Our “art and science of marketing” season continues — this week, art is the focus. Certain strategic processes require you to rely less on data and more on qualitative observations. Influence mapping is one of them.

Influence maps depict the changing stakeholder dynamics in a B2B market. Because there are multiple, different buyers, users and influencers when selling to businesses, deciding which stakeholder’s opinions really matter is a critical strategic decision.

Because concepts like influence and opinion are hard to quantify, the team debates which parts of influence mapping are art, and which parts are science. The discussion will help you master all aspects of this important strategy tool.

In this episode you will learn:

• Why you can’t buy “the ultimate influence map” even with an unlimited budget
• How to “get it right” even though no definitive influence map exists
• Ways to check your influence map hypothesis and adjust it for reality

Here are some quotes from the team’s discussion:

“When it comes to influence mapping, you’ll gain more insights than competitors if you ‘skate to where the puck is going'”

“Sometimes the key to getting an influence map right is listening to that one odd voice in the room.”

“Gain as much consensus with your map as possible because if you go it alone and get it wrong, you’ll find that success has many parents and failure is an orphan!”

We hope you enjoy the discussion and gain some helpful insights!