An Internal Stakeholder is an individual or group within an organization that has a direct interest or involvement in the organization's activities, decisions, or projects. Internal stakeholders typically include employees, managers, executives, and shareholders (in the case of a company). They are directly affected by the organization's performance, policies, and overall success, and often contribute to its operations and decision-making processes.
Internal Stakeholders in a Partner Program
Most definitions stop at employees and shareholders. Inside a company that runs a partner program, a specific set of internal stakeholders has a stake in whether that program works, and each needs something different from the partner team.
- The executive sponsor. Owns the program's air cover and budget. See executive sponsorship.
- Sales. Partner deals touch their accounts and their quota, so their buy-in decides whether partners get worked or ignored. Crossbeam's 2023 State of the Partner Ecosystem Report found deals are 53% more likely to close, and close 46% faster, when a partner is involved.
- Customer success. Partners deliver onboarding, integrations, and services into their accounts.
- Product. Integration partners depend on roadmap and API decisions.
- Marketing. Co-marketing and partner content draw on their pipeline targets.
- Finance and legal. Payouts, contracts, and revenue attribution all run through them.
Keeping these groups pulling the same way is the work of stakeholder alignment, and it is why mature partner teams report against company goals, not partner-team goals. For how this scales, see scaling your partnership organization and quantifying total partnership impact.
Internal vs External Stakeholders
The line that trips people up is where employees end and outside parties begin. Internal stakeholders sit inside the organization and are part of its operations and decisions. External stakeholders sit outside it and are affected by what it does.
| Internal stakeholders | External stakeholders | |
|---|---|---|
| Who | Employees, managers, executives, owners and shareholders | Customers, suppliers, partners, regulators, communities |
| Relationship | Inside the organization, part of operations and decisions | Outside the organization, affected by its actions |
| The question they ask | "What does this mean for my team and targets?" | "What does this company's behavior mean for me?" |
One distinction matters on this site: channel and technology partners are external stakeholders, even when they feel like an extension of the team.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is considered an internal stakeholder?
Anyone whose stake comes from being inside the organization. That means employees, managers, executives, and the owners or shareholders who hold equity. They are directly affected by how the organization performs, and they take part in its operations and decisions.
What is an example of an internal stakeholder?
A department manager is a clear example. So is the sales team whose accounts a new partner program touches, since partner deals change their pipeline and their quota. Employees and the board of directors are internal stakeholders too.
What are the 4 types of stakeholders?
Stakeholders are usually split on two axes: internal versus external, and primary versus secondary. Crossing them gives four groups, for example primary internal (employees) and secondary external (the wider community). The primary and secondary split comes from Simply Stakeholders.