing • 2y

Great stakeholder management begins before a project like sales enablement even begins. Vision: I quickly establish my vision for Product Marketing at the company. In the vision I define our guiding light, what we do, and how we do it. The vision is co-created with the rest of my product marketing team so that every feels a sense of ownership and will evangelize the vision. I get the vision blessed by my CMO, CPO, and CRO, then begin each meeting with it. See below for an example Guiding light: ...Read More

709 Views
Steve Feyer

WalkMe Director, Solutions Marketing & Competitive Intelligence • 8y

Politically, it's probably smart to go with the advice of the most senior person offering advice, especially if they are in your direct reporting structure.

As another option, supposing that one person told you they prefer "A" and another told you they prefer "B", show the two options to a few of your good reps and let them break the tie. I demonstrate that I've done the right things for enablement by showing that our reps actually use them.

755 Views
Pat Ma

Guidewire Software Senior Product Marketing Manager • 9y

Marketing is the only job in a company that everybody thinks they can do. You’ll propose an idea and get conflicting feedback from everyone.

How I handle the situation is saying something like, “I’ve considered everybody’s feedback, tried to incorporate as much of your feedback as possible, and on the conflicting feedback made a judgement on the best path forward.”

You can’t please everyone. But most people just want to be heard and recognized.

858 Views
Bala Vishal

Lucidworks Former Director of Digital Marketing - Demand Generation • 6y

I think it is important to have a strategy/vision with goals laid out for sales enablement, that is approved by stakeholders ( typically VP demand generation/CMO and VP Sales / Chief Revenue Officer). Once that is good to go is when I would recommend creating a tactical plan which should be your ideas that are aligned with the above vision. I understand this is easier said than done, however, you need the backing of your manager who is prepared to stand up for you in case you face hurdles in ...Read More

738 Views
Dena Nejad

Hover Director of Marketing • 9y

How is your sales team set up? Do you have a sales training counterpart? Or is the head of sales?

Ultimately, you’ll need to set up a mtg with that person + your head of marketing and you to review proposals and to ask them who’s input is crucial. You will never make everyone happy - you have to become the expert and make recommendations and make sure you are aligned with the head of mktg and sales vision.

613 Views
Daniel Palay

KPI Sense Chief Executive Officer • 6y

The first thing to do is figure out the "why" of the conflicting opinions. Perhpas it has to do with the incentives each stakeholder is responding to, or a resistance to behavior change of some kind. Either way, this can potentially help reconcile those differences and produce something that everyone feels equally invested in.

500 Views