Understanding Your Internal Buying Committee for Better Marketing Performance

By Jamie Montoya, Client Engagement Manager

Have you been in a situation where you have a great idea to optimize an internal process or strategy but could not get buy-in from your organization? Have you felt like you are spinning your wheels to find a solution to a company pain point but you were not getting anywhere? Have you felt like no matter many ideas you pitch, none seem to leave the drawing board?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you might have an internal stakeholder problem. B2B marketers preach it is important to understand your prospect’s buying committee in order to successfully move that account or lead down the sales funnel. Fun Fact: Your own company has the same committee; and it functions, in the same manner, to move new ideas, strategies, or campaigns from concept to execution.

According to Gartner, “the typical buying group for a complex B2B solution involves 6 to 10 decision makers;” and each of these committee members comes with their own perspectives, backgrounds, biases, needs, and goals that must be addressed in order to push a decision forward.

Do you know the buying committee within your own organization? Who needs to be involved in order to move the needle on your marketing programs? Similar to your B2B marketing strategy, you need to know which stakeholders in your organization need to be involved to push your marketing strategies and initiatives toward success.

Depending on your organization, the roles of your internal committee can be intertwined. Let’s walk through the 3 basic roles

Who are your Decision Makers?

Decision Makers have yes or no decision-making authority. They fall into one of two categories:​

• Business Decision Makers: Focused primarily on how a new strategy, process, or product impacts business ROI and revenue.​ (HINT: Think C-Suite team)
• Technical Decision Makers: Focused primarily on a new strategy, process, or product that impacts business technologies, processes, and operations.​ (HINT: Think Marketing Operations or Business Operations)

Who are your Influencers?

Influencers are people who may not have a direct role in the marketing strategy or campaign, but they influence the outcome. They fall into one of two categories:​

• Business Influencers: Focused primarily on how the new strategy, process, or product impacts other parts of the business.​ (HINT: Think Legal, Compliance or Finance Teams)
• Technical Influencers: Focused primarily on how the new strategy, process, or product impacts current processes and operations. (Hint: Think IT, Sales)

Who are your champions?

Champions are those who drive a decision forward internally, acting as the primary spokesperson for your ideas amongst their team and executive leadership.​ They could be someone on your team or just someone who really wants to see this project move forward. They could be the key to helping you discover what’s most important to each of the buying team members.

In order to effectively launch your ideas, it’s imperative you think beyond the people you immediately interact with and generate engagement, address concerns, and affirm decisions of your most important cross-functional stakeholders. Otherwise, your efforts will continue to fall short of your goals.