Buying Committee
A buying committee is a collection of individuals within a company who participate in a purchase decision. In complex, high-ticket B2B sales, it’s rare for one person to make the decision alone. Instead, a group of stakeholders (often with different roles and priorities) is involved.1
A typical B2B buying committee might include up to 10 members,2 but this is of course subjective (hence the large range) and depends to a large extent on your ICP.
Each member plays a distinct role in the decision process. Classic B2B buying roles include:
| Buying Role | Description |
|---|---|
| Initiator | The individual who first recognises a problem or need and suggests looking for a solution. |
| User | The end users of the product/service; they care about usability and how it solves their day-to-day challenges. |
| Influencer | Someone who has expertise or sway and advises others on the decision (e.g., an IT lead who provides technical advice). |
| Champion | An internal advocate who actively supports the solution and works with you to overcome internal barriers, ensuring the project gains traction. |
| Decision-Maker | The person(s) with the final authority to approve or veto the purchase (e.g., a CXO or budget holder). |
| Buyer | The individual who handles the logistics of the purchase transaction, such as a procurement manager who negotiates contracts and pricing. |
| Gatekeeper | Anyone who controls access to information or people in the process, such as an executive assistant or an IT admin who filters vendor communications. |
When marketing and selling your products and services, instead of targeting a single buyer, you need to address the entire committee: speak to technical evaluators about specs, to executives about ROI, to end users about ease of use, etc….3
When buying cybersecurity software the IT security lead (initiator/influencer) identifies the need, an analyst (user) will use the tool, the CIO is the decision-maker, the CFO reviews the cost (influencer or co-decider), and procurement finalises the deal. A successful B2B marketing strategy acknowledges all these players.
This is why understanding the buying committee is so important in B2B profiling, especially if you plan on implementing Account Based Marketing, where multiple people on an account are concurrently targeted with messaging specific to their needs.
As with a lot of marketing, it’s important to realise this isn’t an exact science. These roles can overlap (one person might fill multiple roles), the structure of a buying committee can vary between organisations and people in different job roles can fit into different buying roles.
The key point is that the buying committee brings multiple perspectives – technical, financial, user-experience, etc… — to the table. When you understand them you are able to strategically address their needs to help create opportunities and accelerate pipeline velocity.
Mapping the Buying Committee
Step 1: List buying committee roles
It’s not one size fits all! Start by mapping out all the types of stakeholders typically involved when your product is purchased. Think about your past deals or common scenarios:- Who usually needs to sign off?
- Who evaluates the product?
- Who uses it?
- Who makes the initial inquiry?
Use the generic roles introduced earlier (Initiator, User, Influencer, Decision-maker, Buyer, Gatekeeper) as a starting checklist, and adapt to your specific context.
Step 2: Map roles to job titles
Next, undertake an exercise to map real individuals to the typical roles.- For a given target account (company), undertake research to find who occupies teh buying roles you defined in Step 1. This involves looking at the company’s organisation (via LinkedIn, your CRM, or a data tool).
- Identify names and titles that match the profile of decision makers, influencers, users, etc….
- If you’re in active sales conversations, ask your contacts internally about who else is involved.
For instance: you’re selling to Acme Corp. and your champion is a Director of Operations (Initiator/Influencer). Through discovery, you learn the COO and Head of IT will also weigh in (Decision-maker and Technical Influencer), and that Procurement will handle contracts (Buyer role).
Document these findings by associating the buying roles with job titles, but remember that what you come up with isn’t set in stone — things can vary in real life. For example, in IT software sales, you might identify roles like:
Buying Role Job Title 1 Job Title 2 End User IT Analyst Junior Developer Technical Champion IT Manager Senior Developer Economic Decision Maker CIO CFO Things can get complicated pretty quickly, so it’s best just to stick with defining your most common/likely scenario.
Step 3: Understand Each Stakeholder’s Priorities
For each person/role on the buying committee, profile their likely interests and concerns regarding your solution. Determine what each stakeholder cares about e.g.:- The IT Manager will focus on security and integration
- The COO cares about efficiency gains and ROI
- The End User wants ease of use, etc…
By mapping priorities, you can plan messaging and sales content to address everyone’s (sales) needs.
Job Title Main Concern Finance Director Concerned about total cost Chief Information Officer Focused on system integration and scalability IT Manager Worried about system performance and technical support Procurement Manager Concerned about vendor reliability and contract terms Security Officer Focused on data security and regulatory compliance Business Unit Manager Focused on how the solution improves team productivity Step 4: Tailor Engagement Strategies by Role
Now plan how to engage each member of the committee. Ensure your marketing and sales approach addresses everyone, not just the one contact you might have. For instance, if you know the CFO is a key decision-maker, prepare financial justification materials for them (even if they aren’t in your day-to-day communications). If the End Users will have input, produce user-level demos or trials so they can evaluate hands-on. Often, multi-threading is a best practice – meaning your sales team should connect with multiple stakeholders in parallel.Marketing can help by creating role-specific content: a whitepaper for technical users, a blog series for execs etc…. Essentially, you want each member of the committee to receive messages tailored to their perspective. During sales cycles, facilitate meetings that include these different stakeholders at appropriate times (e.g. a separate technical Q&A session for IT, an executive briefing for the VP/CEO sponsor, etc…).
Main Concern Our Approach Concerned about total cost Provide ROI calculator and flexible pricing options Focused on system integration and scalability Emphasise seamless integration with existing systems and highlight future-proof technology Worried about system performance and technical support Showcase robust performance benchmarks and offer 24/7 technical support Concerned about vendor reliability and contract terms Present detailed case studies, customer testimonials, and risk mitigation strategies Focused on data security and regulatory compliance Demonstrate adherence to industry standards, certifications, and rigorous data protection protocols Focused on how the solution improves team productivity Illustrate clear use cases and provide training/resources to ensure smooth adoption Passionate advocate for the solution and driving change Provide success stories, enable peer networking, and offer early adopter benefits to empower internal support Step 5: Document the Buying Committee
Now, bring everything together into one document so your team can answer:- Who are the players?
- What role do they play?
- What’s our strategy for each?
Buying Role Job Title Main Concern Our Approach Decision-Maker Finance Director Concerned about total cost Provide ROI calculator and flexible pricing options Decision-Maker Chief Information Officer Focused on system integration and scalability Emphasise seamless integration with existing systems and highlight future-proof technology Influencer IT Manager Worried about system performance and technical support Showcase robust performance benchmarks and offer 24/7 technical support Buyer Procurement Manager Concerned about vendor reliability and contract terms Present detailed case studies, customer testimonials, and risk mitigation strategies Influencer Security Officer Focused on data security and regulatory compliance Demonstrate adherence to industry standards, certifications, and rigorous data protection protocols User Business Unit Manager Focused on how the solution improves team productivity Illustrate clear use cases and provide training/resources to ensure smooth adoption Champion Business Unit Manager Passionate advocate for the solution and driving change Provide success stories, enable peer networking, and offer early adopter benefits to empower internal support Keep this updated as you learn more. By having it documented, if a sales rep transitions, others can quickly get up to speed on the account’s decision structure. On the marketing side, knowing the common stakeholders across accounts, a high-level composite of these profiles can inform persona development and content strategy.
The structure of a typical buying committee
It can be helpful to create a visual “map” for each target account’s committee. This could be as simple as a list of titles, roles and their status (e.g. ally, neutral, blocker). Some teams use org chart diagrams to show the hierarchy and influence lines.
Best practices
- Engage early and often with multiple members. Studies have noted that because committees are large, deals progress faster when you can “multi-thread” (connect to several members) rather than relying on a single champion.
- Make sure your value proposition is articulated in the language of each stakeholder (think about creating messaging matrices).
- Provide tools for your champion to sell internally – for example, give them slide decks or one-pagers targeted to other roles, effectively arming them to advocate your solution to their colleagues.
- Also, be patient and coordinate touches – Account Based Marketing (ABM) campaigns that orchestrate ads, emails, and content toward all members can warm up a whole buying group over time. Using an ABM platform or CRM features to track engagement of multiple contacts at one account is very useful.
- Finally, always identify a clear “economic buyer” (the person who ultimately signs off financially) and ensure that person’s concerns are addressed thoroughly – this is often a make-or-break factor in committee decisions.
Common pitfalls
A major problem can be to focus too narrowly on your day-to-day contact and neglect other influencers. You might have a great relationship with, say, an Operations Manager, but if you never connect with their CFO and the CFO is unconvinced, the deal can still die.
Another mistake is treating the committee as a monolith – e.g. giving a generic pitch to everyone at once. If you don’t speak to each persona’s interests, some members may disengage. Also, beware of “hidden” stakeholders – sometimes an influential person (maybe the CEO or an external consultant) is advising behind the scenes. Always ask early in the sales process, “Who else will be involved in this decision?” to surface these people.
Lastly, failing to achieve internal consensus can stall deals indefinitely (the infamous “no decision” outcome); thus, a pitfall is not equipping your champion to build consensus. To avoid this, facilitate group discussions and address points of disagreement head-on.
In short, not mapping the committee or not adjusting to its dynamics is a recipe for lost opportunities.
