MEDDPICC Leadership: Coaching to Economic Buyer

Strong stakeholder engagement can make an opportunity feel well-qualified. But engagement and buying authority aren't the same thing. At some point, someone must decide, against other priorities, whether the problem you solve deserves investment. That person is the Economic buyer (Eb).

Understanding who they are, what they care about, and whether they support the investment is critical to your team’s qualification and forecast accuracy.

Jump to:

• What Must the Economic Buyer Validate?
• How Leaders can Validate Authority, Not Assume It
• Use the Champion to Build Access
• Should Leaders Always Meet the Economic Buyer?
• Top tips: How to Inspect Economic Buyer Access Throughout the Deal
• Economic Buyer Qualification in a Deal Review

Is the Economic Buyer The Budget Holder?

No, the budget holder will have been given the budget by the Economic buyer (sometimes several layers above). The budget holder’s responsibility is to drive a process for deciding whether to buy within the organisation.

Buying decisions in enterprise sales are also complicated. Gartner and Forrester say that 10-12 stakeholders, or ‘buyers’, are involved in the process these days, which often means the ultimate decision-maker is masked in a sea of personas.

The stakeholders have a specific responsibility within the organisation to govern cash spending, working with the budget holder. They'll have a specific task to ensure budgets are spent wisely and within policy. Those tasks may include:

• Ensuring no other solution exists.
• Ensuring the solution works within the current architecture.
• Ensuring the vendor and pricing meet their benchmarks.
• Ensuring the contracts are valid and protect the organisation.

These stakeholders often seem to have ‘absolute’ roles which trick us into thinking they're the Eb – for example, they could be:

• The assigned budget holder.
• The signatory.
• The finance or procurement lead.

These are all working with, and for, the Economic buyer. However, it is the Eb who is deciding where, when, and how monies should be spent and is the person with the authority to approve the investment.

A useful coaching question is:

What evidence do we have that this person is the Economic buyer? Note: the quality of the evidence here matters as much as the answer.

What Must the Economic Buyer Validate?

The Economic Buyer is ultimately responsible for deciding whether the investment is justified relative to other business priorities. As the deal matures, leaders should expect increasing validation of:

• Pain linked to board objectives – the ‘so what?’
• Metrics to support the business case.
• The value vs the do-nothing option (Metrics).
• The investment case vs other choices.
• The commitment to change and timing.

This makes the Economic buyer an important test of the qualification process completed earlier in the deal. Driving that Eb meeting gives us an opportunity to coach our teams to ensure the story makes sense.

For example, pain that matters operationally may not matter sufficiently at executive level. Metrics that sound compelling to a project team may not justify investment to the person releasing the money.

How Leaders can Validate Authority, Not Assume It

Qualification becomes risky when titles are treated as evidence. For example: she is the CIO, so she must be the Economic buyer. That could be true, but leaders should inspect how it has been validated through further layers of qualification.

Evidence can progress through several levels:

1. Assumed based on title or experience.
2. Confirmed by another stakeholder.
3. Confirmed by the Champion.
4. Supported by the customer’s approval structure.
5. Validated by meeting with the Economic buyer.

Once the deal reaches 30%+ in the sales cycle, we should start looking for validation and work with the team to obtain stronger evidence.

Use the Champion to Build Access

The Champion will help the sales team navigate towards the Economic buyer on the basis that they have a ‘track record for a case for change’ and therefore know who has the final say.

The Champion won’t just provide access on day 1; we need signs that access can be granted and to develop confidence that they can provide us with access.

That may include:

• Confirming who the Economic buyer is.
• Explaining the Economic buyer's priorities.
• Helping prepare the business case.
• Briefing the Economic buyer before a meeting.
• Making the introduction.
• Advising how to position the conversation.

This also provides another test of the Champion. If they cannot or will not help create access, leaders should understand why.

Great Eb meetings follow a great Champion set-up meeting. Inspect this meeting too.

Should Leaders Always Meet the Economic Buyer?

In short, yes. Second-hand information may be acceptable early in the opportunity, but it becomes increasingly risky to the forecast as the deal progresses, especially in larger deals. A direct conversation allows the sales team to validate:

• Pain: The value case matters at executive level.
• Metrics: The ROI is defined, confirmed, and owned by the customer.
• Decision criteria: ROI vs investment stacks up.
• Decision criteria: Where does this sit in the Economic buyer’s priorities?
• Decision process: What happens now and what could go wrong?
• Decision process: Qualify the commitment and close date.

There's a lot to qualify in an Eb meeting, whilst also giving value to the Eb. The leader’s job is to ensure this is no ‘tea and biscuits meeting’, but is a key milestone in the deal qualification and imperative to the forecast.

A Useful Review Question

What did we learn from the Economic buyer that we didn’t already know?

If the answer is unclear, the meeting may have created access without creating meaningful qualification.

The closer the opportunity is to close, the less reliance there should be on second-hand information.

Economic Buyer Qualification in a Deal Review

Use Deal Reviews to identify any gaps; a well-qualified rep should be able to:

1.  Identify the Economic buyer.
2.  Explain how their authority has been validated.
3.  Describe what they care about.
4.  Show how the business case connects to their priorities.
5.  Explain the route to direct access, or what was learned from the meeting.

In Summary

The Economic buyer is not simply the most senior person involved in the opportunity. They're the person who can approve the investment.

Accomplished leaders challenge assumptions, build a route to the Eb through the Champion, and ensure the pain, Metrics, and business case ultimately survive executive scrutiny.

Start with the Org Chart, stakeholder activity, and building the route to the Economic Buyer.

Ultimately, whilst second-hand information can help start the qualification, the forecast depends on your first-hand information to help coach and qualify.

This blog is one of our MEDDPICC Leadership series. Our newsletter and a live webinar accompany these blogs.

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