Participants in the Business Buying Process

The decision-making unit of buying organization is known its buying centre: all the specific and units that participate in business decision-making process. Buying centre includes all members of organization who play any of five roles in purchase decision process.

• Users are members of organization who will use product or service. In many cases, users initiate the buying proposal and support defines product specifications.
• Influencers frequently help define specifications and also provide information for evaluating alternatives. Technical personnel are particularly important influencers.
• Buyers contain formal authority to choose the supplier and arrange terms of purchase. Buyers can help shape product specifications, but their main role is in choosing vendors and negotiating. In more complicated purchases, buyers may include high-level officers participating in negotiations.
• Deciders have informal or formal power to choose or approve the last suppliers. In routine buying, buyers are frequently the deciders, or at least the approvers.
• Gatekeepers control flow of information to others. For instance, purchasing agents frequently have authority to prevent salespersons from seeing the users or deciders. Other gatekeepers include technical personnel and even personal secretaries.

The buying centre is not a fixed and formally recognized unit within buying organization. It is a set of buying roles supposed by different people for different purchases. Within the organization, the size and makeup of buying centre will vary for the different products and for different buying situations. Business marketers functioning in global markets can face even greater levels of buying centre influence. The buying centre concept presents a main marketing challenge. The business marketer has to study who participates in decision, each participant's relative influence, and what evaluation criterion every decision participant uses. The buying centre typically includes some clear participants who are involved formally in the buying decision.