Buying Center – Who influences the buying decision of your customers

A buying center is the group of people involved in a purchasing decision. 

This question is on the minds of a great many marketers, sales people and business managers. On this path, quite pragmatic tools like the Customer Empathy Map can help to uncover the psychological aspects behind the buying phases.

First of all, it is important to understand that the individual roles in the decision-making body are not opponents or adversaries. Rather, at best, these people have needs that can be met by you and your company.

The first and most important aspect of the buying center is that you are aware that this role concept is present in every customer organization. It can be officially anchored in the hierarchy, or it can be unofficially distributed among different roles. 

Both for marketing and solution sales, the analysis of customer types and their composition is crucial for the relationship network.   

At many companies, the Buying Center is not an official group, department or team. Rather, it is important for the selling side, i.e. the Selling Center (as also shown here by the colleagues of the Sales Lexicon) to understand as intensively as possible who is directly or also indirectly involved in the buying decision process. 

The role distribution of all actors within the purchasing group or the decision-making circle varies depending on the industry, company and procurement process. 

For instance, some decision-makers bundle several roles, while in some cases only one or more hierarchical levels are involved.