Latest / What is Business Development? / Episode 101: BD-BOK Chapter 15 Understanding the Buying Committee

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Episode 101: BD-BOK Chapter 15 Understanding the Buying Committee · What is Business Development?

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  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Deep Dive, where we deliver high
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  Speaker 1: impact insight tailor just for you. Today, we are strapping
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  Speaker 1: on our helmets and lacing up our cleats. We are
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  Speaker 1: we're tackling this idea that winning in business development is well,
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  Speaker 1: the ultimate team sport.
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  Speaker 2: It absolutely is.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: But you know, unlike watching a football game, the rules
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  Speaker 2: of engagement are they're not always visible. You need a
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  Speaker 2: really detailed roster of the players.
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  Speaker 1: Not just on your side, no, not at all.
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  Speaker 2: You need for your own go to market team for sure,
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  Speaker 2: but crucially you have to understand the opposing team, the
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  Speaker 2: prospect's decision making unit.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, let's untack this. We've been digging into the business
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  Speaker 1: development body of knowledge, and our whole mission today is
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  Speaker 1: to master that structure of success. We're going to map
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  Speaker 1: out how your internal team aligns with the customer's journey,
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  Speaker 1: and then we're going to dissect the prospect's decision making architecture,
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  Speaker 1: the DMU.
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  Speaker 2: And then arm you with the right targeting tactics, I mean,
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  Speaker 2: the strategies that really maximize your efficiency.
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  Speaker 1: And efficiency is the keyword here, isn't it.
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  Speaker 2: It's everything. We're bringing some hard statistics from some critical
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  Speaker 2: studies to the table today. We want to give you
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  Speaker 2: a shortcut to understanding where to focus your I mean
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  Speaker 2: your extremely.
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  Speaker 1: Limited time right for the greatest possible impact.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly, you need to know which players to target and
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  Speaker 2: more importantly why.
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  Speaker 1: So let's start with the home team, then our side
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  Speaker 1: of the field, the go to market team. We know
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  Speaker 1: BD's success isn't built in a silo. It's an integrated process.
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  Speaker 2: It has to be.
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  Speaker 1: So how do the internal roles actually line up with
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  Speaker 1: the different phases of that customer journey.
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  Speaker 2: Well, if you look at the core structure, it really
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  Speaker 2: moves sequentially, you know, from generating that first bit of
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  Speaker 2: interest all the way to closing the deal.
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  Speaker 1: And that kicks off with marketing. They lead the awareness phase.
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  Speaker 1: Their main role is simply to capture attention. They're using
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  Speaker 1: broad tactics like advertising just to get the prospect to
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  Speaker 1: even realize they might have a problem.
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  Speaker 2: But then the real action begins when we shift to
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  Speaker 2: business development. BD leads the the activation phase. This is
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  Speaker 2: a really critical handoff.
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  Speaker 1: So what's the primary role here.
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  Speaker 2: It's to become a customer and community advocate. It's about
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  Speaker 2: creating corporate growth, but by fostering trust.
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  Speaker 1: First, and the main tactic for this phase, according to
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  Speaker 1: the Business Development Body of Knowledge, is something called nice
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  Speaker 1: nurture intent cycles of engagement. That sounds like more than
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  Speaker 1: just sending a few emails.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, it's way more nice. Is a strategic recognition that
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  Speaker 2: the second that customer journey starts, the buying committee enters
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  Speaker 2: this state of chaos, so total chaos. We'll get to
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  Speaker 2: the stats in a minute, but you have to understand.
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  Speaker 2: The BD team's job is to become that trusted, sort
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  Speaker 2: of impartial resource that the DMU can rely on during
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  Speaker 2: all their self research time.
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  Speaker 1: Right, So if we haven't activated that advocacy, we haven't
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  Speaker 1: earned the right to even proceed.
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  Speaker 2: You got it. And once that trust is there, then
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  Speaker 2: you hand it off to sales. They lead the conversion phase.
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  Speaker 2: Their role is to efficiently convert those prospects into customers.
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  Speaker 1: And if BD hasn't done that nicey.
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  Speaker 2: Work, well, then sales is just left cold calling a
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  Speaker 2: committee that's probably already made up its mind internally.
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  Speaker 1: So sales is transactional efficiency. BD is relational credibility.
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  Speaker 2: That's a perfect way to put it. But now we
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  Speaker 2: have to pivot. We have to look at the other
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  Speaker 2: side of the table the buyer's committee, the decision making
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  Speaker 2: unit or DMU.
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  Speaker 1: And this is where the stats get really interesting.
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  Speaker 2: This is where they prove that complexity is your number
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  Speaker 2: one enemy.
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  Speaker 1: So, I mean, the first thing to get is that
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  Speaker 1: you're never ever talking to just one person anymore.
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  Speaker 2: Never. A twenty twenty study showed that a staggering sixty
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  Speaker 2: five percent of B to B buying committees involve four
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  Speaker 2: or more players.
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  Speaker 1: Sixty five percent.
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  Speaker 2: And if you go back to the foundational twenty fifteen
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  Speaker 2: study from the Corporate Executive Board or CB, they found
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  Speaker 2: the average size of that buying committee is five point
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  Speaker 2: four members.
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  Speaker 1: Five point four that's the average. So you might hear
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  Speaker 1: that and think great, more people to talk to, more
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  Speaker 1: chances to influence the deal. But the data says the
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  Speaker 1: exact opposite.
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  Speaker 2: Right, the exact opposite, And this is the critical insight.
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  Speaker 2: This should guide your entire BD strategy. Your probability of
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  Speaker 2: when your PWI in it decreases significantly when the buying
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  Speaker 2: committee includes six or more players. The moment you hit
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  Speaker 2: that six person, the complexity just outweighs the opportunity. Bigger
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  Speaker 2: is absolutely not better for you, the seller.
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  Speaker 1: So you have to be strategic about which of those
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  Speaker 1: five point four people you're actually talking to exactly.
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  Speaker 2: That single statistic is the whole game. Managing complexity is
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  Speaker 2: so much more important than just maximizing outreach.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so let's define the rules. Then who are these
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  Speaker 1: people that make up this complex dmu.
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  Speaker 2: Well, let's start where the journey begins with the initiator.
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  Speaker 2: This is the first person who recognizes there's a problem
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  Speaker 2: or a job to be done. They're the one who
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  Speaker 2: likes the fuse.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, the initiator. Then there's the ultimate process manager, the buyer.
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  Speaker 2: YEP, sometimes called the economic buyer or procurement officer. Their
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  Speaker 2: job is managing the entire buying process from A to Z.
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  Speaker 1: And then you have the big one, the decision maker.
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  Speaker 2: The decider. This person leads the source selection board and
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  Speaker 2: they make that final call that could be through building
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  Speaker 2: consensus with the committee or.
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  Speaker 1: Just by controlling the budget themselves.
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  Speaker 2: Right, they hold the purse strings.
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  Speaker 1: Okay. Role number four is the general influencer. This is
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  Speaker 1: someone who can sway the decision maker, maybe sway other
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  Speaker 1: members towards their preferences.
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  Speaker 2: They've got social capital or maybe technical capital inside the organization.
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  Speaker 1: And that brings us to the fifth role. You said,
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  Speaker 1: this is the one we should be most interested in,
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  Speaker 1: the champion.
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  Speaker 2: The champion. They're also called mobilizers or executive sponsors. What
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  Speaker 2: makes them different is they are a specific type of
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  Speaker 2: influencer who is explicitly biased in favor of your team
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  Speaker 2: over the competition.
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  Speaker 1: They're your inside person, they're.
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  Speaker 2: Your internal advocate. And finally, you have the user, the
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  Speaker 2: people on the ground who actually have to use the
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  Speaker 2: product or service every single day, and.
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  Speaker 1: They're giving that subject matter expertise, helping to define what
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  Speaker 1: the thing actually needs to do exactly.
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  Speaker 2: Now, of all those roles, the buyer is the ultimate gatekeeper.
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  Speaker 2: We should really dig into why they hold so much
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  Speaker 2: tactical power.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, they're like the process police. I mean, it goes
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  Speaker 1: way beyond just creating and releasing the RFP or the
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  Speaker 1: RFI right.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, way beyond. The buyer has huge responsibilities. They conduct
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  Speaker 2: independent cost estimates in government. They call this the IGC
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  Speaker 2: the Independent Government cost Estimate. It's a major internal check.
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  Speaker 1: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: They manage the whole proposal review, they negotiate the final
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  Speaker 2: price and what gets delivered, and they're the ones who
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  Speaker 2: notify everyone of the final contract award.
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  Speaker 1: What's so fascinating here is how their focus is so
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  Speaker 1: different from the decision makers.
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  Speaker 2: And this is absolutely crucial for successful BD. The buyer
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  Speaker 2: focuses on what we call extrinsic requirements, the.
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  Speaker 1: Features, the specs, you can quantify the checkboxes precisely.
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  Speaker 2: Meanwhile, the decision maker, they're concerned with the intrinsic requirements, the.
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  Speaker 1: High level benefits for their business.
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  Speaker 2: Think of it like this. The decision maker has an
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  Speaker 2: intrinsic need. I want a safe, efficient fleet of delivery.
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  Speaker 1: Vehicles, right the big picture.
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  Speaker 2: The buyer then translates that into extrinsic requirements. Okay, does
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  Speaker 2: this vehicle have six air bags ABS, breaks a five
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  Speaker 2: star safety rating and get twenty five miles per gallum.
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  Speaker 1: So the intrinsic need is the why, and the extrinsic
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  Speaker 1: requirements govern the how you.
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  Speaker 2: Got it, and that distinction it changes everything about how
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  Speaker 2: you should approach them.
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  Speaker 1: So how do we strategically target these different roles? I mean,
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  Speaker 1: in the context of something like account based marketing, if
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  Speaker 1: we've only got limited time and resources, where do we
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  Speaker 1: place our bet?
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  Speaker 2: Well, the literature gives us three core tactics. The first
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  Speaker 2: is top down selling or selling high so.
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  Speaker 1: You're going straight for the decision maker, the budget holder,
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  Speaker 1: the ultimate authority exactly.
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  Speaker 2: People who support this believe it's the most direct path,
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  Speaker 2: since decision makers set those high level intrinsic needs. If
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  Speaker 2: you get them excited, it opens doors and well, it
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  Speaker 2: makes engagement from the rest of the committee much more likely.
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  Speaker 1: Plus they control the budget, they can move money around
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  Speaker 1: if they need to. It seems high reward.
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  Speaker 2: It can be.
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  Speaker 1: But wait a second. If we know the decision maker
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  Speaker 1: focuses on those big intrinsic benefits, why isn't top down
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  Speaker 1: selling the go to strategy every single time? Why risk
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  Speaker 1: annoying everyone lower down the chain.
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  Speaker 2: Because of the buyer's power, and that leads us right
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  Speaker 2: to the counter tactic bottom.
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  Speaker 1: Up selling, where you target the buyer for n right.
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  Speaker 2: And supporters of this really emphasize discretion. Buyers are responsible
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  Speaker 2: for a fair orderly process. If they feel like you've
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  Speaker 2: rudely sidestepped their authority by going top down, they might
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  Speaker 2: get annoyed.
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  Speaker 1: And that annoyance can translate directly into tactical resistance. Can it?
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely? The buyer can subtly weaponize the process against you.
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  Speaker 2: They can start writing these super specific extrinsic requirements that
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  Speaker 2: just happen to favor your competitor.
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  Speaker 1: Or they just complicate the process until you run out
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  Speaker 1: of time and money.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly King of Process penalty. And it's even more dangerous
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  Speaker 2: in regulated environments like government committees. Influencing a decision maker
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  Speaker 2: too early can actually violate integrity rules, which.
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  Speaker 1: Could force them to recuse themselves from the final decision entirely.
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  Speaker 1: That's a huge risk, a huge.
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  Speaker 2: Risk which brings us to our third option, which is
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  Speaker 2: champion selling. This one targets your internal advocate the mobilizer,
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  Speaker 2: and it tries to blend the benefits of both worlds
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  Speaker 2: while mitigating some of those risks.
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  Speaker 1: Champion selling seems really effective because the champion has influence
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  Speaker 1: over both types of requirements.
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  Speaker 2: That's the key. They often have the power to help
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  Speaker 2: write the final extrinsic feature requirements that the buyer uses,
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  Speaker 2: and they can shape the intrinsic requirements that guide the
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  Speaker 2: decision maker's whole perspective on the benefit. They're influencing the
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  Speaker 2: specs and the perceived value.
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  Speaker 1: So you invest in the champion, who then makes your
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  Speaker 1: case directly to the decider and also make sure the
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  Speaker 1: feature list actually aligns with what you can do.
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  Speaker 2: It's an investment in internal advocacy that pays double divst This.
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  Speaker 1: Whole discussion about which strategy to use, it all boils
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  Speaker 1: down to one brutal reality check, doesn't it. There's a
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  Speaker 1: statistic that has to dictate every single move you make.
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  Speaker 2: It does? We have to internalize the results of the
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  Speaker 2: Gartner's study on buyer time allocation.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, let's hear it.
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  Speaker 2: The Gartner study found that buying committees only spend a tiny,
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  Speaker 2: minuscule seventeen percent of their entire buying journey talking to
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  Speaker 2: prospectors seventeen percent.
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  Speaker 1: That that is a gut punch.
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  Speaker 2: It is. And remember that seventeen percent is split across
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  Speaker 2: all the vendors who are competing for the deal.
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  Speaker 1: So most of their time is spent without you even
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  Speaker 1: in the room. They're making decisions based on who knows
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  Speaker 1: what exactly.
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  Speaker 2: So where is the other eighty three percent of their
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  Speaker 2: time going?
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  Speaker 1: I'm also afraid to ask.
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  Speaker 2: The vast majority is self directed research and internal meetings.
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  Speaker 2: They spend twenty seven percent on online market research, eighteen
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  Speaker 2: percent on offline research, and another twenty two percent locked
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  Speaker 2: away in their own committee meetings.
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  Speaker 1: You add that up, they spend sixty seven percent of
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  Speaker 1: their time researching and coordinating without any vendor input.
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  Speaker 2: Sixty seven percent. And that confirms why that nurture intense
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  Speaker 2: cycle of engagement, the nice work is so crucial.
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  Speaker 1: Right, Your team has to spend that activation phase becoming
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  Speaker 1: the trusted resource so that when the committee is doing
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  Speaker 1: that sixty seven percent of self research, they're relying on
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  Speaker 1: your content, your insights.
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  Speaker 2: Wur advocacy. Every single interaction, whether it's a top down
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  Speaker 2: pitch or a chat with a potential champion, it has
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  Speaker 2: to be maximally impactful. Otherwise you're just wasting your tiny
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  Speaker 2: slice of that seventeen percent window.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, we have analyzed the structure of success, we've recognized
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  Speaker 1: the players on both sides of this bad team sport,
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  Speaker 1: and we've confirmed the sheer efficiency you need to break
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  Speaker 1: through to the DMU. As you wrap up this deep dive,
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  Speaker 1: let's distill this down. What are the three absolute top
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  Speaker 1: takeaways for the business developer listening right now.
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  Speaker 2: Number one, beware the overload. You have to ternalize that
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  Speaker 2: twenty fifteen CEB study stat the average DMU is five
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  Speaker 2: point four, But your probability of win drops off a
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  Speaker 2: cliff the second that committee hits six or more members.
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  Speaker 1: So scale your complexity strategically, find the core decision drivers,
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  Speaker 1: and focus your energy there and only there exactly.
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  Speaker 2: Take Away number two, define your requirement strategy. You have
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  Speaker 2: to know the language of power. Intrinsic requirements, the big
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  Speaker 2: benefits that's what drives decision makers.
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  Speaker 1: And the extrinsic requirements, the features inspects, that's what drives
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  Speaker 1: the buyers. Your targeting strategy has to align with which
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  Speaker 1: type of requirement you're trying to influence.
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  Speaker 2: And the final most crucial takeaway, the seventeen percent rule
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  Speaker 2: that Gartner study is your operational reality check. Your time
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  Speaker 2: with the DMU is brutally, brutally limited.
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  Speaker 1: Every single interaction has to be maximized to compete against
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  Speaker 1: that massive sixty seven percent of time they spend on
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  Speaker 1: their own. You have to become indispensable during that quiet
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  Speaker 1: period you really do, which brings us to our final
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  Speaker 1: provocative closing thought. For you to chew on the champion
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  Speaker 1: is the most effective role for shaping both intrinsic and
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  Speaker 1: extrinsic requirements. What does that imply about the actual return
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  Speaker 1: on investment of targeting a mobilizer versus going straight to
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  Speaker 1: the budget holder.
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  Speaker 2: And to build on that, what specific initial information should
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  Speaker 2: you be using to assess before you even make your
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  Speaker 2: first outreach, which targeting tactic top down, bottom up or
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  Speaker 2: champion selling is the least risky and most efficient for
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  Speaker 2: the deal you're on right now.
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  Speaker 1: Because that up for an assessment, it really determines the
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  Speaker 1: success of your entire seventeen percent.
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  Speaker 2: It's everything.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you for taking this deep dive with us. We'll
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  Speaker 1: catch you next time.