Latest / What is Business Development? / Episode 75: BD-BOK...Chapter 12 Buying Committee Engagement

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Episode 75: BD-BOK...Chapter 12 Buying Committee Engagement · What is Business Development?

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It was a complex B to B deal. Right now,
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: listen to this. There's a figure that, honestly, it should
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: make you rethink everything about how you spend your time
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: in sales. A major Gartner study found that the buying
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: committees you're trying to win over, they spend only seventeen
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: percent of their entire buying journey actually talking to potential vendors.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: That means talking to you or you know, your competitors.
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  Speaker 1: Just seventeen percent.
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  Speaker 2: Seventeen percent sounds low, doesn't it. Yeah, But that number, well,
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  Speaker 2: it's not just frustrating, it's a critical constraint. It basically
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  Speaker 2: dictates every move you make.
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  Speaker 1: So where does the other eighty three percent of their
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: time go? Because that's a lot of time not spent
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  Speaker 1: with sales folks.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, And the forces map it out pretty clearly.
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  Speaker 2: About twenty seven percent goes into online research, you know, googling,
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  Speaker 2: reading reviews, that kind of thing. Okay, Then another eighteen
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  Speaker 2: percent is spent on offline research. I think pure recommendations,
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  Speaker 2: reference calls, tapping into existing relationships they.
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  Speaker 1: Trust, right, the word of mouth stuff precisely.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, And maybe the most surprising chunk a huge twenty
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  Speaker 2: two percent is spent just internal meetings, the buying committee
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: talking amongst themselves.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, so that's the reality check. You're essentially fighting for
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  Speaker 1: scraps of time, and that tiny seventeen percent slice it
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  Speaker 1: gets split across all the vendors they're even considering.
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  Speaker 2: Which means every second counts. If you only get say
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  Speaker 2: ten minutes, those ten minutes have to be absolutely spot on.
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  Speaker 1: Which brings us to our mission for this FEEP dive.
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  Speaker 1: We're going digging into efficiency. We're going to look at
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  Speaker 1: the standard ways people prospect, compare them against the actual data,
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  Speaker 1: and figure out the single strategy that's proven proven to
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  Speaker 1: deliver up to five x higher win rates.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll break down the usual suspects, you know, top down, selling,
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  Speaker 2: bottom up, the champion method. We'll look at the pros
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  Speaker 2: and cons, but really we're building towards the strategy the
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  Speaker 2: data supports for beating this time crunch.
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  Speaker 1: Multi threading, okay, multi threading. Yeah, But before we get
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  Speaker 1: into the tactics, we probably need to understand the battlefield itself, right,
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  Speaker 1: the people involved.
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  Speaker 2: You can't plan your approach until you know who you're approaching.
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  Speaker 2: We need to talk about the decision making unit or DMU.
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  Speaker 1: Right, the DMU, because in B to B it's almost
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  Speaker 1: never just one person signing the check.
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  Speaker 2: You got it. And the data really hammers this home.
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  Speaker 2: A twenty twenty study so that sixty five percent of
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  Speaker 2: B to B buying committees have four or more people involved,
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  Speaker 2: sixty five percent four or more. And if you look
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  Speaker 2: back a bit further, there was a really foundational study
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  Speaker 2: by the Corporate Executive Board the CEB back in twenty fifteen.
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  Speaker 2: They found the average committee size was five point four members.
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  Speaker 1: Five point four members. That just sounds unwieldy, especially if
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  Speaker 1: you only get that seventeen percent of their time. If
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  Speaker 1: it's that complex, why isn't the first move just you know,
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  Speaker 1: find the one person with the budget and ignore everyone else.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: Ah, that's a great question. And that CEB study actually
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  Speaker 2: had a warning tied to that average number. It explains
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  Speaker 2: why you can't just byitask.
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  Speaker 1: The group, oh what was the warning?
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  Speaker 2: They found that the chance of actually winning the deal
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  Speaker 2: drop significantly once the committee hit six or more members.
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  Speaker 2: So if you try to ignore the con committee, you
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: basically create descent, and descent just leads to deals stalling
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  Speaker 2: out inertia.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so you have to play the game appeal to
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  Speaker 1: the committee, which means understanding who's in the committee, the
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  Speaker 1: different roles.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly, and crucially, understanding what each role actually cares about.
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  Speaker 2: This brings us to a really important distinction extrinsic versus
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  Speaker 2: intrinsic requirements.
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  Speaker 1: Extrinsic versus intrinsic. Let's nail those down. What are extrinsic requirements?
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  Speaker 2: Okay? So, extrinsic requirements are the objective things, measurable tactical
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  Speaker 2: details like features, integration capabilities. You know, can the software
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  Speaker 2: connect to our CRM? Or price, how much does it cost?
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  Speaker 2: Concrete stuff you can compare on a spreadsheet?
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  Speaker 1: It the what and how much? So intrinsic requirement.
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  Speaker 2: Intrinsic is about the why, the strategic stuff, high level
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  Speaker 2: business outcomes. Why does this investment actually matter for the
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  Speaker 2: company's future? Okay, like this needs to boost our sales
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  Speaker 2: velocity by fifteen percent this quarter, or how does this
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  Speaker 2: solution cut our compliance re in half. It's about the
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: big picture benefit, the business impact, not just the feature list.
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  Speaker 1: That distinction makes the roles much clearer. Let's walk through
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  Speaker 1: them first. Up the initiator.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's simply the person who first flags the problem
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  Speaker 2: or identifies the need, the one who says, hey, we
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  Speaker 2: should look into fixing this, okay.
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  Speaker 1: Then you have the buyers, procurement folks, maybe an economic
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  Speaker 1: buyer exactly.
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  Speaker 2: These are the process guardians. Their world revolves around gathering requirements,
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  Speaker 2: writing the RFPs, RFIs, negotiating terms. They are laser focused
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  Speaker 2: on those extrinsic requirements and making sure the process is
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  Speaker 2: fair and documented. Think about things like IGCE in government deals,
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  Speaker 2: independent government cost estimates. That shows the level of detail.
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  Speaker 1: They manage right, very process driven okay. Then the decision makers,
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  Speaker 1: the executive buyer may be a source selection authority yep.
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  Speaker 2: These are usually higher up. They hold the purse strings,
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  Speaker 2: final budget control, and they care almost entirely about the
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  Speaker 2: intrinsic requirements, the strategic wins, the business outcomes, what impact
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  Speaker 2: will this have?
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  Speaker 1: And this is where influence comes in massively.
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  Speaker 2: You've got general influencers, anyone who can sway opinions, and
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  Speaker 2: then the really key ones, the champions sometimes called executive
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  Speaker 2: sponsors or mobilizers.
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  Speaker 1: These are the people actively rooting for you.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly, your inside advocate, someone who specifically favors your solution
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  Speaker 2: and is willing to push for it internally, they're golden okay.
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  Speaker 1: And finally, the users, the people who actually have to
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  Speaker 1: well use the thing day to day.
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  Speaker 2: Yep, their perspective matters too, especially for adoption later on.
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  Speaker 1: All right, so we know who's likely around the table.
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  Speaker 1: We know the clock is ticking mercilessly on that seventeen
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  Speaker 1: percent engagement window. How do companies typically try to get
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  Speaker 1: their foot in the door? What are the classic approaches?
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  Speaker 2: Well, there are basically three foundational tactics people try. They
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  Speaker 2: kind of represent different philosophies about whether you prioritize getting
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  Speaker 2: authority or respecting the existing procedure.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, let's start with top down selling, sometimes called above
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  Speaker 1: the line targeting the decision maker first. What's the thinking there?
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  Speaker 2: The argument is that going straight to the top gives
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  Speaker 2: you immediate insight into the crucial intrinsic requirements the executive
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  Speaker 2: thinks strategically.
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  Speaker 1: Right right, the big picture.
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  Speaker 2: Plus, it gives you authority. If the CEO introduces you enthusiastically,
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  Speaker 2: doors suddenly open. With the rest of the committee, and
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  Speaker 2: maybe most importantly, they control the budget, they can often
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  Speaker 2: find or reallocate funds. Cutting through red tape makes sense.
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  Speaker 1: But what's the catch. If you go too hard.
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  Speaker 2: At the top, the big risk is trampling on the process.
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  Speaker 2: If you sidestep establish procurement rules, you can instantly tick
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  Speaker 2: off the buyers, the folks whose job it is to
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  Speaker 2: ensure fairness and follow procedure.
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  Speaker 1: Ah, and they can subtly kill the deal later totally.
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  Speaker 2: It might be a quiet veto. They just slow walk
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  Speaker 2: things or maybe introduce new requirements later that conveniently favor
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  Speaker 2: a competitor. It's a political minefield sometimes.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you definitely can't afford that kind of misstep with
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  Speaker 1: only seventeen percent that other time. Okay, So that leads
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  Speaker 1: to the opposite approach, bottom up selling, hitting up the
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  Speaker 1: buyers or maybe the users first.
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  Speaker 2: Right, This approach is all about respecting the procedure and ethics.
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  Speaker 2: You're showing the buyers you value their role, giving them
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  Speaker 2: the discretion to manage things fairly. It avoids any appearance
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  Speaker 2: of trying to improperly influence.
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  Speaker 1: Things, especially important where rules are strict, like government contracts.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly. You don't want to get a decision maker in
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  Speaker 2: trouble or force them to recuse themselves because you approach
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  Speaker 2: them the wrong way too early.
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  Speaker 1: But the downside seems obvious if you only talk to
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  Speaker 1: users or procurement.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, the major drawback is authority or lack thereof. Users
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  Speaker 2: and buyers typically can't unlock strategic budget or really speed
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  Speaker 2: up the deal. You might win on features, you might
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  Speaker 2: follow the process perfectly, but you could still lose because
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  Speaker 2: you never got buy in for the strategic value or
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  Speaker 2: budget needed.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, top down, bottom up?
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  Speaker 2: What's the third classic tactic?
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  Speaker 1: Champions selling? This is where you focus on cultivating that
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  Speaker 1: trusted insider, that ultimate influencer we mentioned.
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  Speaker 2: We've all tried this right, Find that one person who
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  Speaker 2: loves you and hope they can carry.
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  Speaker 1: The water, and when it works, it's powerful. A well
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  Speaker 1: placed champion can literally shape the requirements, both extrinsic and intrinsic.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes they're the ones actually writing the spec sheet tilted
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  Speaker 1: in your favor.
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  Speaker 2: And they fight for you in those internal meetings you
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  Speaker 2: can't get into.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, they can provide that crucial final decision influence. Making
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  Speaker 1: persuasive arguments when the committee is deliberating.
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  Speaker 2: Sounds great until you get that email the my champion
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  Speaker 2: just resigned email that torpedoes the deal. We've all been
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  Speaker 2: there that's the Achilles heel. It's concentration risk. If that
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  Speaker 2: one champion leaves or maybe just loses some internal political plout,
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  Speaker 2: your whole deal is suddenly hanging by a thread. You
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  Speaker 2: basically bet your entire seventeen percent engagement strategy on one
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  Speaker 2: person's influence.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so top down risks ticking off process people, bottom
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  Speaker 1: up lacks clout, and champion selling is risky. Where does
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  Speaker 1: the actual data tell us to focus? Which approach maximizes
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  Speaker 1: that scarce time and minimizes these risks?
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  Speaker 2: This is where it gets really interesting. We look at
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  Speaker 2: the hard evidence. There's a great analysis from user gems.
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  Speaker 2: They looked at over five thousand actual BDB sauce deals.
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  Speaker 1: Five thousand deals. Okay, what did they find?
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  Speaker 2: The findings were pretty definitive. The winner, the standalone strategy
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  Speaker 2: that consistently crushes the others is multi threading.
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  Speaker 1: Multi threading, which, just to be clear, means what exactly.
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  Speaker 2: It means engaging multiple stakeholders simultaneously across different roles, different departments.
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  Speaker 2: Sometimes it's about not just focusing on one person, whether
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  Speaker 2: it's the decision maker or the buyer, or even just
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  Speaker 2: one champion. It's about building relationships broadly.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, covering your bases across the DMU exactly.
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  Speaker 2: It's about holistic coverage, and the numbers show why it's
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  Speaker 2: so critical. Multi Threading delivered five x higher win.
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  Speaker 1: Rates five times. That's huge, And not.
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  Speaker 2: Only that, the deals themselves were fifty seven percent bigger
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  Speaker 2: on average.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, okay, five x win rates, fifty seven percent bigger deals. Why,
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  Speaker 1: what's the mechanism. It sounds like more work. Connecting with
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  Speaker 1: more people.
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  Speaker 2: Is more work up front, but it's about risk insulation.
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  Speaker 2: Think about those veto points we talked about. If you
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  Speaker 2: only talk to the decision maker, the buyer might kill
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  Speaker 2: the deal later because some technical requirement wasn't.
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  Speaker 1: Met right right the extrinsic stuff.
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  Speaker 2: Or if you only talk to the buyer, the executive
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  Speaker 2: might nix it because the strategic vision the intrinsic value
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  Speaker 2: wasn't compelling enough. Multi Threading forces you to address all
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: those potential objections at every level.
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  Speaker 1: So when they have those internal meetings that twenty two
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  Speaker 1: percent of their time, you have allies in the room.
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  Speaker 2: That's the core idea. You have someone who gets the strategy,
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  Speaker 2: someone who trusts the process you followed, maybe someone who
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  Speaker 2: sees the user benefits. You're not just relying on one
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  Speaker 2: person to make your case.
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  Speaker 1: You're giving AMMO to multiple people to fight for you
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: across the whole committee.
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  Speaker 2: Precisely, It's like diversifying your investment portfolio, but for your
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  Speaker 2: sales pipeline. But wait, it gets even better. The data
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  Speaker 2: reveals another massive booster you can combine with this.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, what's that?
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  Speaker 2: Leveraging previous relationships, specifically previous champions.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: You mean tracking people who used and like your product
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: at their old company and then engaging them when they
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: land at a new target account.
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  Speaker 2: That's exactly it. When you bring a previous champion into
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: a new deal, someone who already knows and trusts your
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  Speaker 2: solution from past experience, the impact is just stunning.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, let's hear the numbers on that. This sounds crucial
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  Speaker 1: for efficiency.
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  Speaker 2: It really is. Adding these previous champions to your new
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: deals leads to one hundred and fourteen percent higher win.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Rates whoa double the win rate.
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  Speaker 2: Double plus fifty four percent, larger deals, and the sales
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: cycles closed twelve percent faster. Think about it. That person
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: walks into their new company already understanding your value. They
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: bring built in trust.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: They don't need as much of that precious seventeen percent
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: engagement time just to figure out who you are exactly.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: They can hit the ground running advocating for you. It's
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: the power of portable trust.
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  Speaker 1: So if multi threading is the best standalone strategy and
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: adding previous champions gives this huge boost, what happens when
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: you combine them.
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  Speaker 2: That's the ultimate play. The analysis showed that combining multi
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  Speaker 2: threading with leveraging previous champions results in a sixty three
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: percent higher overall win rate compared to just relying on
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  Speaker 2: a single point of contact or.
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  Speaker 1: Strategy sixty three percent higher.
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  Speaker 2: The data couldn't be clearer. Spreading your influence wide within
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  Speaker 2: the current deal and strategically leveraging past successes and relationships,
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  Speaker 2: that's the most effective, most efficient path forward based on
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: the evidence.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, this has been incredibly insightful. Hopefully this gives everyone
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: listening some really concrete, data backed ways to focus their
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: energy where it counts most. Before we wrap up, let's
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  Speaker 1: quickly crystallize the top three takeaways from this deep dive.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely yeah, takeaway number one, never forget that extreme time
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  Speaker 2: pressure you're sharing. Just seventeen percent of the buyer's journey
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: time with all your competitors, Every single touch point has
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: to count. It needs to be hyper relevant to whoever
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: you're talking to, whether they care about extrinsic details or
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: intrinsic outcomes.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Takeaway too except that B to B buying is ALLMOS
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: always a team sport. That average of five point four
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: members is real. You have to identify and appeal to
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: the different roles. The buyer worrying about process, the decision
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: maker focused on strategy, your champions, driving internal support. You
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: need a plan for each.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: And takeaway number three the big one. The data points
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  Speaker 2: directly to multi threading as the highest ROI strategy. That
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: five x win rate isn't an accident. It comes from
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: strategically managing complexity and mitigating those hidden veto risks. You
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: need to build processes to spread that influence and deliberately
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: track and leverage those previous champions.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: That's the bottom line. So the question for you listening
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  Speaker 1: right now is, given this clear evidence about multi threading
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: and previous champions, what's one concrete step you'll take this
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: quarter to put this into practice?
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Will you commit to mapping out, say, three key
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: contacts per deal instead of just one. Or maybe set
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: up a process using LinkedIn or your CRM to actually
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: track when your past champions moved to new target accounts.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: That decision that action could really change your results. Focus
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: on what the data shows works absolutely well. Thank you
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: for joining us for this deep dive. We really hope
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: this gives you an edge in capturing that crucial seventeen
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: percent of your buyer's attention. We'll see you next time.