If you’ve ever lost a deal you thought was in the bag, chances are you missed a stakeholder you didn’t know existed. B2B deals—especially the big, hairy ones—aren’t usually sunk by price or features. They’re sunk by people: the ones you don’t know about, the ones who say “no” in a meeting you’re not even invited to, or the ones quietly championing your competitor. This guide is for anyone who’s tired of guessing who’s actually pulling strings in their deals, and wants to use Nektar to bring those folks into the light.
Let’s skip the fluff and get into how to actually use Nektar to uncover these hidden influencers, blockers, and decision-makers in your pipeline.
Why Hidden Stakeholders Matter (and Why You’re Missing Them)
Before we jump into the how-to, a blunt truth: most CRMs are basically graveyards of half-baked contact info and wishful thinking about “decision-makers.” In reality, B2B deals often involve a web of influencers, technical evaluators, finance folks, and the infamous “shadow veto.” If you’re just working off your CRM, you’re probably missing the people who matter most.
Nektar promises to help you spot these hidden players by mining communication data—emails, meetings, calendar invites—and surfacing connections you didn’t know existed. That sounds great, but let’s be clear: it won’t magically win you deals. What it can do is give you a clearer map of who’s actually involved, so you can stop guessing.
Step 1: Set Up Nektar and Connect Your Data Sources
What to do:
- Get Nektar up and running by connecting your workspace’s email and calendar accounts.
- Make sure your sales team is comfortable with the idea—Nektar will be analyzing metadata from emails, meetings, and calls to find connections.
- Double-check permissions. If your IT team isn’t on board, you’ll hit a wall fast.
Pro tips:
- The more data sources you connect (think Slack, Teams, etc.), the better the results. But start with email and calendar for lowest friction.
- Get buy-in from sales and CS teams early—they need to trust that you’re not just “spying” but genuinely trying to help them close deals.
What to ignore:
You don’t need to connect every tool under the sun. Start with the basics. More data is only useful if it’s clean and relevant.
Step 2: Sync Your CRM and Map Existing Contacts
What to do:
- Link Nektar to your CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.) and let it pull in your current account and contact data.
- Compare what’s in your CRM to what Nektar finds in your team’s inboxes and calendars.
Why this matters:
- Most CRMs are missing a ton of contacts.
- Nektar finds people your team has interacted with, even if they never made it into the CRM.
What works:
- Nektar’s matching engine is actually good at sniffing out “unknown” contacts who show up in the CC line or on meeting invites.
- You’ll quickly see which accounts have a shallow bench (only a few contacts) versus the ones with a deeper network.
What doesn’t:
- Don’t expect Nektar to magically organize your entire CRM overnight. You’ll still need to clean up duplicates and spot bad data.
Step 3: Visualize the Stakeholder Landscape
What to do:
- Use Nektar’s relationship maps to see who’s actually involved in each deal.
- Look for clusters of contacts, frequent communicators, and people who suddenly show up in email threads or meetings as deals progress.
What to look for:
- Hidden Influencers: People who get looped in late or only on key emails. These are often senior folks or technical evaluators.
- Blockers: The person who always asks for “one more demo” or keeps forwarding your proposal to legal.
- Champions: The one person who’s always replying, inviting others, or pushing the project forward internally.
Pro tips:
- Don’t forget to look beyond titles. An “Operations Analyst” who’s in every meeting might have more sway than the VP who never replies.
- Use the activity timeline to spot when new stakeholders appear—this often signals a deal is getting serious (or hitting a roadblock).
What to ignore:
- Don’t obsess over every single contact. Focus on the ones who are actively engaging or being cc’d by the main stakeholders.
Step 4: Take Action—Engage the Right People
What to do:
- Prioritize outreach to stakeholders who’ve been lurking in the background but show up frequently in communications.
- Ask your champion (if you have one) about new names you spot: “Hey, I noticed Sarah joined the last call—what’s her role in the project?”
- Don’t be afraid to reach out directly to someone if you sense they’re critical, but tread carefully. No one likes a cold email that screams “I’ve been spying on your emails.”
What works:
- Using Nektar’s data to back up your outreach: “I noticed we’ve been talking with a few folks in your finance team—should we loop them into this discussion?”
- Bringing new stakeholders into the loop early can prevent late-stage surprises.
What doesn’t:
- Don’t try to “game” the system by spamming every contact you find. That’s a fast way to get ignored or annoy your champion.
- Avoid making assumptions about influence based on frequency alone—ask your internal contacts for context.
Step 5: Track Changes and Deal Dynamics Over Time
What to do:
- Set up alerts or regular reviews in Nektar to spot when new stakeholders enter (or leave) the conversation.
- Pay attention to periods of silence or sudden changes in communication patterns—these can signal trouble.
Why this matters:
- Deals often stall because a key decision-maker has gone dark or someone new is running the show.
- Nektar’s timeline view helps you see these shifts before they turn into full-blown problems.
Pro tips:
- Use this info to prompt timely check-ins with your internal champion. “Looks like the legal team’s been quiet for a week—should we follow up?”
- Don’t treat every change as a red flag, but don’t ignore patterns either.
What Works, What Doesn’t, and What to Watch Out For
What works: - Nektar is great at surfacing contacts you’d otherwise miss. It’s like a flashlight for your deal’s dark corners. - The platform’s visual maps make it easier to communicate internally about deal strategy.
What doesn’t: - Garbage in, garbage out. If your team isn’t actually communicating with a broad set of stakeholders, Nektar can’t invent those relationships. - It won’t fix broken sales processes. If your team isn’t following up or is ignoring key contacts, no tool can save you.
What to ignore: - Don’t get dazzled by every “new connection.” Focus on people who show up repeatedly and are involved at decision points. - Skip the vanity metrics—knowing you have 15 contacts in an account is less important than knowing who actually matters.
Keep It Simple—Iterate as You Go
Spotting hidden stakeholders isn’t about buying yet another tool and hoping for magic. It’s about using what you find to ask better questions, involve the right people, and avoid last-minute surprises. Nektar gives you a clearer map, but you still have to drive the deal.
Start small: hook up your data, look for obvious gaps, and talk to your team. Iterate. The best sales teams don’t overcomplicate things—they just make sure they’re talking to the people who matter, every time.