Before going into detail, we should understand the main concept of buying center. It contains a bunch of people with different roles for finalizing purchase decision either we talk about organization or any thing else. It can also be defined as decision making unit. This group contains Users, Initiators, Influencers, Buyers, Gatekeepers, Decider and Approver. So, know we will discuss the roles each individual play in decision making process.
Initiators: These are the people who generate the request or in other words we can say they figure out the issue or the need of improvisation. For example, if talk about an organization. In that organization there is Graphic designing department and in department designers are facing problems in doing their work because the system they are using are too old and doesn’t have that particular specs that designers need. So, he will raise this issue. In this situation the designer who figured out the issue and generate the request to buy a new system so that organization work should be done without any problem is initiator.
Users: Users are the members who will be using or you can say consuming the services or products which will be purchased. So, it is important to take their feedback and requirement about the product they want to use. For example, if take an example of a university. Need of new computers are required for the lab because the current ones are outdated or they are not working properly. So now the computers are purchased so in this case user will be those for whom this purchase is made those are students, faculty members and management so all of them will be users.
Influencers: they are the ones who define specification or give suggestion related to situation and what type of product or service will be best for an organization or individual too. For example, am looking to buy a new DSLR for my YouTube channel so I will watch reviews of different influencers who knows pros and cons of different devices. So, the review and recommendation of that influencer will influence my decision making.
Approvers: In simple words if we want to understand the role of approver is that they are the on who has the authority to allow the purchase or not. For example, in an organization a need of new machinery is raised and manager conveyed all the relevant points to CEO of the firm. If CEO didn’t convince by the pointers so he will not approve the purchase but on the other hand he is convinced so he will approve the purchase and finance will a lot fund for new purchase. So, CEO is the approver.
Buyers: He is the one who will find supplier and arrange purchase terms. For example, in supermarket there is department of apparel. Now there is a need of new purchase of apparel for new season so now purchase manager will look for apparel suppliers and will confirm terms and conditions to purchase. In this purchase manager is buyer.
Gatekeepers: they are the ones to control flow of information between with members of decision-making group or buying center. For example, if we want to meet chairman of an organization to have a deal so we will communicate his secretary because he is the key player who pass the information to CEO of that organization so the secretary is the gatekeeper in this situation.
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