Buying Committee Engagement

What is Business Development?

Which prospect engagement method is best?

Buying Committees only spend 17% of time talking to prospectors and...

27% doing online market research
22% buying committee meetings
18% researching offline

So, BD must maximize impact of their prospect engagements.

Here are the 4 popular approaches...

1. TOP-DOWN

Synonyms: “Selling High” or “Above The Line (ATL) Selling”

Benefits of this Approach:

o  Intrinsic Requirements
Decision Makers are concerned with benefits for their business.
Therefore, they set powerful Intrinsic Requirements.

o  Authority
Once the decision maker desires the benefits of the product, they open the door for the prospector to engage the rest of the buying committee.  Introduction by the decision maker may increase the probability of engagement and support from the rest of the buying committee.

o  Budget
Decision makers ultimately control the budget.
If no funds were originally allocated for the product, the decision maker could reallocate funds from other areas to purchase the new product.

2. BOTTOM UP

Synonyms: “Below the Line (BTL) Selling”

Benefits of the Approach:

o  Discretion
Buyers may judge Top-Down prospectors as rudely sidestepping their authority and formal purchase processes. This may annoy the Buyer and cause them to create extrinsic requirements that favor competitors.

o  Ethics
Some buying committees, especially Government buying committees, may have rules that prevent the Decision Makers from engaging with prospectors in order to protect the integrity of the purchase process. Prematurely influencing a Decision Maker may force them to recuse themselves from participation in the final purchase decision.

3. CHAMPION

Benefits of this Approach:

o  Requirements
Champions may have a significant influence that shapes the final extrinsic and intrinsic requirements or buying decision. In some cases, they may actually write the final requirements the Buyer uses to make the purchase.

4. MULTI-THREADING

o  Engaging the entire buying committee diversifies risk and influences requirements or decisions across the entire buying committee.

So...which method is the best?

UserGems 💎analyzed 5,000+ B2B SaaS engagements and found...

Multi-Threading as the winner with...

5X higher win rates
57% increase to deal size

BONUS TIP...adding previous champions in new deals boost...

114% higher win rates
54% bigger deal sizes
12% shorter sales cycles

But wait! That's not all...

Multi-threading with previous champions has 63% higher win rate.

Tony Gray, BDP
Author of the Business Development Body of Knowledge

Get your copy on Amazon today!