Selling in mid- to large-sized businesses is never as straightforward as selling to small businesses. The MIT Entrepreneurship Center uses the term “Jury” to refer to the group of stakeholders that must get involved in B2B customer development.

Example of a Jury Map

The Jury includes the decision makers, the influencers and your early adopters.

This week, we look at the role of one of our key Jury members: the Economic Buyer — the person most concerned with the return on investment (ROI) of your solution.

The Economic Buyer in B2B Customer Development

The economic buyer — through a form of veto over purchases — acts as gatekeeper of the budget. He, or she, might be the CFO, the CEO or any kind of manager controlling a sizeable budget.

As generalists, economic buyers almost always know less than you do about many areas of the industry; they don’t have the time to keep up with all the developments in their business. The most valuable contribution you can bring to an economic buyer is knowledge.

Bring your economic buying influence information that serves as Windex for their clouded crystal balls. – Robert Miller and Stephen Heiman, Strategic Selling Authors

Economic buyers typically care about the long-term and risk-mitigation aspects of a deal. They want to know what happens if your company goes out of business, loses a key executive, or is acquired.

The greater the dollar value of the deal, the higher up in the company economic buyers will be.


Next week, we’ll look at the role of another important Jury member: the Technical Buyer.

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