Question

"Buying centers" generally evolve over the course of the purchase process, meaning individual members will have different levels of influence depending on where you are in the purchase process.

Use a hypothetical business-to-business purchasing situation or a real-world example based on your experience to address the following.

1) Explain when certain buying center members would have more input into the buying process.

2) What steps could a salesperson take to identify influential members of the buying center and to better understand the buying center member’s role.

Answer 1

Ans. Buying centers are those who make the purchasing decision in the organisation. The people who are involved in the purchasing process for a product or services are known as buying center. It is also known as decision making unit. It involves the following people:

a. Initiator. These are the ones who initiates or comes up with a need to purchase. For example, a student comes up with a need of e-book with applications that serve all subject related solutions.

b. Decision maker are those who decides on whether to purchase the product or not. For example, in above case, parents might be the decision maker.

c. Controller is the one who provides the funding for the product.

d. Influencer are the existing users who are already using the product.

e. Gatekeepers are the ones from where the information passes. They can edit or delete the information.

1. Depending upon the situation, type of product, demand of the product, urgency and financial conditions the buying center members will influence the decision during the buying process.

2. As a salesperson, communicating with the client will help in identifying the influencer of the buying center. Once the salesperson identifies the influencer, then it should try to understand the psyche and the need of the influencer and pitch the product accordingly. As a salesperson, one should share all the pros and cons of the product with the client, this will help in building trust and creating a bond between the buyer and salesperson. This behaviour will make the client purchase the product. In case the buyer does not buy the product, but will remember the salesperson and will share reference for future, which is an important part in building business.