Buying Committee

In B2B nobody buys alone. A buying committee is the team that collectively says yes or no to your proposal. This averages 6-10 people for deals above €50k. Each member has a different role: the CFO focuses on costs, IT on technology, the end user on usability, procurement on contract terms. Salespeople who only speak to 1 person lose 74% of their deals. Why? Because that one person retells your story to the rest – often incorrectly or incompletely. Your message gets diluted. The solution: map the entire committee. Who's in it? What does each person care about? Who has veto power? A typical committee consists of: economic buyer (has budget), champion (wants your solution), technical buyer (checks if it works), end user (will use it), legal/procurement (handles contract). You need a separate story for each member. The CFO wants ROI numbers, the user wants to know how it makes their day easier. Make this visible in a stakeholder map: name, role, priority, attitude (for/against/neutral), last contact. Update this weekly. Big mistake: thinking the highest position decides. Often a technical buyer has veto power – if they say no, the deal doesn't go through. Or a champion without budget can mean months of work without result.