Understanding the Decision-Making Process in B2B Marketing
Importance for Marketers to Know How to Deal with the Buying Process and Purchasing Behavior of Targeted Customers
Decision-Making Process
When a customer buys a product, the purchase is not necessarily a single act or isolated event; rather, it consists of a number of linked activities, namely the decision-making process. The time and effort invested in completing the various stages will vary depending on several factors such as:
- Importance of purchasing to the organization,
- Market conditions,
- The range of suppliers from which the company can choose,
- The purchasing power held by the customer organization relative to its supply market,
- Newness of the task: new task, modified rebuy, straight rebuy.
The decision-making process involves a range of managers that represent the buying team or decision-making unit: Initiator, Decider, Buyer, Influencer, User, and Gatekeeper.
What Business Marketers Need to Know
The business marketer needs to:
- Know who the key members of the DMU are,
- Understand their specific concerns or requirements in relation to the decision at hand.
As well as assuming that those in senior management positions might exert considerable influence, the business marketer can try to identify employees who:
- Work in boundary-spanning roles;
- Have close involvement with the buying center in terms of flow of activities;
- Are heavily involved in communication across functional areas in the buying organization;
- Have direct links with senior management.
Understanding the DMU
Understanding the DMU has to be linked to the dynamic nature of the decision-making process:
- What happens to the structure of the DMU during different phases of the buying process;
- The effect that the change in structure will have on the communication and influence patterns inside the unit;
- The information needs of DMU members at any given point in time.
How Researches Are Conducted in B2B Market Context
Marketing Research
Marketing information is key for success. The value of marketing information can be judged in terms of accuracy, timeliness, relevance, and uniqueness. Accuracy is a technical matter, while timeliness, relevance, and uniqueness are more managerial matters. The effective use of this wealth of information will help a company gain a competitive advantage.
Research Specificities in B2B
There are many similarities with B2C; however, derived demand leads to secondary research on the client’s customer and even more downstream analysis. Concentration ratio leads to low response rates, and the nature of the market is easing the availability of data.
Sampling Methods
In general, the aim of sampling is to obtain a representative sample, meaning a sample that reflects the overall population in terms of important characteristics.
Dealing with Low Response Rates
Standard Industrial Classification
A standard industrial classification (SIC) is a systematic method of classifying economic activity, originally designed by governments, which is useful for specifying business market research samples from list providers and for defining an industry sector unambiguously.
Relationship with Agencies
Communication with agencies and the management of the relationship with agencies is key in ensuring the usefulness of the collected data.
Data Quality
While the internet has made many more secondary market research sources readily available, it is important to use information from trustworthy sources and to apply critical judgment in evaluating secondary research sources.