As a B2B sales professional, you may have come across the term ‘buyer center’ at some point in your career. But, what does it really mean? Are you familiar with all of the unique roles that reside within it? How important is having an understanding of the differentiating roles?

What is a buyer center?

A buying center is a group of individuals within an organisation who make decisions on business purchasing. Buyer centers can also be described as a decision-making-unit (DMU) or purchasing committee. Buyer centers are usually associated with larger more complicated purchases that require input from multiple parts of the organisation such as information technology, finance and legal. 

Highly technical purchases such as the purchase of an information technology system requires the assistance of in-house technical specialists. Information Security and GRC (Governance, Risk and Compliance) experts are usually brought in to check the solution is compliant with security standards and policies. System architects are involved when integration with existing systems is part of the requirement, which today is almost always. Lawyers are brought in to protect the organisation from contracting to clauses that will put the business in an unfavourable position either immediately or in the future. 

If the purchase is reactive, the buyer center is made up of a spontaneous group of individuals covering the relevant areas. If the purchase is pro-active, the buying center is a formally sanctioned group with the specific roles of sourcing, evaluating, purchasing and implementing. 

The roles of the buyer center

There is no fixed or consistent number of individuals within a buyer center, but there are  have 9 unique roles, with the first two being the most critical to identify for sales professionals.

Economic Buyer (EB) is a contact or committee that has the overall authority over the buying decision. The EB can say “No” when others say “Yes” and say “Yes” when others say “No”. In small businesses the decision maker is often the owner or managing director. In large organisations, the EB is often the budget owner, but not exclusively as multiple budget owners may exist.

Champion – a contact with influence over the EB who sells internally on your behalf and has a vested interest in the solution.

Coach – a supporter who fulfils less than three of the criteria that defines a champion.

Originator – sometimes called initiators are often the first step in the buying process. Originators make the first request to find a solution.

Evaluators – individuals responsible for assessing the available options for a solution from a defined set of criteria. These often involve individuals who perform technical and competitive analysis. 

Users – are the group of individuals which will later use or adopt the solution within their job role. 

Legal – manages the contractual negotiation of procuring the new solution.

Procurement – leads the solution shortlisting process and commercial negotiation

Gatekeepers – protects the time and information flow to the EB

What is an influencer?

A contact who exerts an influence over another contact. Although not a unique role, any member of the buyer center who can influence the outcome of the decision can be attributed an influencer. Influencers can positively or negatively impact a decision from a given sellers position. 

Influence within a buyer center isn’t always attributed to seniority. Influence is often invisible where informal and social relationships take hold. Creating a relationship map can help you better understand and manage this.

Ultimately an influencer can be a supporter or a blocker.

Benefits of buyer centers

1. Reduce risk. Buying complicated enterprise solutions can be risky. When investment costs are high, purchasing the wrong functionality, the wrong quality, the wrong quantity or agreeing to the wrong payment terms may put a business at risk. Businesses cannot afford to make purchasing mistakes. Therefore, a buyer center helps reduce the risk on senior managers by sharing the responsibility for decision making.

2. Avoid extremes. As the stakeholders discuss options, the voices of reason discard the most extreme options that are too complicated, too new or too bold. Purchasing through a buyer center delivers multiple opinions from many different points of view. A buyer center can put the brakes on if it looks like a critical decision is going to be a business catastrophe as moderate voices become louder and more influential as the risks of change are assessed.

3. Encourages input. Business leaders are not always the best people to make a purchasing decision, especially if the purchase is highly technical. Getting input from individuals who are most familiar with the issue and/or will be most affected by it is more likely to make a better shortlist. Above all, the decision maker will then make the final decision based on a robust assessment and analysis.

4. Drive better adoption. Purchasing decisions that have received input from multiple areas are more likely to be accepted than decisions that come straight from the top without a vetting process. Therefore, those who were involved in the decision-making process will be natural advocates to support the decision that was reached.

Weaknesses of buyer centers

1. Subject to group think. At least some members of the buyer center are likely to go along with the consensus to avoid standing out, or looking like a trouble maker.

2. Wastes time. It’s easy for purchasing decisions to get stuck when committee factions take opposing views, as each faction attempt to convince the other side of its wisdom.

3. Create disharmony. There’s a tendency for buyer center members to take positions and hold on to those positions. On the whole, getting hard-liners to change their view can not only waste time but create a long-term ill-will.

4. Non-flexible. New ideas and solutions can appear at any time, but buyer centers will seldom restart a process to include them for fear of admitting its members incompetent.

Creating a relationship map to navigate the buyer center

Creating a relationship map can help you navigate the buyer center by understanding the lines of influence to the Economic Buyer. Using the ContactBase app, sales professionals can highlight Supporters and Blockers, and earmark Coaches to become future Champions.