How to Reach New Stakeholders Without Going Around your Champion.
You are mid-deal and you know you need to get in front of the economic buyer, IT, or procurement - but you only have a relationship with one person and you do not want to damage it by going around them.
Most AEs either stay stuck in one thread because they do not want to rock the boat, or they reach out cold to other stakeholders and make their champion feel bypassed. Neither works. The better path is to make expanding the deal a shared goal with your champion - framing each new introduction as something that helps them, not something that threatens their position. When you do it well, your champion becomes the person who opens the doors for you.
Where it goes wrong
You cold-email the CFO directly. Your champion finds out and feels undermined. They become less helpful, stop sharing internal information, and the deal loses its inside track. Or you never reach the CFO at all and the deal dies in committee because nobody senior has ever heard of you.
What you'll be able to do
You can ask your champion for specific introductions to other stakeholders in a way that feels natural and helpful to them, so you build new threads without damaging the relationship you already have.
How to do it
Ask early and frame it as thoroughness
Ask early and frame it as thoroughness: 'Who else on your team will be part of evaluating this? I want to make sure we address their questions directly rather than having them come up late.' This makes it about serving the process, not expanding your footprint.
Ask for a specific intro with a specific business
Ask for a specific intro with a specific business reason: 'To make the security review straightforward, could you introduce me to whoever owns IT or data infrastructure? I can prepare a one-pager for them so it does not land on your plate.' Give your champion something to forward, not just a request.
Make the intro easy to send
Make the intro easy to send. Draft a two-line email your champion can forward with minimal editing. The less work it is for them, the more likely it happens.
After each new intro, close the loop with your
After each new intro, close the loop with your champion. Tell them how the conversation went and what you learned. This keeps them feeling like the orchestrator, not someone who has been sidelined.
See the difference
The AE asks their champion: 'Is there any chance I could get in front of your CFO?' The champion says they will try to arrange it. Nothing happens. The AE follows up twice over three weeks. Still nothing. The CFO never enters the deal.
The AE says: 'I want to make sure the CFO has what she needs before this goes to sign-off - I know last-minute finance questions can slow things down. Could you introduce me to her or her chief of staff? I can put together a one-page summary of the business case so the conversation is quick for everyone.' The champion forwards a draft intro the AE wrote for them that afternoon. The CFO meeting is booked within a week.
You can ask your champion for specific introductions to other stakeholders in a way that feels natural and helpful to them, so you build new threads without dam
How you'll know it's working
You have got it when your champion is actively helping you get in front of other stakeholders - and feels good about doing it - rather than you having to find ways around them.
Questions people ask
How do you reach new stakeholders without going around your champion?
Most AEs either stay stuck in one thread because they do not want to rock the boat, or they reach out cold to other stakeholders and make their champion feel bypassed. Neither works. You can ask your champion for specific introductions to other stakeholders in a way that feels natural and helpful to them, so you build new threads without damaging the relationsh
What is the most common mistake to avoid?
You cold-email the CFO directly. Your champion finds out and feels undermined.
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