Building Trust Across Buying Committees

Last week, I spoke with the head of global sales engineering at a major cybersecurity company who shared a story about a multi-million-dollar deal they had recently won that really brought this point home. In large technology deals where a POC is involved, there are often dozens of stakeholders on both the buyer and seller sides. The tricky part is managing and, more importantly, building many-to-many relationships over a long sales and evaluation process. The seller did a great job of working with the buyer to define the technical success criteria. They brought in experts from their side of the business—from developers providing expert-level support to product managers sharing the roadmap and aligning with the buyer’s strategic priorities. They also excelled at project-managing the deal, strategizing, and aligning on execution and messaging across international regions. They developed and lived by the mantra: ‘Keep all commitments large and small.’ They won the technical evaluation even though they didn’t fully meet all of the success criteria. But because they kept every commitment, large and small, throughout the POC, the buyer trusted that they would ultimately deliver on their full set of requirements. The critical success factor came down to how well they built genuine relationships across the buying team. In this case, friendships were formed, proving that even in—perhaps especially in—high-stakes deals, the adage that ‘people buy from people they like’ holds true. The more people involved on both sides, the harder—but more important—this becomes. At its core, buying teams buy from selling teams they like, trust, and believe have their best interests at heart. An essential—but rarely discussed—part of successful multi-threading is the human aspect: relationship building.

Why 82% of Enterprise Buyers Ghost Bay Area Startups After Demos (And How to Fix It) You just crushed the demo. The procurement committee nodded along. Your solution checks every box. Then…radio silence. If this feels familiar, you’re not alone. 82% of enterprise buyers vanish after demos—not because your product lacks potential, but because startups often misunderstand what happens after the pitch. Let’s unpack why this happens—and how to fix it. The Silent Killer: Procurement Committees ≠ Product Teams Enterprise buyers aren’t evaluating your tech. They’re evaluating risk. Procurement teams balance short-term operational needs with long-term strategic goals. They ask: “Will this vendor survive budget cuts?” “Do they align with our ESG mandates?” “Can we trust them when supply chains break?” Yet most founders focus on features, not institutional anxieties. Here’s the gap: Demos showcase capabilities. POCs prove dependability. The 5-Touch Trust Matrix™ Based on Amazon’s procurement playbook and trust dynamics research, this framework rebuilds credibility after the demo: The Empathy Touch Within 24 hours: Send a memo addressing their top concern (e.g., “How we’ll protect you if our AI misclassifies data”). Why it works: 72% of buyers prioritize vendors who proactively solve problems. The Proof Touch Share a third-party audit of your uptime/SLA compliance—not a case study. Real example: A robotics startup reduced post-demo ghosting by 40% by including SOC2 reports in follow-ups. The Committee Whisperer Touch Identify the quietest stakeholder in the demo. Send them a tailored FAQ (e.g., “How this impacts your 2025 sustainability KPIs”). The Bridge Touch Connect them to your customer’s procurement lead (e.g., “Schedule 15 mins with Chevron’s sourcing team”). The Equity Touch Before the POC, present a “Partnership Impact Report” showing how your solution advances their DEI or carbon goals. Why This Works Procurement teams face immense pressure to minimize risk while maximizing social impact. By addressing customer orientation (their needs), expertise (audits), and dependability (partner access), you transform from “vendor” to “ally.” --------------------------------------------------- Your tech might be revolutionary, but enterprise trust is earned in micro-commitments—not demos. PS – Your buyers aren’t ghosting you. They’re protecting their careers. Show them how partnering with you becomes a badge of honor.

I warmed up a prospect for 3 months on LinkedIn before our first call. They signed a £75K deal in 3 days. Modern selling demands a new approach: cold outreach fails, warm relationships win. Think about it... That prospect had consumed 47 of my posts. Watched my videos. Read my articles. Engaged with my content. By the time we jumped on that first call? They already trusted me. They already knew my approach. They already understood the value. I didn't have to sell them. They'd already sold themselves. Here's my framework for turning content into closed deals: 👇 1. Build trust at scale BEFORE the pitch Stop spraying and praying with cold messages. Start building relationships through value. Each post builds trust. Your insights mark credibility. Stories create connection. Your content is doing the heavy lifting while you sleep. 2. Let buyers self-educate on THEIR timeline Modern buyers don't want to be sold to. They want to discover solutions themselves. ↳ 70% of the buying journey happens before they talk to sales ↳ They're researching you before you even know they exist ↳ Your content is either attracting or repelling them Give them what they need to make informed decisions. 3. Recognize the REAL buying signals Forget MQLs and SQLs. Think about PQLs (product qualified leads) Here's what actually matters: - Multiple engagements across different posts - Bringing colleagues into the conversation - Asking specific, detailed questions - Moving from public comments to private messages These aren't leads. These are pre-qualified buyers. 4. Keep momentum BETWEEN meetings Here's where most deals die: The 167 hours between your calls. While you're chasing other prospects, your buyer is: ↳ Getting cold feet ↳ Talking to competitors ↳ Forgetting why they were excited Smart sellers stay present even when they're not there. This is where tools like Consensus come in. They let buyers explore demos on their own time. Answer their questions at 10 PM. Share materials with their team. Stay engaged between touchpoints. It's how you keep social selling momentum right through the demo stage. https://lnkd.in/ePVWw-Bi 5. Close with confidence, not pressure When trust is already built? When value is already proven? When buyers are already educated? Closing feels natural, not like a battle. The best deals I've ever closed felt inevitable. Because the relationship started months before the opportunity. Here's what this approach delivers (in my experience): ✓ Significantly faster sales cycles ✓ Much higher close rates ✓ Bigger deal sizes (pre-sold = less negotiation) ✓ Happier customers (they chose you, not the other way around) Stop thinking of social selling as "nice to have." Start treating it as your primary sales strategy. Your next big deal isn't in your CRM. They're scrolling LinkedIn right now. What content are you creating to catch them? #ConsensusPartner

We know that getting multiple people from the buying committee actively engaged in your opportunity (and talking with each other about the need/outcome/urgency) dramatically increases conversion and win rates. We also know that's far easier said than done. Recently, I've seen companies have success getting buying committee members together not on phone calls or Zoom meetings but IRL events. At industry conferences, create an incentive for them to meet together with you vs individually. VIP tickets to something or a post-meeting group experience. At their own user/customer conference or SKO, give them an "escape room in a box" with a fun prize at the end as well as some relevant solution-outcome oriented message. At local/regional lunch-and-learn events, offer an incentive or gift if 2-3+ attend together. Bottle(s) of wine, access to a "secret" menu, etc. Back at the home office, offer to buy them a catered lunch if they have enjoy it during a "working lunch" with a discussion agenda that you provide (and/or facilitate in-person or virtually). Where buying committees physically reside and work matters of course, which will expand or limit these and other options. That said, it's working. Many of these ideas cost very little and can have a massive impact on deal velocity, commitment and conversion.

Sales folks, take note! Spamming a target company's employees with your services and requests for meetings will result in your company making its way onto a buyer's blocklist. As a buyer in the localization industry, I receive dozens of emails and LinkedIn requests every single day from vendors looking to showcase translation, AI, QA services, and more. It's not humanly possible to give personal replies to every outreach. When vendors can't get through to me, they often reach out to everyone on my team... and sometimes to many others across my company. I'd love for this practice to stop. It wastes valuable company time and makes a vendor appear desperate and non-strategic. Here's what to do instead: 1. Appeal to ego! Invite a target company’s decision-maker to a panel, or start a vlog series and ask buyers to appear and discuss industry topics. It’s also a great opportunity to reposition your company as a thought leader. 2. Offer genuine insight, not just services. Share a case study, white paper, or benchmarking data that’s actually useful to the buyer’s role, and do it without a sales pitch. 3. Build a reputation before you build a pipeline. Comment thoughtfully on posts. Contribute to community conversations. If you consistently show up with value, you’re far more likely to get noticed. 4. Target smarter, not broader. Don’t shotgun your message to an entire company. Learn the org. Understand the buyer’s scope. Then send one well-researched, personalized note that shows you actually did your homework. 5. Focus on mutual value. Can you help solve a known pain point or offer perspective on something changing in the market? Frame your outreach around collaboration, not consumption. 6. Use timing to your advantage. Keep tabs on when companies are hiring for roles associated with your offerings, launching in new markets, or attending conferences. That’s when buyers are more receptive to new solutions. 7. Lead with generosity. Offer a no-strings-attached resource, intro, or suggestion that doesn’t benefit you directly. Reciprocity is a powerful trust builder. And please! Don't ever ever call me on the phone! ;)

How to Win Over Committees When Every Voice Matters Have you ever been in a room where half the committee checks emails, one person argues your pricing, and the “decision maker” stays silent? Complex buying committees aren’t just groups but battlegrounds of conflicting priorities. ⛔ Legal wants risk mitigation. ⛔ Finance wants ROI clarity. ⛔ IT needs integration assurances. And everyone’s too busy to admit they’re stuck. A cybersecurity vendor once spent 14 months pursuing a deal with a 12-person committee. After demoing, negotiating, and customizing, they lost to “no decision.” ❓Later, we discovered why: The team never agreed on what “secure” meant. Some prioritized uptime, others feared compliance gaps, and two members were quietly lobbying for a competitor. We flipped the script: ✅ Mapped invisible alliances (who influences whom and why). ✅ Ran workshops to align on a single definition of “success” (spoiler: it wasn’t about features). ✅ Turned their champion into a coach, equipping them to navigate internal politics for us. ✅ Tailor your “why”: Create three versions of your pitch: one for the CIO (numbers), one for IT (security), and one for end-users (pain points). The result? A unanimous yes in 8 weeks. ☑️ Committees don’t ghost you; they fracture silently. ☑️ Your biggest competitor isn’t another vendor. It’s indecision. ☑️ Winning requires helping buyers sell internally before they can buy externally. Complex committees aren’t obstacles. They’re your chance to prove you understand the unspoken layers of B2B decision-making.  If deals in your pipeline are stuck in “evaluation limbo,” let’s talk. At Roarr Catalyst Group, we help teams avoid committee chaos by aligning what is said in meetings with what is debated after them. DM me “Committee,” and I’ll share how we turned a 9-month stalemate into a 6-figure close last quarter. #b2b #B2bsales #sales #saas #marketing #innovation #technology #futureis

One mistake I’ve made—and I see a lot of marketers making—is overvaluing job titles. I’d see a VP or a Director and think, perfect, they’re the decision-maker. But that assumption? It’s a trap. What I’ve learned is often job titles don’t equal intent, and decisions aren’t made in isolation. Here’s an example 👇🏻 I built a campaign hyper-focused on VPs. Everything (literally all of it) was tailored to their pain points and goals. We saw clicks, some engagement—but the deals never advanced. Why? Because I ignored the rest of the buying committee. When I stepped back, I realized the decision didn’t stop with the VP. There were people evaluating the product, analyzing ROI, even gatekeepers who weren’t part of my initial targeting. And I wasn’t speaking to any of them. The simple lesson? Zoom out. If you focus too narrowly, you miss the bigger picture—and the bigger opportunity. And so I pivoted. → Start with the ecosystem, not the title. Map out everyone involved in the decision. Who influences it? Who needs to approve it? Who could block it? → Build a narrative that scales. Instead of trying to speak to one person, create a story that resonates across roles. If it’s not clear enough for the CFO and compelling enough for the evaluator, it’s not working. → Empower champions. Make it easy for your point of contact to sell your solution internally. Equip them with tools and stories that get the rest of the committee on board. Titles are very subjective depending on the size and complexity of the organization. Too much emphasis on assuming intent by title can stifle campaign success. #marketing #failfast

The “economic buyer” is a myth. Last year, I almost lost a $300K deal that I thought was already won. We’d spent months in discussions. I was working closely with the VP of Procurement, who reassured me over and over that they were ready to buy. We’d cleared all the objections, had pricing discussions, and were just about to sign. But then… silence. Every time I pushed for a close, there was a new excuse, a new delay. Finally, I got the VP back on the phone, asking: “What’s going on? We were so close!” That’s when they told me something I wasn’t prepared for. It wasn’t the VP of Procurement who was holding up the deal. It was the President and the Head of Security—two key members of the buying committee I had never spent enough time with. They were the ones raising questions about integration, data protection, and scalability. I had spent so much energy focusing on the VP, thinking they were the "economic buyer," that I didn’t even realize the deal wasn’t in their hands. After realizing my mistake, I immediately set up calls with the President and Head of Security. We addressed their concerns, restructured the proposal, and closed the deal 30 days later. Here’s the hard truth: The “economic buyer” is a myth. Today’s buying decisions are made by a team—a committee. And if you’re only selling to one person, you’re setting yourself up for failure. So, here’s what you need to do: Stop chasing a single decision-maker. Understand the entire committee, engage with every key player, and make sure their concerns are heard. Because in the end, the deal is only as strong as the alignment of your whole audience.

I went for lunch with a CRO recently and watched them choose a restaurant. They pulled out their phone, compared ratings on three nearby spots, checked menus, read reviews, watched a 30-second video tour of the venue, and made a reservation - all before walking out the door. Later that day, this same exec complained about sales teams "constantly calling" his company instead of "just giving us what we need to decide on our own." Talk about a disconnect. But the way businesses buy has changed dramatically, whilst many sales teams remain stuck in the past. And the data tells a clear story: • 72% of buyers now complete research independently before ever contacting a vendor • Buyers typically spend only 17% of their buying journey meeting with potential vendors • 77% of buyers say their latest purchase was very complex or difficult Yet most sales teams still focus on controlling the process rather than enabling it. Which is why you need to embrace Buyer Enablement. Imagine you're choosing a new restaurant. You want to: ✔️ Research options on your own time ✔️ Compare menus easily ✔️ See honest reviews ✔️ View the space before visiting ✔️ Get help only when you ask for it B2B buyers want the same experience. They don't want more sales calls - they want better tools to make decisions. Especially as buying committees are growing with the average B2B purchase now involving 6-10 decision-makers, each with different priorities. These teams spend enormous time trying to: • Find trustworthy information • Share insights with colleagues • Build consensus • Justify decisions to leadership When you enable this process instead of interrupting it, magic happens. But what does Buyer Enablement look like? It's about helping buyers buy instead of trying to sell them: ✔️ Create transparent comparison tools ✔️ Provide unbiased educational content ✔️ Offer interactive calculators showing real ROI ✔️ Build self-service product demos ✔️ Design simple ways to share information with digital sales rooms Companies that enable their champion by centralising all info into a deal room are seeing their sales cycles reduce by 14% to 29%. When you help people buy the way they want to buy, you earn trust. Companies seen as helpful during the buying process are 3x more likely to win high-value deals. How to embrace Buyer Enablement: ➕ Map your customer's actual buying journey ➕ Identify where they get stuck ➕ Create tools that solve these specific problems ➕ Make information sharing painless ➕ Measure how these changes impact your sales cycle What changes are you making to align your selling process with modern buying behaviour? #BuyerEnablement