How to build a key stakeholder map

    Key discussion points:

    1) Quick recap of everything we've covered so far
    2) One of the most important and overlooked aspects of brand design
    3) What do people pay attention to?
    4) Understanding salience
    5) The importance of developing your stakeholder map for brand growth

    A quote to share
    "People who don't know you, aren't interested in you. They have no solid concept of your existence. People become interested in you when what you communicate or do is salient to them." - Lauren Kress
    Tomorrow's Episode:

    Brand Mapping: The 5 Pillars for Brand Growth


    How to build your key stakeholder map - download worksheet here


    If you haven't already completed the worksheet from episode 2 to define your purpose and vision and mission statements you can access it via the show notes here: https://www.laurenkress.com/post/defining-your-brand-purpose-why-do-you-exist or download it directly here: https://www.laurenkress.com/why-you-exist-download

    Tweet with me: @laurenkress89

    Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenkress89/

    Podcast Show Transcript:

    G'day everyone and welcome back to Grow Your Brand, the podcast show where we talk about how to unlock your potential so you can get more out of your life.

    I'm your host, Lauren Kress the business scientist and today we're talking about people and what makes people tick.

    Because if you want to succeed at anything, you need to understand a bit about how people work - what motivates them, and how to relate to their situation. This is about showing your stakeholders why they should care about you and your cause - their reason to be emotionally invested in what you do.

    By now hopefully you've had a chance to download the worksheet that went along with episode 2 and had a chance to think about what it is you really want to do with your time on this planet, and what that means for your work or your business.

    So hopefully you understand what I'm talking about people caring about you and your cause, because I don't mean that in an ego-centric way. I mean that in a you doing something you love, that has meaningful impact on the world, by playing to your strengths and pursuing your passion.

    Let's what we've been talking about in these last few episodes are some of the fundamental concepts for brand growth so what brand is, how to define your brand purpose, your brand integrity and in our last episode as well we started talking about this concept of key stakeholders.

    These are the people who are affected by or who can or will affect your vision and mission - this is also something you would have defined in that worksheet from episode 2.

    If you haven't listened to episode 2 or you haven't completed that worksheet, I'd suggest going back to listening to that first and doing that exercise so you can get the most out of this episode.

    The links to the episode I'm referring to and the worksheet are in the show notes for this episode.

    But if you've done all of that then you are ready for this episode today which is a really awesome one, and one I've been excited to share with you.

    Today we're going to talk about getting inside your stakeholders shoes and really understanding where they're coming from so you can build a deep connection with them from the outset.

    This is one of the most important and, in my experience, one of the most overlooked aspects of brand design for most businesses, so if you can really nail this it's going to help you stand out from your competitors and really take that next step in your business and your life.

    This is what I've found to be the most effective way to get customers faster, access funding, form new partnerships, and get out there and start speaking on stage and in the media about your story. Alright so first, to start with a couple of quesitons for you.

    First question - what do people pay attention to?

    When people are walking down the street and there's all this stuff going on out there in the world.

    What do people notice?

    Do they notice the cute puppy that's trotting along beside it's owner ahead of them?

    Do they look up at the sky and the clouds?

    Do they hear and smell the garbage truck that's just pulled up beside them?

    One thing you can bank on is that people notice things that are relevant to them. Capital THEM. In fact if there was a garbage truck or a puppy in their vicinity and you happened to be walking on the other side of the road, I'd be pretty comfortable betting that they didn't see you.

    People who don't know you, aren't interested in you. They have no solid concept of your existence. People become interested in you when what you communicate or do is salient to them. If you're not familiar with the term salience, basically what it means is when something stands out and is noticeable or significant enough to pay attention to.

    It's really important for you to understand that people are constantly being bombarded with millions of bits of data every second - 11 millions bits of data per second to be more precise, but we can only consciously pay attention to about 40-120 bits of data per second.

    What we see in our environment, what we see on a screen is only a tiny fraction of what's actually going on in reality. So if we want to get cut-through - if we want people to stop and see and listen to what we have to say, then we have to make sure it's something that our stakeholders already care about.

    Not something you want them to care about, or they will care about if they just listened to you speak for 2-minutes. No they need to care about already.

    THE reason people will pay attention to you is because of what is constantly happening inside our heads.

    Our brain is subconsciously scanning our environment looking for ways to avoid pain and seek pleasure. If in a few seconds or less, your stakeholder's brain notices that you're saying something that will help them do one or both of these things, they will stop and pay attention.

    So now you need to think about two things - one who your stakeholders are and two - what those stakeholders care about.

    A lot of the time I see brands just focus on what their customers care about, but it's important you extend this to all stakeholders.

    So a really important step, and one that is often neglected is creating your key stakeholder map. It's a simple enough activity and it is extremely powerful in figuring out how your brand needs to communicate with existing entities and people.

    It also helps you to see opportunities and leverage points that you can use now or in future to grow your brand.

    For instance, realising that one of your competitors could actually become a collaborative partner, given that you offer different but complimentary solutions within the same market.

    Whether you're in charge of a campaign, product launch, personal brand exercise or business, I really encourage you to spend a bit of time building your key stakeholder map and I've created a video and worksheet that goes along with this episode for you to take a look at to help you do this.

    Just visit laurenkress.com/growyourbrand and find episode 4 to access both of these resources.

    In our next episode we're going to talk about a different kind of map - your brand map - which will be pulling together all the pieces we've been discussing over these first few episodes to set the foundation for your brand growth.

    Thank you for listening and I'll speak to you next time.

    Tune into my weekly videos on Youtube here


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