Buyer roles: The purchasing decision in B2B companies
You've probably heard about Buyer Personas and their importance in any B2B marketing strategy , but perhaps not so much about buyer roles . Knowing and defining these customer profiles is essential to developing and refining our value proposition and subsequently implementing different strategies aimed at the different profiles.
What are Buyer Roles?
It often happens that even though we have well-defined types of accounts on which we should focus our marketing and sales efforts, once inside we must fine-tune the people who have greater or lesser influence on the purchasing decision .
So, delving a little deeper into this area, where we algeria whatsapp number data 5 million already assume that each company does not target just one type of client but several, we find the definition of “Buyer Roles”, which is nothing other than the different profiles that exist within the same company/account in relation not only to our products or services but also to the ability to influence, more or less, or in one way or another, the purchasing decision.
Let's imagine that we are preparing an offer for a chain of gyms. Our value proposition must convince the gym manager, the CEO, the marketing director, the maintenance director or the finance director. That's what it's all about, considering that when faced with an offer for a product/service, our offer will be examined or at least valued by more than one profile .
Important, we cannot take this as something dogmatic or categorical, each company is a world and each account requires the activation of some springs or others, there will be content of our product or service that will be of great interest to one profile and not so much to others.
The success of the sale will largely depend on our ability to be analytical and to identify these profiles in each of our accounts in order to offer each one what they need.
buyer roles
Types of Buyer Roles
According to this approach we can establish 5 different profiles
Leader: The person who is always one step ahead
The leader is basically the person within an organization whose function is closely related to leadership in processes of change, evolution and transformation within the company.
This is a person with great capacity for influence, they are usually people who have been in the company for a long time, with a vision for change and with enough commitment to lead the most important changes.
It may coincide with the CEO or General Director, but not necessarily , what defines him is his position of leadership, influence and authority gained through experience and training.
Influencer: At the heart of operations
This is also a person with the capacity to influence, but at a more operational and perhaps not so strategic level . With very transversal functions, in contact with clients but also with the rest of the company's departments. This could be a Commercial, Sales or Export Director.
The “influencer” is not the person who will decide to purchase your product or service, but in a scenario where several people can influence the purchase decision, they will be a key voice that will be heard to assess that decision.
Decider: Our real client
The word itself says it, we are dealing with the person who will make the final purchasing decision, depending on the size of the company and the product/service in question, this could be a CEO or a Vice President, but also any person with the authority to say yes or no to a purchase, a purchasing or marketing director for example.
It may happen that we do not come into direct contact with him or her, but it is essential that our proposal is adapted to his or her interests . We should always think about “what he or she will think” when preparing our offer.
User: Let's make life easier for you
As the name suggests, this is the person who will be the main user of our product/service. You will have to keep in mind that he/she will be the one who, when faced with our offer, will ask questions such as: "Is this the solution I need? Will it make my job easier? Will this provider meet my needs?"
Ultimately, although they will not be the ones who will decide on the purchase, they will be consulted before making any decision, especially in the final stages of the selection or decision process, so you should take this into account when developing your offer.
