Eggcerpts From Natalie: Business Buying Behavior
Written on June 24, 2008 by Susan Payton
by Natalie Grbic
The first step in developing a successful business selling strategy is understanding how purchase decisions are made within the organization. Business buyers vary greatly from consumers; therefore, gaining knowledge in business buying behavior is very important. There are five essential aspects in the business buying behavior:
1. Buying Centers: this includes all the people in an organization who become involved in the purchase decisions. These roles can include initiators, influencers/evaluators, gatekeepers, deciders, purchasers, or users.
2. Evaluative Criteria: business buyers evaluate products and suppliers against quality, service, and price (in this order).
3. Buying Situations: business firms must decide whether to make something or buy it from an outside supplier. If a firm decides not to make it, the purchase will be a new buy, a modified rebuy, or a straight rebuy.
- A new buy is purchasing a product for the first time.
- A modified rebuy is where the purchaser wants some change in the original good or service.
- A straight rebuy is where the purchaser reorders the same goods or services without looking for new information or investigating other suppliers.
4. Business Ethics: many companies have codes of ethics that help guide buyers and sellers.
5. Customer Service: firms must be concerned with delivering high-quality service and measure satisfaction, loyalty, relationship quality, and other indicators of non-financial performance.
Susan
Natalie brings up excellent elements of the buying process. But how does that affect your marketing?
- It explains the process. It doesn’t do you any good to market to someone who has a set group of vendors they are required to work with.
- You can create marketing strategies for each type of buying situation.
- You can analyze each buying center to determine how they like to be marketed to and act accordingly.
Remember: Research is key to complete prior to creating your marketing plan. Poor research can backfire on you, so take the time to do it right.
