4.

Customers’
Organizational Behavior
Purchasing Center & Buyer Personae

B2B Marketing Strategies Laurent La Rocca

Consultant and expert speaker, ESSEC
ESSEC MSc, Fall 2019
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Customer’s Organizational Behavior Purchasing Center and Buyer Personae

ü Application
to the Treep

ü Building
Personae

ü Who decides on
Purchasing?

ü The Dimensions of Corporate

Purchasing Strategies

L. La Rocca page 2
Customer’s Organizational Behavior Purchasing Center and Buyer Personae

ü The Dimensions of Corporate

Purchasing Strategies

L. La Rocca page 3
Nested Segmentation

§ Motivation
§ Buyer-seller 1-to-1 relationship, 5. Personal Characteristics
§ Risk perceptions

§ Buying situation,
§ Type of application 4. Situational Factors
§ Urgency / size of order

§ Organization and structure of DMU*,

§ Purchasing policies, 3. Purchasing Variables
§ Purchasing criteria

§ Technology,
§ User / non-user (of a product/brand) status, 2. Operating Variables
§ Customer capabilities

§ Industry, company size,

§ Location 1. Firmographic Variables

* DMU : Decision Making Unit

L. La Rocca page 4
Nested Segmentation

5. Personal n Organization and Structure of DMU*

Characteristics • DMU = Decision Making Unit
• Who decides on Purchasing?
4. Situational n Purchasing Policies
Factors
• Policies = based on Purchasing Strategies
• Many dimensions:
3. Purchasing - Vendor Rating Program?
Variables - Procurement Centralization
- Sole supplier / shared supplies
- Level of strategic dependency of customer
- International sourcing policy

n Purchasing Criteria
• What are the customers’ preferences?
• Are they clear to them?
• Relates to need-based segmentation

L. La Rocca page 5
Nested Segmentation

5. Personal n Buying Situations

Characteristics • “Straight Rebuy”
• “Modified Rebuy”
4. Situational • “New Task”
Factors n Types of Applications
• No longer what industry the customer is in,
3. Purchasing • Rather, how the offer is going to be used.
Variables • Example. Tires : OEM or replacement?

n Urgency / Size of Order

• Will have strong consequences on sales
conditions (price, etc.)
• Should be anticipated in price and supply
chain policies (yield management, etc.)

L. La Rocca page 6
Nested Segmentation

5. Personal n Motivation
Characteristics • Not only “what a customer runs for” as an
organization,
4. Situational • But what are peoples’ motivations, and how
are decisions made?
Factors
n Buyer-Seller 1-1 Relationships
3. Purchasing • How people from customer and supplier
Variables organizations vary from each others based on
corporate and/or cultural considerations.

n Risk Perception
• How people from the buying organizations
perceive risks (risk aversion and types of risks
perceived based on personal profiles)

L. La Rocca page 7
Customer’s Organizational Behavior Purchasing Center and Buyer Personae

ü Who decides on
Purchasing?

L. La Rocca page 8
 Purchasing Decisions Who Decides?

Pharmagest
Development and commercialization of professional IT solutions for pharmacies
Proximity – Reactivity - Availability
Challenged by new agressive entrants, DOMINIQUE PAUTRAT, General Manager, launched a tender to
renew the computer and server portfolio that Pharmagest integrates in their solution for pharmacies. He
looks with his team at a stack of proposals received from several IT manufacturers. Dell has been the IT
supplier for 9 years. HP and Lenovo are challengers

No change needed Trustworthy brand Best value for price

Reliable but limited range Slightly more expensive Recent in server business

L. La Rocca page 9
 Purchasing Decisions Who Decides?
You are the Sales Rep. of Lenovo.

What are the good questions ?

What are the motivations of the buyers ?

List the roles that the individuals are playing in this informal group

Who is most important in the decision process? Why?

What are the risks from the perspective of each person involved?

How to deal with the above information to win the deal?

L. La Rocca page 10
Purchasing Decisions
1. Observations - Who does what?

2. Action - How to go about it?

Action Plan to Whom Say What? Do what?

Action 1
Action 2
Action3

L. La Rocca page 11
 The Buying Center Interactions…
The Key Account’s Buying (Purchasing) Center
or Decision Making Unit
(DMU)

Decision Maker

Advocate

Gate Keeper Influencers

Champion

User
Buyer

L. La Rocca page 12
The Buying Center Composition
Make the decision
Decision
Makers
§ 3 types of decision making
§ Sometimes called “VITO” (“Very Important Top Officer”)

Authoritarian A key individual makes the decision

Example : In small businesses, it is often the boss or the owner (especially for the large investments)

Consensus Some form of an internal democracy (you don’t always know why the
decision was taken…)
Example : cooperatives, institutions, government bodies

Consultative An appointed decision maker (often the commercial buyer) makes the
decision, based on the view of the key influencers of the DMU
Typical of the large companies

L. La Rocca page 13
Source : Cheverton
The Buying Center Composition
Are formally responsible for the negotiation process
§ Purchasing function : now highly strategic
Buyers § Have lost the privilege of last decision makers, but
§ Are now positioned as experts in supplier markets, purchasing process
managers and co-managers of the value of purchases (Total Cost of
Ownership).

L. La Rocca page 14
The Buying Center Composition

Control information into and out of the

buying group or between members of the group
Gate § “Absolute negative influencers”
Keepers § May be very powerful
§ Typical: Quality Executive obtaining the agreement from top management
to request a demanding quality certification for future suppliers (a non-
certified candidate will not be considered).

L. La Rocca page 15
The Buying Center Composition

Everyone who influences the purchasing decision

(either directly or indirectly)
§ May recommend one or several given supplier(s)
Influencers
§ May also influence the evaluation of the needs
§ Can be from inside or outside the company

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The Buying Center Composition

Use the product or service

§ May contribute to the establishment of the initial
Performance Specification document
Users
(example : laboratory equipment)
§ May be “Initiators” (identifying the needs).

L. La Rocca page 17
The Buying Center Composition
“Your” champion:

the person who gets excited by what you have to offer

Champions

§ Should be found in the first place (but not always very easy to identify)
§ Must have the ability to convince an advocate who will take the
message to the decision makers.
§ Should be equipped with “sales enablement” tools such as pitch decks,
case studies, etc.

L. La Rocca page 18
The Buying Center Composition
The person who is interested in carrying your message to the most influential people or
decision makers

Advocate
§ Based on their motivations, there are 4 types of advocates :

- Super connectors (interested in growing their contact community)

- Gurus (like helping others)
- Stars (want to promote their personal brands)
- Oracles (experts in their fields, want others to know it).

L. La Rocca page 19
Customers’ Organizational Behavior Purchasing Center & Buyer Personae

ü Building
Personae

ü Who decides on
Purchasing?

ü The Dimensions of Corporate

Purchasing Strategies

L. La Rocca page 20
B2B Buyer Personae A Definition (2002, pre-digital)

Buyer Personae are research-based archetypal (modeled) representations of:

§ Who buyers are,
§ What they are trying to accomplish,
§ What goals drive their behavior,
§ How they think,
§ How they buy, and
§ Why they make buying decisions. Here,
§ Buyers may be any people from the Purchasing Center (not
only the professional buyers)
§ We are looking at their Purchasing Behavior, seeking their
“Stories”

L. La Rocca Source: http://tonyzambito.com/buyer-persona-original-definition-matters/ page 21

B2B Buyer Personae What You Need to Know About Them
1. Their Job role / § Decision Makers in the C-suite, potential Champions in the Marketing department, Subject Matter
Experts…
title
§ Helps locating them in the customers’ organization

2. Your Champion § Are they excited about your solution?

or not ? § Ready to present it to internal advocates?
§ If yes, need to know their role in the organization…

3. How they § In order to create the necessary excitement, you need to touch their motivations.
define success § May be professional, but also personal.

4. Which biggest § In order to present solutions though marketing campaigns

challenges § Here, your success stories with similar customers are of very high value.

L. La Rocca Source: https://newbreedmarketing.com/blogb2b-buyer-personas page 22

B2B Buyer Personae What You Need to Know About Them

5. Which key § What key messages will have value to them?

messages? § In today’s on-line literature, this is mostly internet-driven, but this also holds outside of internet
(field reps).

6. Where to find § There is the idea of customer “touchpoints”.

them § Knowing how and where they engage will help you identify where to share your content and your
stories, in the format they are familiar with.

7. How they § Email? Phone ? Physical contact? Event or trade fair?

prefer to § Very important for knowing how to “nurture“ the relationship with them.
interact

L. La Rocca Source: https://newbreedmarketing.com/blogb2b-buyer-personas page 23

B2B Buyer Personae
Learning by Doing (Gordana Stok*)

“The 6 most important (and surprising) things I learned by doing

B2B Buyer Personas” (Gordana Stok)

L. La Rocca * Source: http://contentbridge.ca/the-6-most-important-and-surprising-things-i-learned... page 24

Examples of personae met by the Treep

Online booking service called

Mobility Planner :
- It compares and combines
all the trains, flights, taxis,
metros.
- You easily book at the best
price and it’s paid by your
company.
- CO2 emissions are reduced
and offset.

L. La Rocca page 25
Personae : small comp / Agency CFO

Michael L
• Background: Male / 45
• Education: Master degree in Business school
• Company: D. digital agency
• Comment: “I want to set the best working conditions for our agency with expense limits”
“I want to monitor the travel expenses”

Job Title & Role Goals Pain points Values

• CFO • Carry the company growth • (Travel) expense abuse • Success
• Associate • Manage the expenses at right • Not being able to identify the • Efficiency
• Finance and operations level travel expenses • Credibility
• Value the company • Innovation
• Set good working conditions • Happiness of his life
for employees
• Enrich his work life balance

L. La Rocca page 26
Personae : large company / buyer

Estelle M
• Background: Female / 42
• Education: Hospitality A degree - acting
• Company: Consulting Company
• Comment: Sea shepard volunteer - Bio vegan comestics creator ELOHA

Job Title & Role Goals Pain points Values

• President assistant
• New job as buyer for
sustainable goods and
services
• New manager of 6 travel
managers at Greenflex
• Manage the sustainable
purchase policy
• Our champion
• To Prove being capable to
manage the new job / new team
• Bring savings to GF : € and time
• Range suppliers with full offer
• Set new suppliers in sustainable
field to make the company
consistent
• Be self consistent (Green
activist)
• Seen as not legitimate / not • Service
capable by president • Efficiency
• Bring radical changes that • Purpose
unbalance the team
• Being criticized with new
service that is not as efficient
as egencia

L. La Rocca page 27
 Customers’ Organizational Behavior Key takeaways
Why Buyer personae? For
understanding buyers at all
steps of their Buyer’s Journey
(Awareness, Consideration,
Decision) so that they may
become mature leads for the
Sales teams
Content of a Buyer Persona. All
elements that will allow winning
their preferences. At lest 7 key
points must be covered
B2B Purchasing. Collective: the
most important actors must be
identified in order to improve
sales and customer satisfaction
through successful
communication campaigns
The Purchasing Center. The
implicit group of people who have
some influence in the
organizational purchasing process
The customer’s decision
process. 3 typical models:
Authoritarian, Consensus, Consultative
(the most usual one)

B2B Buyer Personas. Research-based
archetypes of who buyers are, what they wish
to do or to be, where to find them, how they
think and buy, and why.
L. La Rocca
Two meaningful actors for the B2B marketer.
The Champion (gets excited by your offer) and the Advocate
(interested in carrying it to the Decision Maker)
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