Buyer Archetypes

1. The  Archetype Cards

We must gain an understanding of the Powerbase in the prospective customer's organisation in order to engage effectively, to assist them progress through their buying journey and to gain consensus. The Archetype Cards will assist you to achieve this.
 

As Sue has just discovered in 'The Wentworth Prospect', there are six Stakeholder Archetypes in the EDVANCE sales process.

To help you visualise and become familiar with them please find a set of Archetype Cards below. You can also download your own copy to store on your phone, tablet , mobile device or to print. That way, you’ll have them as a constant reference.

The cards will help you identify the stakeholders in the organisation of your target customer. They will help you understand the roles they fulfil, their likely motivations, who is best placed to help and how much power they genuinely hold. The cards also offer advice on the best ways to approach and deal with each stakeholder in your effort to drive consensus.

Change Agents

The first three stakeholders (Champion, Sage and Inquisitor) have the ability to lead, to drive consensus and inspire others to follow (and are the stakeholders the salesperson should target). Of these, the Champion stands alone as the  archetype with the capability to gain consensus to commit to your proposal.

Advocates

The last three cards (Accomplice, Messenger and Mercenary) have limited ability to make decisions or drive consensus. That said, they can still be of advantage on an individual basis in assisting us to gain important information and to influence the Change Agents..
 

Warning:

A word of warning: Each stakeholder archetype can be either positive, neutral or negative in their relationship with you and your proposal. The cards detail the influences they may bring to bear in each case and the how the dynamics in your target organisation may change.
 

DOWNLOAD ARCHETYPE CARDS FOR PRINTING

Change Agent Archetypes
 

Advocate Archetypes
 

DOWNLOAD ARCHETYPE CARDS FOR PRINTING

2. Stakeholder Mapping

Each of the stakeholder archetypes will differ in the amount of influence they hold within their organisation and in their relationship with you.

This is why it’s best to plot each stakeholder against two axes: Influence (horizontal axis) and Relationship (vertical axis).

A stakeholder’s ability to influence others in their organisation will range from negative to positive. Include this scale on the Influence axis. Note that Advocates rarely possess the ability to influence their organisation beyond the neutral mid-point. Change Agents, however, have the authority to drive organisation-wide change.

Take a look at the Stakeholder Map below. You’ll see it’s divided into quadrants. The Advocate Cards will always remain in the grey sections to the left while the Change Agents may be plotted anywhere.

Each stakeholder will also range from supportive to non-supportive of you, your company or your proposal. So make sure this is included on the Relationship axis. Non-supportive Change Agents effectively become ‘blockers’ while non-supportive Advocates are adept at undermining your proposal from within.

You can now gain a clearer picture of the consensus you’ve gained for your proposal. For success, you should aim to move all stakeholders above the central line and the Change Agents into the upper right quadrant.