The Buyers Behind Your Internet Lead
Who’s Influencing the B2B Purchasing Decision?
By Rao Wu
When you get a lead for a new Internet prospect, it’s easy to focus on that one individual because they’re going to be your first point of contact – your entrée into the organization. I use the term “first point” and “entrée” because it’s essential to not view your Internet lead as just one person, despite the fact that you have the name of one person right in front of you. Internet leads are opportunities, and when you’re selling to the business product buyer, there are a number of people behind that lead who will participate in and influence that purchase decision. Understanding these influencers and having a method for selling to them will go a long way in helping you to win the deal. There are four “standard” types of buyers you’ll run across in a B2B environment, plus a wild card influencer. And the truth is, every one of them researches business products and submits leads online. This is all the more reason to be able to identify which type of influencer you’re talking to and to tailor your approach appropriately. Here’s a brief description of each and some recommendations on how to sell to them.
The User Buyer
The User Buyer is the end user of your product – the person who is literally going to use it. This person will make calls on whether the product does what you say it will do; if it’s easy to implement and use; if it’s effective in helping them do their job better, more easily, or more effectively; or if it’s a royal pain to use. The User Buyer can be one person or an entire group. If the User Buyer is an entire group of people, you’ll want to get to know the leader of that group - who will have the biggest influence on the purchase decision.
The truth is, all too often - sales people discount User Buyers because they lack the authority to purchase. But User Buyers are still influencers on the sale, particularly on which vendors get a chance to get in on the game in the first place, and more importantly, which vendors stay in the game. If you sell a product or service that requires an ongoing relationship with the client (as most business products do) the User Buyer is going to have a very strong influence on whether or not you become a long term customer.
The Champion Buyer (or Coach Buyer)
The Champion Buyer is your advocate and is sometimes referred to as the “Coach Buyer.” Most often it’s someone within the sales prospect organization, but they might also be an external person who has a strong influence on your prospect. Ideally, your Champion Buyer is the same person as one of the other buyers – for example, they’re the end user (the User Buyer), and they are really going to go bat for you internally because they know first-hand that they need your solution. The Champion Buyer will help to push your proposal through to the decision makers in the organization. They can get you access to the other influencers in the organization and, ideally, they have a vested interest in the purchase of your product.
The Technical Buyer (or the Gatekeeper)
The Technical Buyer is sometimes referred to as the Gatekeeper because they’re often the person who is going to be screening requests for proposals, evaluating the technical suitability, comparing your proposal to your competitors’, and narrowing down the pool or proposals to just a few. They could be the person who blocks your proposal. The Technical Buyer can also be an individual or a group. They may be engineers or other technical people, but they can also be from the finance department, sales, marketing, or others. With this person or group, you may have to provide case studies, data, training, and other information to prove the value and validity of your offering.
The Financial Buyer (or Economic Buyer)
The Financial Buyer, sometimes referred to as the Economic Buyer, is your ultimate decision maker – the person who holds the purse strings. This person is most likely analytical and higher up in the organization and will want specific and quantifiable reasons on why this will be a good decision for the organization and what the ROI will be. The Financial Buyer is possibly your most important point of contact and one whom you should try to get to know as soon as possible. Like the other buyers, the Financial Buyer may also be a group or team of people, depending on the size of the organization and the cost of the purchase.
Last but not Least: the Fox
There’s another person who is lurking around your potential sale - the Fox. The Fox won’t necessarily be your Champion; in fact, they may promote a rival solution. This is a person who might operate behind the scenes, yet will still influence the sale. It’s important to try to identify the Fox if there is one. For instance, the Financial (or Economic) Buyer may rely on the Fox’s opinion. The Fox may have used a competing product at a previous company or have a friend who works for a competitor, or they may be the quiet person who is just “sitting in” during your sales presentation or conference call. If you can identify the Fox and win them over, you can greatly increase your odds of closing the deal.
So the next time you’ve got lead for a promising prospect right in front of you, you’ll understand there’s a whole team of influencers behind that lead – and you’ll be ready to win over each one.