As a freelancer, my key to stakeholder management has consistently been to create a strong core team up front. This team is my rock, and we hold each other to account to get a high-quality bid out the door on time. I never start a bid without this core team in place and with sufficient time committed by them.
My core team comprises a lead for each contributing function. In my case, in the technology industry, this will typically comprise:
- A senior manager who is sponsoring the opportunity through the bid process
- The salesperson who owns the opportunity and will advise on the win strategy and coordinate the commercial deal
- A technical lead who owns the solution design
- A delivery lead who owns the solution implementation approach
- A legal eagle who will act as counsel
I manage tasks and timelines, lead the development of a compelling bid, and hold overall accountability. Ideally, I have administration support for portal and document management.
The first step with the core team is to confirm their roles and responsibilities. We then identify any additional resources required, including content contributors, peer reviewers, the final-document review team, and those involved in the governance and approval process. Each of us takes responsibility for managing the relevant people. This way, we divide the elephant into manageable chunks, establish individual and collective accountability, and set the framework for effective stakeholder engagement as shown in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1: Framework for efficient stakeholder management. An approach that capitalises on existing relationships and forums and creates collective accountability
I always hold a kick-off meeting – the one event that everyone is invited to. Each core team member has a slot on the agenda to share an overview of their role and perspective. This reinforces their accountability.
For anyone invited but unable to attend, I arrange a separate event or a personal briefing, because it is vital that we get off on the right foot and have buy-in from everyone from the start. I document the kick-off and send it to everyone.
Post-kick-off, the core team members are responsible for advancing their respective elements of the proposal. Regular checkpoints involve only the core team. We check task progress, new information, risks and issues, and the timeline’s viability, and I make the necessary adjustments.
I document every checkpoint and circulate it to everyone. But mindful that an email is not guaranteed to be read, understood, or remembered, I ensure we all maintain direct engagement with our respective stakeholders and mitigate any concerns.
My watchwords are check, communicate, manage, mitigate – continuously.
Maybe I am fortunate to have had well-behaved clients, but whether by good luck or good management, they have bought into this approach.
Sarah Hinchliffe
Sarah labels herself a ‘Storyteller, Organiser, Timekeeper’ – three things that come naturally to her. After a 30-year sales career in the IT industry, where she learnt every popular sales methodology and sold millions of pounds of software and services, Sarah decided to share what she’d learnt about winning business using great stories, a systematic approach and consistently delivering on time. She continues learning and sharing through her freelance consulting work and volunteering as a writer, speaker and mentor.
