The Real Reason Clients Keep Asking for ‘Stakeholder Management’ Skills
Dynamics 365 roles have evolved dramatically over the past few years. Once upon a time, being “strong technically” or “deeply functional” was enough to land most jobs.
Not anymore.
Today, one requirement appears in almost every D365 job description from junior consultants to solution architects:
“Must have excellent stakeholder management skills.”
If you’re a candidate, you might wonder:
- What does this actually mean?
- Why does every employer obsess over it?
- Is this just corporate jargon?
The short answer is no.
The long answer explains why some consultants accelerate to high-paying roles, while others stay stuck doing low-impact configuration forever.
This skill is the real differentiator.
Why Stakeholder Management Is the #1 Predictor of Project Success
When D365 projects fail or go over budget, or turn “messy”, clients rarely blame a missing technical skill.
They blame:
- Miscommunication
- Misaligned expectations
- Poor requirement gathering
- Users not adopting the system
- People resisting changes
- IT and business not speaking the same language
- Departments pulling in different directions
- Scope creep nobody managed
- Wrong assumptions made early on
These are not technical issues.
They’re human issues.
And in D365, the human side is where 80% of risks live.
What Employers Really Mean When They Say “Stakeholder Management”
Stakeholder management is a broad term, but employers use it very specifically in D365.
It means:
1. You can decode vague business requests and turn them into clear requirements.
Stakeholders rarely know the system. They describe problems, not solutions.
A strong consultant helps them articulate what they actually need.
Weak:
“Just tell me what fields you want.”
Strong:
“Help me understand what decisions this process affects so we can design the right solution.”
The difference? One configures. The other consults.
2. You can challenge and push back, without creating friction.
This is one of the scariest skills for less experienced consultants.
Stakeholders will ask for:
- Features that don’t exist
- Changes that break processes
- Over-customisation
- Unrealistic timelines
- “Just a small change” that spirals into a month of work
Clients value consultants who can confidently say:
“Here’s the impact of that change, and here’s a better approach.”
This saves the company money, time, and headaches.
3. You can read the room and handle politics.
Every organisation has:
- Power users
- People who don’t want change
- Teams who guard “their” data
- Hidden influencers
- A director who wants it done “their way”
- A manager who signs off but never uses the system
A strong D365 consultant recognises these dynamics early.
Because if you miss the politics, the project train hits you later.
4. You ensure every voice is heard—especially the quiet ones.
The best functional consultants and BAs often say:
“Tell me what your process actually looks like, not what the documentation says.”
Why?
Because end users often have the real knowledge.
If they’re ignored, adoption collapses and the system fails no matter how good the configuration is.
5. You protect the project from scope creep (and protect stakeholders from themselves).
Scope creep kills more D365 projects than bad code ever will.
Stakeholder management means:
- Setting boundaries
- Documenting changes clearly
- Ensuring business impact is understood
- Avoiding “invisible” extra work
- Keeping decision-makers accountable
A stakeholder-managed project is predictable.
An unmanaged project is chaos.
The Psychology Behind Stakeholder Management
Great stakeholder managers aren’t just good communicators, they understand psychology. They know:
People resist change even when the change benefits them.
A new system threatens habits, comfort, and “the way we’ve always done it.”
People don’t like feeling stupid.
A consultant who overwhelms them with jargon loses trust. A consultant who empowers them gains loyalty.
People trust people who listen.
Most stakeholders don’t want to be “managed”, they want to be understood.
People buy into what they helped create.
This is why early involvement is everything.
These psychological subtleties separate the great from the average.
Why This Matters More Than Ever in the D365 + Power Platform + AI Era
The ecosystem is expanding:
- Power Apps
- Power Automate
- Copilot
- Azure integrations
- Dataverse
- Cross-department workflows
More tools = more stakeholders.
More automation = more fear of being replaced.
More data = more opinions.
More visibility = more scrutiny.
Technical skills matter, but they’re not the bottleneck anymore.
The bottleneck is alignment.
Consultants With Stakeholder Skills Rise Faster and Earn More
Here’s the truth hiring managers will tell you privately:
“I can teach someone D365. I can’t teach them how to manage difficult people.”
This is why consultants with strong stakeholder skills:
- Are trusted earlier
- Get promoted faster
- Get ownership of full workstreams
- Become leads and architects
- Command higher salaries
- Get requested by name
- Have better relationships with clients
- Avoid firefighting
- Deliver smoother projects
Stakeholder management amplifies every technical skill you have.
Final Thought: Technical Skills Make You Capable, Stakeholder Skills Make You Indispensable
D365 isn’t just about technology. It’s about guiding people through change that affects their daily work, their habits, and sometimes their identity within the business.
That’s why clients keep asking for stakeholder management skills.
Because the consultant who can:
- align people
- understand personalities
- navigate politics
- communicate clearly
- manage expectations
- prevent chaos
- and build trust
…is the consultant who delivers successful projects again and again.
Great stakeholder management is the real “superpower” in Dynamics 365 consulting.
Ready to Take Your D365 Career to the Next Level?
At Shape It Recruitment, we connect talented Dynamics 365 professionals with companies that value both your technical skills and your ability to manage people and projects.
Whether you’re looking for your next Functional, Technical, or Hybrid role, we’ll help you find a position where your stakeholder management skills and your expertise truly shine. Get in touch today.