As a B2B sales person, you will 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? Learn how to exploit its weaknesses to gain the upper hand.
What is a buyer center?
A buying center is a group of individuals within an organization who make decisions on business purchasing. Buyer centers are usually associated with larger more complicated purchasing that requires input from multiple parts of the organization such as information technology, finance and legal. Buyer centers can also be described as a decision-making unit or purchase-by-committee.
Highly technical purchases such as the purchase of an information technology system requires the assistance of in-house technical specialists. Information security experts are usually brought in to check the system is compliant with IT policies. Systems architects are involved when integration with existing systems is part of the requirement. Lawyers are brought in to protect the organisation from signing up to clauses that will put the business in an unfavourable position should the purchase go pear shaped.
In some cases, the buyer center is made up of a spontaneous group of individuals covering the relevant areas. In other cases, the buying center is a formally sanctioned group with the specific role of sourcing, purchasing and implementing.
The roles of the buyer center
There is no fixed or consistent number of individuals within a buyer centre. At ContactBase we have come to identify 9 unique roles.
Originator or sometimes called initiators are often the first step in the buying process. Orginators make the first request to find a solution.
Users are the group of individuals which will later use or adopt the solution within their job role. Orginators often start out as a users.
Mentors are individuals which provide guidance on navigating internal decision making. Mentors don’t always exist, but when options and alternative solutions exist, favouritism is hard to suppress and individuals within the organisation sometimes go out of their way to get the solution they want.
Evaluators are individuals responsible for accessing the available options for a solution from a defined set of criteria. These often involve individuals who perform technical and competitive analysis.
Sponsors are individuals who support the initiative with the backing of seniority and influence. They can sometimes be called a Senior Sponsor.
Budget Holders are individuals accountable for expenditure on the initiative. In larger purchases, dedicated budgets are produced often combining the budgets of multiple senior individuals within the organisation.
Decision makers are responsible for making the overall decision, taking key information from evaluators and sponsors. In large and complex purchases there often isn’t a single decision maker. Conversely in small businesses the decision maker is often the owner or managing director.
Whips are appointed to maintain discipline amongst members of a decision making process.
Gatekeepers protect the flow of information outside of the organisation like a filter. In most large purchases the Procurement department fulfil this role.
What is buyer center influence?
Although not a unique role, any member of the buyer center who can influence the outcome of the decision can be attributed an influencer. Often Budget Holders and Sponsors hold the most influence over the way a decision goes. 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.
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 though 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.
