Welcome to part two of Sell the Why: Reasons to Believe.

​Last week we uncovered the leads-losing error at the heart of our old site: we were selling the how, not the why.​

The very short solution: add in proof.

But what convinces one person leaves another yawning.

To write something that would actually move people from looky-loos to interested leads, we needed to answer a deceptively simple question: what do our stakeholders need to believe in order to take the next step?

So today, let’s get into it: figuring out who needs to believe what.

what counts as a stakeholder

When we say “stakeholder,” we don’t just mean your paying customers (though yes, them too).

A stakeholder is anyone whose beliefs affect whether the work succeeds.

Think teammates, executives, vendors, partners, board, funders, finance/legal, media, even community that intersects with the industry or physical area you’re in.

Each of these people needs to believe something slightly different before they’ll budge.
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Which means your job is proving you’re good at what you do AND matching the right proof to the right person.

👉 Proof only works if it’s framed for the right belief.

jobs > personas

What matters most when defining your stakeholders is the role they play and the job they’re trying to get done.

Their job shapes their motivation, and their motivation shapes what proof will land.

On a recent client project, we built belief maps for 14 distinct stakeholder groups.

This client runs citywide initiatives that affect literally everyone across the city.

So we built stakeholder checklists by role: public funders, private funders, nonprofits, academics, residents, media, the board.

Each role had a different job to do and therefore different proof they needed in order to believe:

• A public funder had to show stewardship and measurable impact
• A private funder wanted reputation, cutting-edge tech, and workforce retention
• A resident just needed to believe it worked, for real

Same organization, wildly different belief gaps.

If you’re running a small business, your list probably isn’t that long, but the logic is the same.
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Your most important stakeholders might be:

• The ops manager who signs off on paying you
• The team lead who has to actually use your tool or service
• The trusted peer who keeps recommending you to colleagues
• The end client who only sees the outcome but decides whether to rehire you

Each of those roles comes with its own motivations, and that’s what should shape the proof you share.

⚠️ A note on user personas: Sometimes it’s not just different roles, but different segments within a role.

Example: An education platform that needs to resonate with beginners and intermediates. Their needs diverge, so your proof should too.

But please, please, please don’t start drawing up profiles that go something like “Sally, 37, drives a Subaru, loves pumpkin spice so much she would snort it.”

Cutesy.
And useless.
And a little dehumanizing.

Focus on the jobs. Here's how.

build a practical profile + checklist

Once you know the roles, the real work begins: figuring out what each group needs to believe in order to move forward.

That’s where a practical profile comes in: a one-pager that captures the essentials, so you can check your proof against it before you hit publish.

Here’s the basic template we use for stakeholder mapping, copy-pasteable just for you Reader:

Here's a filled-out example so you get the gist:

Behold: You've made yourself a cheat sheet, so you’re set up to match the right proof to the person who actually needs to believe it.

This works wonders for teams, by the way. It’s a perfect reference for anyone who’s not used to thinking about the motivations of the audience.

Plus, if you’re in the messaging business like we are, it’s something concrete to point to when asked “but how come you prefer option A over B?” → because that's what your stakeholders care about.

where we’re going next

With your stakeholders mapped, you are now ready to source the right kind of proof for each belief gap.

That’s where we’re headed in vol. 3: how to show outcomes for your business (yes, even if you think you "don't have numbers"), including scrappy gathering methods and non-numerical proofs that still stick the landing.

what’s coming up in this series

1. ​Sell the WHY: Outcomes are the proof that makes your positioning land​
2. Stakeholder mapping (today): Who needs to believe what, and how to talk to them
3. Your own proof: How to show outcomes for your biz (even if you “don’t have numbers”)
4. External proof: How to dig up credible stats/research outside of your own desk
5. Make numbers make sense: How to translate raw data into human-friendly proof
6. ✨Free resource drop✨: Put it all together and grab our Reasons to Believe guide

🤓 For all the goodie-two-shoes looking for homework at the bottom of the email:

List out your stakeholders. Pick out the two that are most critical to your business, and build them each a profile.

If you want a quick gut-check, hit reply and send ‘em over. Would love to take a look!

Petons!

Janel (she/they)

🏳️‍⚧️✊🏳️‍🌈✊🇵🇸

Flying the Coop Check out the latest from our podcast, an interview with the inimitable Haley Boehning! We cover juicy questions like: What even is purpose, beyond the buzz-word definition of it? And how does that purpose help make every single decision easier and more efficient? How do you know if your purpose is muddled… even if it’s written down super clearly? And our personal favorite question: How do you make the business case for ‘purpose’ without sounding too ‘woo woo?’ Listen to the episode

What I'm reading

​Boustany - Sami Tamimi​

Been waiting for this Palestinian cookbook to drop ever since Sami's announcement months ago (literally I have stocked up on tahini and za'atar in anticipation). Come over to join me for roasted cauliflower tonight.