Buying groups
For B2B sales and marketing activities, accounts are key to any strategy. Each account has a group of people associated with it, and these people may be employees of the account or contractors who work with the account. Accounts are hierarchical, and different products might be sold at different levels in the hierarchy. For example, Adobe Experience Platform might be sold at the corporate level to a top-level account, while Adobe Photoshop might be sold to an account that represents a division or department within an organization, such as a design department within a larger corporation.
Within the account, there could be a subset of people who comprise the buying group. These are the people that ultimately make the purchase decision, so they need special attention from the marketer and might need different information delivered to them than the other people associated with the account. Buying groups may comprise a different group of people for different product lines or offerings. For example, a cybersecurity product might typically require a Chief Information Officer or Chief Security Officer, and a representative from the Legal department to approve a purchase, but a bug tracking product might typically have a VP of Engineering and an IT Director as members of the buying group.
Key components
You can increase marketing effectiveness by establishing buying groups in Journey Optimizer B2B Edition that identify missing members for your target account lists based on the solutions that your Sales teams are responsible for selling. Before you and your Marketing team start creating your buying groups, make sure that you have the key components defined. These components are critical for meeting your business goals and objectives.
| Component | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Solution interest |
This component provides the answer to:
Example: Cross-selling new Product X to existing customers |
| Account audience |
This component provides the answer to:
Example: Account segment defined by accounts with Product Y that have revenue over 1M |
| Buying group role templates |
This component provides the answer to:
Example: Assign a person with CMO title to the Decision Maker role |
| Buying group stages | (Optional) This component provides the answer to: How is the buying group tracking towards success or failure? |
Buying group workflow
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Create buying groups.
Options:
- Use solution interest and role template
- Use third-party import
- Generate from AI/ML
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Identify missing people.
Analyze the buying group using filters.
Example: Decision Maker role is missing and the completeness score is < 50
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Complete the buying groups definitions.
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Use in an account journey through the associated solution interest.
View buying groups and components
On the left navigation, expand Accounts and click Buying groups.
The Buying groups page is organized as tabs:
| Tab | Description |
|---|---|
| Overview | This tab is the default and displays the Buying groups dashboard. |
| Browse |
This tab supports the following activities:
|
| Solution interests |
This tab supports the following activities:
|
| Roles Templates |
This tab supports the following activities:
|
| Stages |
This tab supports the following activities:
|
