What are the Main Influences on Business Buyers

Business buyers are subject to many influences when they make their buying decisions. Some marketers assume that the strongest influences are economic. They think buyers will favour the supplier that offers the lowest price or the best product or the most service. They concentrate on offering strong economic benefits to buyers. However, business buyers actually respond to both economic and personal factors:

It has not been fashionable lately to talk about relationships in business. We're told that it has to be devoid of emotion. We must be cold, calculating and impersonal. Don't you believe it! Relationships make the world go round. Business people are human and social as well as interested in economics and investments and salespeople need to appeal to both sides. Purchasers may claim to be motivated by intellect alone, but the professional salesperson knows that they run on both reason and emotion.l3

When suppliers' offers are very similar, business buyers have little basis for strictly rational choice. Because they can meet organicntional goals with any supplier, buyers can allow personal factors to play a larger role in their decisions. However, when competing products differ greatly, business buyers are more accountable for their choice and tend to pay more attention to economic factors.

Figure 7.4

Main influences on business buying behaviour

Figure 7.4 lists various groups of influences on business buyers mental, organization, interpersonal and individual.1-1

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Continue reading here: How Do Government Buyers Make their Buying Decisions

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