Buying groups

Last update: February 26, 2025

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.

Account roles diagram

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.

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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.

ComponentPurpose
Solution interest

This component provides the answer to:

  • As a marketing organization, what are you selling?
  • What product or collection of products are you targeting to sell?

Example: Cross-selling new Product X to existing customers

Account audience

This component provides the answer to:

  • To whom are you selling?
  • What is the list of accounts that you are targeting?

Example: Account segment defined by accounts with Product Y that have revenue over 1M

Buying group role templates

This component provides the answer to:

  • What roles are you targeting?
  • What set of rules are used to determine who is assigned to buying group roles?

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

  1. Create buying groups.

    Options:

  2. Identify missing people.

    Analyze the buying group using filters.

    Example: Decision Maker role is missing and the completeness score is < 50

  3. Complete the buying groups definitions.

  4. 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:

TabDescription
OverviewThis tab is the default and displays the Buying groups dashboard.
Browse

This tab supports the following activities:

  • View the list of existing buying groups.
  • Search by buying group name.
  • Filter by solution interest.
  • Drill in to buying group details.
  • Create a buying group. Delete a buying group.
Solution interests

This tab supports the following activities:

  • View the list of existing buying groups.
  • Search by buying group name.
  • Access and edit solution interest properties.
  • Create a solution interest.
  • Delete a solution interest.
  • View and delete buying group jobs.
Roles Templates

This tab supports the following activities:

  • View the list of existing roles templates.
  • Search by roles template name.
  • Access and edit roles template properties and conditions.
  • Create a roles template.
  • Delete a roles template.
Stages

This tab supports the following activities:

  • View the existing buying groups stages model.
  • Access and edit the draft buying group stages model.
  • Create the buying group stages model.