Stakeholder Conflict Scenarios

Stakeholder Conflict: End-User Revolt Mid-Evaluation

Executives love your product. End users have organized opposition. Buying committees rarely override visible end-user resistance.

The situation

$540K deal. The CRO and VP Sales Ops are fully bought in. But the front-line sales team — the actual users — has formed a Slack channel called #stop-the-tool, citing fears it will be used to micromanage them. A user-rep was recently added to the buying committee.

Key stakeholders

Naomi Park
champion
CRO (Economic Buyer)
Eli Ferrari
champion
VP Sales Ops (Champion)
Jordan Reyes
blocker
Senior AE (User Rep on committee)
Lead voice in #stop-the-tool.
Front-line sales team
skeptic
End users
60+ reps, organized.

Step 1

Decision point

Naomi just added Jordan to the 'to address concerns.' Your Eli warns you privately: 'If Jordan votes no, Naomi will pause this for political reasons.'

What's your first move?