Are You Choosing Your Stakeholders or Just Accepting Them?
Rethink how Ideal Personas shape every relationship in your business, not just your sales pipeline.
“Unclear expectations are at the root of most disappointment.”
Reframe: Who’s Really Defining Your Business Relationships?
Every founder and leadership team wants to attract the right people, but too often, they forget to ask a more powerful question: Are we intentionally choosing our stakeholders, or just accepting whoever shows up?
Ideal client personas have long been a tool for sales and marketing, but in complex, service-based businesses, that thinking doesn’t go far enough. Your future success depends not only on who buys from you—but also on who works for you, partners with you, and influences your brand behind the scenes. This is where Ideal Stakeholder Personas come in—helping you consciously design the ecosystem of relationships that will shape your business, your culture, and your long-term profitability.
Rethink:Ideal Clients Aren’t Enough—You Need Ideal Stakeholders
In the rush to win business and fill pipelines, many companies operate in acceptance mode—they accept clients who aren’t quite the right fit, hire people who tick the skills boxes but clash with culture, and tolerate supplier relationships that drain time and energy.
The short-term gain? Revenue and resources secured.
The long-term cost? Misaligned expectations, compromised values, and a
culture that slowly erodes under the weight of poor-fit relationships.
Traditional buyer personas focus on external demographics like age, location, and job title. But Ideal Stakeholder Personas ask more valuable questions:
What do these people believe about the world of work, success, and partnership?
How do they behave when things get hard—do they lean in or step back?
Do they share our values and standards—or will we constantly have to justify them?
This isn’t about building exclusionary walls. It’s about raising intentional gates. Not every client should be your client. Not every talented hire should join your team. Not every supplier should stay on the books.
Well-crafted stakeholder personas become the quiet gatekeepers of your culture and commercial success—ensuring that every relationship, internal or external, is adding value, not draining it.
Refocus: Define Who Belongs, And Who Doesn’t
If you’re ready to move beyond transactional thinking, start by clarifying who you really want in your ecosystem:
1. Go Beyond the Transactional:
What emotional, cultural, or behavioural traits do your best relationships share? This applies equally to clients, employees, and suppliers.
2.Write a ‘Red Flags’ List:
What are the warning signs that someone will be difficult to partner with—even if they look good on paper?
3.Define Your Non-Negotiables:
What values, working styles, or attitudes must be present for any long-term relationship to thrive?
4. Audit Your Current Stakeholders:
Which relationships energise your business and which ones quietly cost you more than they’re worth?
If it’s time to raise the bar on who you serve and who you surround yourself with,
start by defining exactly who belongs, and who doesn’t.
