If you sell to other businesses, you have probably noticed that deals take longer and involve more people than they used to. You win over one person, and then the decision goes to a meeting you are not part of.
That is because business purchases are rarely made by one person anymore. Research from Gartner has found that a typical buying group for a complex business purchase involves six to ten decision makers, each with their own concerns.
Who is in the room
The exact roles differ, but a typical buying group might include:
- The user, who will work with your product or service every day.
- The manager or department head, who owns the budget and the outcome.
- Finance, who cares about cost, payment terms and return on investment.
- Procurement, who compares suppliers and manages the process.
- Technical or quality teams, who check specifications and standards.
- Senior leadership, who approves larger decisions and worries about risk.
Each of these people is asking a different question. The user asks if it will make their job easier. Finance asks if it is worth the money. Leadership asks if it could go wrong.
Why one message is not enough
Most business marketing is written for one person, usually the user or the main contact. It explains features in detail but says little about cost, risk or long-term value.
When that contact takes your proposal into a meeting, they have to argue your case alone, with material that does not answer the other people’s questions. Often, the safest option wins: the bigger brand, the cheaper price or doing nothing at all.
What a stronger message looks like
Give your champion the tools to sell for you. Your main contact needs material they can share internally: a short summary, a clear business case and answers to common objections.
Speak to each role. Create simple content for different concerns, such as a one-page cost and return summary for finance, a specification sheet for technical teams and a credentials document for leadership.
Reduce the feeling of risk. Case studies, client names, certifications and clear guarantees help groups agree, because no one wants to be blamed for a bad choice.
Make your brand easy to check. Every person in the group will look you up. Your website, LinkedIn and Google results should reassure all of them.
Be consistent. Different people will meet your brand in different places. They should all hear the same story.
A quick check
Look at your sales material and ask:
- Does it answer the questions finance and leadership will ask?
- Could your main contact present your case without you in the room?
- Would a sceptical senior manager feel reassured after reading it?
A worked example
An industrial components manufacturer kept losing deals at the final stage. Their main contact, usually an engineer, liked the product, but deals stalled once finance and senior management became involved.
They created three simple documents: a one-page business case showing cost over five years and payback time, a credentials sheet with certifications and long-term clients, and a short FAQ answering the questions finance and procurement usually asked. They also updated their website so anyone researching them would find the same information.
Their main contacts began using these documents in internal meetings. Deals did not become easy, but fewer stalled without explanation. (Details changed for confidentiality.)
Map your buying group
For your last five deals, write down:
- Who was involved in the decision, by role.
- What each person cared about most.
- What questions or objections came up.
- What material you gave them, and what was missing.
Patterns appear quickly. Most businesses discover that one or two roles, often finance or senior leadership, receive almost no material designed for them.
Common mistakes
- Sending long technical documents to senior decision makers.
- Assuming your main contact will explain your value as well as you would.
- Ignoring the role of procurement, which often decides between shortlisted suppliers.
- Having a website that does not reassure the people your contact forwards it to.
The takeaway
You are not selling to one person anymore. You are selling to a group, most of whom you may never meet. Build a message that works for all of them. If you sell to manufacturers or other businesses, our manufacturing marketing page shows how we help.
Selling to big buying groups? See our B2B marketing and export marketing services.
