The client is not a “company”, “organization” or “legal entity”, but always specific people – collective decisions are typical for B2B. Philip Kotler explains it this way in “Marketing Fundamentals”:
the decision must be based on rationality and logic (unlike B2C, where impulse purchases are common);
long decision-making period;
high checks – B2B contracts amount to millions and billions of rubles, and therefore the cost of error is high;
B2B product – specific, not mass ;
the technological component is important in library shop the product, not fashion, as in B2C.
In fact, these features are a consequence of just one fact, relevant for B2B – the decision is often made not by one person, but by a group of people. This makes the choice more rational and the time frame longer (the more people participate in the decision, the more time they need to reach an agreement). At the same time, it should be borne in mind that people making the purchase decision most often manage not their own money, but corporate money, so “price elasticity”, if it remains within the budget, is often higher than in B2C.
In marketing theory, the group of people within an organization that makes the decision to purchase a product from a counterparty is called a buying center .
The concept was first formulated by researchers Frederick Webster and Yoram Wind back in the 1970s, but the model remains relevant to this day.
It is the purchasing center that is the client in B2B
and it is the people from this center that marketers and salespeople should focus their efforts on.
The composition of the purchasing center may vary for each individual transaction within a single company and depends on the number of interested (and sometimes opposing) parties.
For example, the purchase of machine tools is news from the vps center 2.34 discussed by employees of the production and purchasing departments with the participation of the financial department, and if we are talking about a deal worth tens of millions of rubles, then the final decision is made by the general director.
At the same time, ordering office supplies or purchasing accounting software requires a different composition of the purchasing center.
Roles in the Purchasing Center (Webster-Wind Model)
The same employee or top manager enters ao lists different purchasing centers at the same time, and in different roles.
In small companies (individual entrepreneurs, micro-enterprises), the owner, for example, combines several roles at once. In this sense, the differences in marketing for individual entrepreneurs and B2C are erased.
So, let’s name the possible roles of the participants in the purchasing center.
Decision Maker (DM)
As practice shows, many marketers have an erroneous or vague idea of who this is.
The decision maker as a key role in the purchasing center is the employee who is responsible for product selection .
For example, the company’s CEO instructed the marketing director to select a marketing agency for promotion. The marketing director will become the decision maker.
