I am not a traditional “salesperson,” and this is not a guide on how to sell. This is a practical framework to understand how buying decisions actually get made—particularly in complex, B2B environments.
Most failed opportunities are not due to poor technology. They fail because the team does not understand how the customer actually buys.
Sales vs. Marketing (Get This Right Early)
At a high level, there are two operating models:
Selling organization:
- Build a product, then try to sell it
- Use promotion, discounting, and outbound effort to generate demand
- Constantly push uphill
Marketing-driven organization:
- Start with a customer problem
- Develop a solution aligned to that need
- Pull demand through relevance and value
A marketing-driven approach is structurally advantaged. It begins with the customer, not the technology.
This is difficult in technical organizations, where teams are often biased toward what they have already built.
Decision Making Unit
Your “customer” is almost never a single person. It is a Decision-Making Unit (DMU: Decision-Making Unit)—a group of individuals with different roles, incentives, and authority. Rick Page covers this well in his book Hope is Not a Strategy.
Ignoring this is one of the fastest ways to lose a deal.
Typical roles include:
- Initiators — surface the problem
- Users — experience the problem directly
- Buyers — evaluate solutions
- Deciders — approve the purchase
- Payers — control or supply the budget
- Influencers — shape opinions
- Gatekeepers — control risk, access, or approval
Some roles may overlap. Others may sit outside the organization entirely.
Your job is to identify who plays each role in your specific target account.
Role Breakdown (What Actually Matters)
Initiators
- Introduce the problem into the organization
- May be internal (operations, engineering) or external (customer demand, regulation, vendor outreach)
If you are creating the problem through outbound sales, expect resistance.
If the problem is already recognized internally, you have momentum.
Users
- Interact with your solution day-to-day
- Provide feedback to buyers and influencers
- Can become advocates—or blockers
In subscription or repeat business models, users often determine renewal.
Buyers
- Evaluate the solution in detail
- Compare alternatives (including doing nothing)
- Often responsible for vendor selection and negotiation
They understand the operational reality and will pressure-test your claims.
Deciders
- Own the business outcome and budget accountability
- Synthesize input from buyers, influencers, and gatekeepers
- Make the final call
They do not need technical depth—they need confidence in:
- value
- risk profile
- organizational impact
Payers
- Provide or control the budget
- May be internal or external (e.g., customer of your customer, insurer, government subsidy)
If you do not understand the payer, you do not understand the deal.
Influencers
- Shape perception and credibility
Examples:
- Industry experts
- Trade publications
- Regulators or policy bodies
- Existing customers
Strong positive influence reduces friction and accelerates sales cycles.
Negative influence can quietly kill deals.
Gatekeepers
- Control risk, compliance, and access
- Can stop a deal regardless of user or buyer enthusiasm
Examples:
- Legal
- Safety and certification
- IT / cybersecurity
- Insurance
- Labor / unions
You must anticipate and address their concerns early.
Where Deals Actually Fail
Most teams lose deals by:
- Selling only to users with no authority
- Ignoring gatekeepers until late in the process
- Failing to identify the real decision-maker
- Misunderstanding who controls the budget
- Not equipping internal champions to sell on their behalf
The result is stalled deals, surprise objections, or silent rejection.
Practical Implications
To close effectively, you must:
- Map the full Decision-Making Unit early
- Understand who has power vs. who has interest
- Align your messaging to each role:
- Users → usability and performance
- Buyers → functionality and cost
- Deciders → ROI and risk
- Gatekeepers → compliance and safety
- Enable your internal champion to sell when you are not in the room
Bottom Line
- You are not selling to a person—you are navigating a system
- Each role has different incentives and concerns
- Winning requires alignment across the entire Decision-Making Unit
If you do not understand how the customer buys, you will not win—regardless of how strong your product is.
Transition
With an understanding of how decisions are made, the next step is to develop and position a solution that aligns with both the problem and the structure of the buying organization.