💼 Workplace Skills
Stakeholder Management — Strategic Collaboration Through Internal and External Decision Structures
The same person wants different things depending on their department and seat — we apply the way B2B sales targets a client’s buying decision-making unit (DMU) to internal collaboration and to coordinating with external clients and partners, so you leave with a stakeholder map and a winning roadmap for your own project
⏱ Duration8 hours
🏢 FormatOn-site delivery · Customized design
👤 InstructorJohn Kim
✅ Key outcomeLeave with a completed six-role DMU table and stakeholder map (power × interest) for your own project, internal and external
Most existing collaboration training focuses on communication style. This course starts from reading structure: who actually decides, who is blocking, and whom to move first. Even the same person has different interests depending on the company, the job function, and their position within the buying center, and the pain points and wants at each position follow predictable patterns. Once you know these patterns, you can read other departments, internal customers, dealers, and even the quality and procurement teams inside a client with the same framework. We take the proven method B2B sales uses to target a client’s buying decision-making unit (DMU) and apply it to internal collaboration and to coordination with external customers and partners, so participants go home with a stakeholder map and an engagement roadmap for their own project, covering both internal and external parties. The course is 70% lecture and cases and 30% exercises, in a three-step practice structure (common → job-specific → individual): everyone learns the concepts through the same common case, then applies them to their own project at the end of each module. Your instructor, John Kim, is the author of ‘B2B Marketing Design’. The course draws on 10 years in semiconductor B2B overseas sales and a posting in Taiwan, where John handled the TSMC account and coordinated the decision-making lines of a global client with practitioners, technical reviewers, and final approvers all involved.
💻 Start learning this topic with an online course →Who is this course for?
Employees in all job functions — aimed at practitioners and team leads who frequently coordinate across departments and with internal and external stakeholders. Development, product planning, quality, procurement, marketing, and sales can attend together. We recommend 20 or fewer participants (4 teams of 5) and allow up to 30; for larger groups, we suggest splitting into sections.
What will you learn?
- Read the internal and external decision-making structure of your own project through the six DMU roles, and diagnose for yourself where collaboration gets stuck
- Use the stakeholder map (power × interest) to prioritize whom to move first and how
- Build persuasion messages and an engagement roadmap tailored to decision-makers, gatekeepers, customers, and partners, and apply them directly to your current projects
Curriculum
Module 1: The nature of decisions and the DMU (1) — why collaboration gets delayed (approx. 50 min)
- Why collaboration gets delayed — structures where business units, functions, regions, and divisions overlap
- The six DMU roles in your company’s language — Decider (project owner · executive) · Gatekeeper (security · legal · quality reviewers) · Influencer (development lead · regional head) · Champion (supportive department leader) · User (business-side practitioner) · Buyer (budget · purchasing)
- External DMU — decision structures within direct customers, distributors, dealers, and partners
- Lecture + cases
Module 2: The nature of decisions and the DMU (2) — analyzing causes of delay with a common case (approx. 50 min)
- Analyzing causes of delay with common cases — a new feature stalled in security review · spec and volume negotiations with a parts supply division · delayed large-scale adoption by an enterprise customer
- 30-minute discussion: each team pinpoints “who decides, and who is blocking”
- 20-min exercise: Identify the six internal and external DMU roles for your own project (individual worksheet)
Module 3: Stakeholder map and diagnosis (1) — power × interest quadrants (approx. 50 min)
- Stakeholder Map — a power × interest four-quadrant grid, with internal and external stakeholders on one page
- Strategy by quadrant — manage closely · keep satisfied · keep informed · monitor
- 30 min lecture + 20 min practice: Draw the stakeholder map for your own project
Module 4: Stakeholder map and diagnosis (2) — what gatekeepers are trying to protect (approx. 50 min)
- What each gatekeeper type is “protecting” — security and legal (risk) · quality (standards) · purchasing and finance (cost and budget) · supply division (supply and yield) · overseas units (local conditions)
- External gatekeepers — client procurement and IT, distribution buyers, dealer owners, partner PMs
- Negotiating to build trust through interests, not positions
- Lecture, cases + discussion
Module 5: Role-tailored persuasion and proposals (1) — what decision-makers look at (approx. 50 min)
- What decision-makers look at — Internal executives (revenue, risk, schedule) / Client decision-makers (adoption impact, total cost, stability)
- Quantified value proposition PPSDN — Persona · Pain · Solution · Difference · Number
- How to separate the one-page brief for decision-makers from the supporting evidence for gatekeepers
- Lecture + cases
Module 6: Role-tailored persuasion and proposals (2) — “here is what works” instead of “no” (approx. 50 min)
- Read the rules and security standards first, then offer alternatives — “this is possible under these conditions” instead of “this isn’t allowed”
- Designing alternatives that reconcile customer and dealer requests with internal standards
- 30-minute lecture + 20-minute exercise: write a one-page persuasion message for the approver
Module 7: Hands-on collaboration practice (1) — designing internal and external negotiation plans (approx. 50 min)
- Internal negotiation — trading resources, specs, and schedules between departments; concession range and exchange terms
- External negotiation — Adjusting terms by sales channel, negotiating partner delivery dates
- 20-min lecture + 30-min exercise: Design a negotiation plan for the common case (in teams)
Module 8: Collaboration practice (2) — Your stakeholder engagement roadmap (approx. 50 min)
- Engagement roadmap — secure allies → align with gatekeepers up front → final approver
- Timing and channels by stage — 1:1 pre-briefing · working-level meeting · reporting line
- 20-min lecture + 30-min exercise: Complete your own engagement roadmap (individual)
Wrap-up: 3 internal and external actions to take within 2 weeks · Q&A (approx. 20 min)
- Collect the personal worksheets completed in each module and decide three internal and external actions to carry out within two weeks
- Q&A · Identify where applying this at work gets stuck
- ※ Based on an 8-hour day (09:00–18:00, including a 60-minute lunch) — we adjust the start time and time zone to fit your team
How it works ①: A three-level practice structure — common case → by role → individual assignment
- Level 1 · Common — everyone learns the concepts through the same common case (team discussion)
- Level 2 · By role — teams grouped by similar roles take on role-specific quests (team quests · 2-day format)
- Level 3 · Individual — apply each module to your own project and submit a photo of your completed page to the instructor (personal worksheet)
- Team formation — even when participants come from mixed roles, grouping similar roles together works best. Before the session, we decide with your HR manager whether to use a peer-evaluation format that draws on other departments’ perspectives or go deeper within one role
- Recommended size — up to 20 people · 4 teams of 5 (maximum 30). Above 30, team presentations drag on, so we recommend splitting into separate sessions
How it works ②: Pre-assessment and tailored cases — survey and self-assessment one week before training
- At least 1 week before training, distribute a participant pre-survey (3–4 pages in Word) or a self-assessment web link to collect each person’s real collaboration situation
- We build the common scenario from the survey results and run it only after the training manager approves it — a case the instructor invents from assumptions is easily dismissed on site as “not our situation”
- We can quickly adjust the plan even if headcount or participating departments change at the last minute
- Free pre-training assessment to help design your program — take it first at nanumcon.com/pre-diagnosis
How it works ③: Eight common cases — 4 internal · 4 external
- Internal · Department — a project stalled in security and privacy review right before a new feature launch (project owner · security/legal reviewer · business unit executive)
- Internal · Business units — Resource and priority conflicts on cross-unit joint projects (business-unit development leads · product planning · joint-project owner)
- Internal · supply division — negotiating key component specs and supply volume and schedule (supply division lead · development · purchasing · product planning)
- Internal · Overseas — Launch preparation where HQ schedules clash with local conditions at overseas subsidiaries (HQ product planning · overseas subsidiary head · regional marketing)
- Customer · Direct B2B — large-volume purchases by corporate and public-sector customers, custom specs and security requirements (client procurement · IT · business teams · finance / internal sales · technical support)
- Customer · distributor — coordinating launch schedule, promotion terms, display, and volume allocation (distribution buyer and counterpart approver · internal sales/marketing)
- Customer · dealer — persuading dealers on changes to sales policy, inventory, and margin terms (dealer owner · regional sales · policy decision-making team)
- External · Partners — Negotiating delivery delays and spec changes with parts and software partners (partner PM · internal purchasing · quality · development)
- We swap in the real situations your company shares during the pre-course consultation
Option: 2-day, 16-hour extended format — a deeper dive into Level 2 by job function
- The one-day, 8-hour format covers Level 1 (common cases) + Level 3 (individual assignment). Eight hours is not enough to go deep into Level 2, the role-specific level — which is why we offer an extended format
- Day 1 — Common concepts and common cases → submit a photo of your individual assignment
- Day 2 — The instructor compiles Day 1 results overnight and rebuilds them into a case study from participants’ real situations → job-function team quests → personal roadmap
- If a group’s affiliates span several industries, we split classes by affiliate — Haesung Group’s 2-day, 16-hour course ran with separate classes per affiliate and a pre-course survey, for 60 participants
- Pre-survey in practice — 30 Samsung SDS participants completed a survey before training, and the cases were tailored to their answers
- Follow-up options — advanced session for sales and marketing staff (single job-function class) · on-the-job application check-in session 4 weeks after the course
Expected results / After the course
- Leave with a completed six-role DMU table and stakeholder map (power × interest), internal and external, for your own project
- Apply a one-page pitch for decision-makers and a stakeholder roadmap (secure allies → align with gatekeepers up front → win the final approver) directly to your current projects
- You gain a shared language for reading other departments, internal customers, dealers, and client quality and procurement teams with the same framework, so you spot where cross-team collaboration stalls and act first
- Choose three internal and external actions to complete within two weeks, and start the day after training
- For pilot runs, we give the training manager a detailed results report covering participant reactions, case analysis, and improvements for the next session. You can repeat the pilot 2–3 times and then roll the program out company-wide
On-site training references
Haesung GroupSamsung SDS
About the instructor
John KimInstructor John Kim, author of “B2B Marketing Design” and CEO of Nanum ConsultingView profile →
Related courses
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Start with an Online Course
Before you book on-site training, preview the essentials of this topic in an online course.
We tailor this course to your company
From diagnosis to execution — Nanum Consulting
FAQ
Employees in all job functions — aimed at practitioners and team leads who frequently coordinate across departments and with internal and external stakeholders. Development, product planning, quality, procurement, marketing, and sales can attend together. We recommend 20 or fewer participants (4 teams of 5) and allow up to 30; for larger groups, we suggest splitting into sections.
Yes. Participants first learn the concepts through common cases, then apply their own situations from the pre-survey as individual assignments. Teams are grouped by similar roles.
This is not about sales psychology or sales skills. It applies the framework B2B sales uses to read a client’s decision-making structure to internal collaboration and external coordination alike. Developers, quality, and procurement staff are welcome too.
Common cases plus individual application fit within one 8-hour day. To go deep by role, we recommend the 2-day, 16-hour extended format.
Answer the pre-course survey (or self-assessment link) one week before the training, and we tailor the cases to your responses. The common scenario built from the survey results is run only after the training manager approves it.
Stakeholder Management — Strategic Collaboration Through Internal and External Decision Structures
The same person wants different things depending on their department and seat — we apply the way B2B sales targets a client’s buying decision-making unit (DMU) to internal collaboration and to coordinating with external clients and partners, so you leave with a stakeholder map and a winning roadmap for your own project
Training objectives
- Read the internal and external decision-making structure of your own project through the six DMU roles, and diagnose for yourself where collaboration gets stuck
- Use the stakeholder map (power × interest) to prioritize whom to move first and how
- Build persuasion messages and an engagement roadmap tailored to decision-makers, gatekeepers, customers, and partners, and apply them directly to your current projects
Expected results
- Leave with a completed six-role DMU table and stakeholder map (power × interest), internal and external, for your own project
- Apply a one-page pitch for decision-makers and a stakeholder roadmap (secure allies → align with gatekeepers up front → win the final approver) directly to your current projects
- You gain a shared language for reading other departments, internal customers, dealers, and client quality and procurement teams with the same framework, so you spot where cross-team collaboration stalls and act first
- Choose three internal and external actions to complete within two weeks, and start the day after training
- For pilot runs, we give the training manager a detailed results report covering participant reactions, case analysis, and improvements for the next session. You can repeat the pilot 2–3 times and then roll the program out company-wide
Curriculum
Module 1Module 1: The nature of decisions and the DMU (1) — why collaboration gets delayed (approx. 50 min)
- Why collaboration gets delayed — structures where business units, functions, regions, and divisions overlap
- The six DMU roles in your company’s language — Decider (project owner · executive) · Gatekeeper (security · legal · quality reviewers) · Influencer (development lead · regional head) · Champion (supportive department leader) · User (business-side practitioner) · Buyer (budget · purchasing)
- External DMU — decision structures within direct customers, distributors, dealers, and partners
- Lecture + cases
Module 2Module 2: The nature of decisions and the DMU (2) — analyzing causes of delay with a common case (approx. 50 min)
- Analyzing causes of delay with common cases — a new feature stalled in security review · spec and volume negotiations with a parts supply division · delayed large-scale adoption by an enterprise customer
- 30-minute discussion: each team pinpoints “who decides, and who is blocking”
- 20-min exercise: Identify the six internal and external DMU roles for your own project (individual worksheet)
Module 3Module 3: Stakeholder map and diagnosis (1) — power × interest quadrants (approx. 50 min)
- Stakeholder Map — a power × interest four-quadrant grid, with internal and external stakeholders on one page
- Strategy by quadrant — manage closely · keep satisfied · keep informed · monitor
- 30 min lecture + 20 min practice: Draw the stakeholder map for your own project
Module 4Module 4: Stakeholder map and diagnosis (2) — what gatekeepers are trying to protect (approx. 50 min)
- What each gatekeeper type is “protecting” — security and legal (risk) · quality (standards) · purchasing and finance (cost and budget) · supply division (supply and yield) · overseas units (local conditions)
- External gatekeepers — client procurement and IT, distribution buyers, dealer owners, partner PMs
- Negotiating to build trust through interests, not positions
- Lecture, cases + discussion
Module 5Module 5: Role-tailored persuasion and proposals (1) — what decision-makers look at (approx. 50 min)
- What decision-makers look at — Internal executives (revenue, risk, schedule) / Client decision-makers (adoption impact, total cost, stability)
- Quantified value proposition PPSDN — Persona · Pain · Solution · Difference · Number
- How to separate the one-page brief for decision-makers from the supporting evidence for gatekeepers
- Lecture + cases
Module 6Module 6: Role-tailored persuasion and proposals (2) — “here is what works” instead of “no” (approx. 50 min)
- Read the rules and security standards first, then offer alternatives — “this is possible under these conditions” instead of “this isn’t allowed”
- Designing alternatives that reconcile customer and dealer requests with internal standards
- 30-minute lecture + 20-minute exercise: write a one-page persuasion message for the approver
Module 7Module 7: Hands-on collaboration practice (1) — designing internal and external negotiation plans (approx. 50 min)
- Internal negotiation — trading resources, specs, and schedules between departments; concession range and exchange terms
- External negotiation — Adjusting terms by sales channel, negotiating partner delivery dates
- 20-min lecture + 30-min exercise: Design a negotiation plan for the common case (in teams)
Module 8Module 8: Collaboration practice (2) — Your stakeholder engagement roadmap (approx. 50 min)
- Engagement roadmap — secure allies → align with gatekeepers up front → final approver
- Timing and channels by stage — 1:1 pre-briefing · working-level meeting · reporting line
- 20-min lecture + 30-min exercise: Complete your own engagement roadmap (individual)
Module 9Wrap-up: 3 internal and external actions to take within 2 weeks · Q&A (approx. 20 min)
- Collect the personal worksheets completed in each module and decide three internal and external actions to carry out within two weeks
- Q&A · Identify where applying this at work gets stuck
- ※ Based on an 8-hour day (09:00–18:00, including a 60-minute lunch) — we adjust the start time and time zone to fit your team
Module 10How it works ①: A three-level practice structure — common case → by role → individual assignment
- Level 1 · Common — everyone learns the concepts through the same common case (team discussion)
- Level 2 · By role — teams grouped by similar roles take on role-specific quests (team quests · 2-day format)
- Level 3 · Individual — apply each module to your own project and submit a photo of your completed page to the instructor (personal worksheet)
- Team formation — even when participants come from mixed roles, grouping similar roles together works best. Before the session, we decide with your HR manager whether to use a peer-evaluation format that draws on other departments’ perspectives or go deeper within one role
- Recommended size — up to 20 people · 4 teams of 5 (maximum 30). Above 30, team presentations drag on, so we recommend splitting into separate sessions
Module 11How it works ②: Pre-assessment and tailored cases — survey and self-assessment one week before training
- At least 1 week before training, distribute a participant pre-survey (3–4 pages in Word) or a self-assessment web link to collect each person’s real collaboration situation
- We build the common scenario from the survey results and run it only after the training manager approves it — a case the instructor invents from assumptions is easily dismissed on site as “not our situation”
- We can quickly adjust the plan even if headcount or participating departments change at the last minute
- Free pre-training assessment to help design your program — take it first at nanumcon.com/pre-diagnosis
Module 12How it works ③: Eight common cases — 4 internal · 4 external
- Internal · Department — a project stalled in security and privacy review right before a new feature launch (project owner · security/legal reviewer · business unit executive)
- Internal · Business units — Resource and priority conflicts on cross-unit joint projects (business-unit development leads · product planning · joint-project owner)
- Internal · supply division — negotiating key component specs and supply volume and schedule (supply division lead · development · purchasing · product planning)
- Internal · Overseas — Launch preparation where HQ schedules clash with local conditions at overseas subsidiaries (HQ product planning · overseas subsidiary head · regional marketing)
- Customer · Direct B2B — large-volume purchases by corporate and public-sector customers, custom specs and security requirements (client procurement · IT · business teams · finance / internal sales · technical support)
- Customer · distributor — coordinating launch schedule, promotion terms, display, and volume allocation (distribution buyer and counterpart approver · internal sales/marketing)
- Customer · dealer — persuading dealers on changes to sales policy, inventory, and margin terms (dealer owner · regional sales · policy decision-making team)
- External · Partners — Negotiating delivery delays and spec changes with parts and software partners (partner PM · internal purchasing · quality · development)
- We swap in the real situations your company shares during the pre-course consultation
Module 13Option: 2-day, 16-hour extended format — a deeper dive into Level 2 by job function
- The one-day, 8-hour format covers Level 1 (common cases) + Level 3 (individual assignment). Eight hours is not enough to go deep into Level 2, the role-specific level — which is why we offer an extended format
- Day 1 — Common concepts and common cases → submit a photo of your individual assignment
- Day 2 — The instructor compiles Day 1 results overnight and rebuilds them into a case study from participants’ real situations → job-function team quests → personal roadmap
- If a group’s affiliates span several industries, we split classes by affiliate — Haesung Group’s 2-day, 16-hour course ran with separate classes per affiliate and a pre-course survey, for 60 participants
- Pre-survey in practice — 30 Samsung SDS participants completed a survey before training, and the cases were tailored to their answers
- Follow-up options — advanced session for sales and marketing staff (single job-function class) · on-the-job application check-in session 4 weeks after the course
About the instructor
John Kim, Lead Instructor
10 years in industry · 15 years teaching (3,000+ lectures)
Education
· MBA (advanced major: Marketing), Korea University Graduate School of Business (graduated)
· Sungkyunkwan University Consultant Program (completed)
· Sogang University Graduate School of Business, Short-Term MBA (completed)
· Seoul National University Lifelong Education Instructor Development Program (completed)
· Chung-Ang University, B.A. in English Language and Literature (graduated)
Experience
· Current: CEO, Nanum Consulting
· Formerly at Hyosung Corp., Daeduck Electronics and Shinhan Diamond: overseas assignments and strategic planning (10+ years)
· Current partner instructor, Expert Consulting
· Current: Partner instructor, PSI Consulting
· (Current) Partner instructor, Korea SMEs and Startups Agency and SME Training Institute
Credentials and publications
· Certified consultant
· Certified teacher
· Completed official IDEO Design Thinking training
· B2B Marketing Design (1 Apr 2025)
· The Chinese Diamond Tool Market: Present and Future (co-authored, Korea Tool Association)
· Battles That Changed History and Innovative Weapons (in progress)