week 3.

PARTICIPANTS IN THE
BUYING PROCESS

The Professional Buyer

Trained professional buyers typically carry out

buying in business-to-business markets:

Purchasing agents

Procurement officers

Directors of materials management

Ne
w

The Buying Center / DMU

The group of people in an organization who participate in a

buying decision
Formal
authority
Rolls:

Initiator
Buyer
Initiator
On
prod
requ

User
or supplier
user

Influencer
Decider

Decider
User
Approver
Purchase

Buyer
techs
Gatekeeper
Users or
others that
request
purchase

Who:

Gatekeeper

Influencer
Approver

Authorize
proposed
action

Roles of the Decision-Making Unit

Initiator: starts the purchase

process by recognizing a need

Users: their jobs require that

they implement and evaluate
what was purchased

Influencers: individuals who

affect the decision makers
final choice through
recommendations about which
vendors to include or which
products will best meet needs
Decider: people who decide
on product requirements

Approver / Decision maker:

person/committee that makes
the final decision
Buyer / Purchaser: any
person who actually buys the
product
Gatekeepers: control
information

Screens and filters

Buying centre influences

Several participants with different interests, authority,
status or persuasiveness and different decision
criteria:

Engineering wants to maximize performance of the

product

Production wants ease of use / reliability supply

Finance wants focus on economics

Purchasing wants to control operating and

replacement cost

Unions may emphasize safety

Buyers also may have personal motivations,
perceptions and preferences

K-I-S
buyers

Own-expert
buyers

Want-the-best
buyers

Want-it-all-done
buyers

Purchase decisions are made by

individuals!

Individuals are motivated by their own needs and

perceptions in attempting to maximise the rewards
(pay, advancement, recognition etc)

Personal needs motivate behaviour individual, but

organisational needs legitimate buying decision
process
People are not buying products: they buy solution to
two problems:
Organisations economic and strategic problem
Personal need for individual achievement / reward

Both rational and emotional decisions

Buying centre targeting

A.
B.
C.
D.

Who are the decision makers

What decision do they influence
What is their level of influence
What evaluation criteria do they use

Example disposible surgical gowns:

ad A: VP Purchasing, operating room administrator,

surgeons

ad B: VP decides on disposible vs reusable gowns, admin

chooses a supplier

ad C: administrator looks into absorbency, quality, cost

etc

ad D: Surgeons influence retroactively on satisfaction

chosen brand

Buying centre targeting

Small sellers concentrate on key buying influencers

Large sellers go for multi-level in-depth selling

Account management

Communication

Next week:

Assignment 2 by groups 1,2,3

With your fellow group members you discuss to

select a company which is participating in the
brewery industry from your country.

Describe the differences between business-tobusiness and consumer marketing for the following
market elements: products, buyer behavior,
decision making, market structure, channels and
promotion.

Describe the differences between derived demand

and consumer demand. How does the leveraging
phenomenon occur?

What is the difference between value as perceived

by the customer and value as perceived by the
supplier.