Comments on: Buyers vs Influencers: Who really controls the deal?

By: Fred McClimans

Fred McClimans — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 20:27:00 +0000

Thanks Marjorie – the whole issue of influence, and how disruptive it can be when you don’t anticipate it, has been showing itself more often as the rate of technological development and distributed influence (thank you, social media) have increased. The value of understanding influence in business is almost unmeasurable (show me a metric that accurately tracks influence and I’ll show you a metric built with smoke and mirrors). That said, the value of knowing who the influencers are in any given deal is right up there with the old legal saying “never ask a question to which you don’t already know the answer”.Thanks again for your feedback.

By: Fred McClimans

Fred McClimans — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 20:26:00 +0000

Nancy, thank you for your kind words and feedback. You bring up an interesting point – one that I’ll be discussing in future “influence” posts – namely that industry analysts are a good starting point, but by far not the only type of influencer in a deal. In fact, one of the interesting aspects of influence is that it can work both for and against you. Stay tuned for more – and again, thanks for the feedback! – Fred

By: nancyshapira

nancyshapira — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 10:54:00 +0000

I agree with you that analysts are a good starting point in some industries especially IT. If you identify the key influential analyst group (usually Forrester or Gartner) and then the key analyst who covers your space–it is a very good high level place to start…Great post. Will pass it on

By: #B2BChat: Analysts, Analyst Relations and Influencers in B2B « Mesh Without Wires

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 16:49:25 +0000

[…] a recent post “Buyers vs Influencers: Who really controls the deal?” Fred McClimans discussed the role of influencers in the B2B sector, and the role that analysts, […]

By: Fred McClimans

Fred McClimans — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 03:28:00 +0000

The value of understanding influence in business is almost unmeasurable (show me a metric that accurately tracks influence and I’ll show you a metric built with smoke and mirrors). That said, the value of knowing who the influencers are in any given deal is right up there with the old legal saying “never ask a question to which you don’t already know the answer”.

Thanks again for your feedback.

By: Tweets that mention Buyers vs Influencers: Who really controls the deal? « fredmcclimans.com -- Topsy.com

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 03:06:08 +0000

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By: Marjorie Clayman

Marjorie Clayman — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 01:56:00 +0000

I think you make a really great point, Fred.

Often, when we think of a “decision maker,” we think of the CFO of a company. But that CFO is influenced by 2 powerful forces – the rest of the c-suite & the customers.

I’ve been thinking a lot about IMC as it relates to marketing, but hadn’t really thought about it as a way encircle and influence the people who can actually influence a selling situation. Great concept, well written. Bravo!