146 The Marketing Book
Nevertheless, it is important to identify the
individual who will be primarily responsible
for the final ordering of the service. Any
assessment of the importance of the purchasing
agent must consider the organization’s attitude
towards the purchasing function, together with
the level of risk associated with the purchase. In
all instances, these considerations are liable to
be situation specific and suppliers must there-
fore become aware of the differences between
their customers.
Users
These are those people who actually operate
the product or service. In certain instances their
role will coincide with that of the technologist.
It is likely that users will be primarily con-
cerned with product performance and ease of
use. Weigand (1968) suggests that users with
expert knowledge may exert sufficient influ-
ence to override certain commercial considera-
tions, such as price or delivery times. It is
therefore important that suppliers should
establish good relations with all members of a
firm who have contact with the service they
provide, and ensure that a high level of service
is maintained across all their operations.
Technologists
These are the people with the specialist knowl-
edge which enables them to differentiate
between the performance of the different prod-
ucts or brands. They are primarily concerned
with the technical aspects of the various prod-
ucts or services, and these considerations will
be of prime importance in their assessment of
them. Technologists are likely to be people with
professional qualifications and in seeking to
influence them suppliers should be aware of
the specialized nature of their influence on the
buying centre.
An important finding of the International
Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) Project Group
in studies of purchasing in Western Europe was
that purchasing staff and technologists in Ger-
many and Sweden were more highly qualified
than their counterparts in Britain. Thus, British
suppliers operating in these export markets
faced more technologically demanding custom-
ers. German customers were very critical of the
technical competence of British companies and
this created a barrier to entry for British
exporters (Turnbull and Cunningham, 1981).Influencers
Webster and Wind (1972b) define this category
as:Those who influence the decision process
directly or indirectly by providing information
and criteria for evaluating buying actions.Influencers thus include anybody who has an
influence on the buying process, both within
and outside the organization. As a category this
is too wide to be of any functional use, since it
can embrace such a wide range of people.
However, it does emphasize that there can be
substantial inputs from a wide range of differ-
ent functions into the buying process.Gatekeepers
The concept of gatekeeper comes from the
theory of opinion leadership and communica-
tions flow. A gatekeeper is a person who
regulates the flow of information and thus
plays a major part in determining the attitudes
of other members of the buying centre towards
a product. It is possible that the role of
gatekeeper will be performed by an individual
who has another role within the buying centre,
for example the purchasing agent.Deciders
These are the people who have the formal
authority for approving the purchase. It is
likely that they occupy senior management
positions and therefore, as Shankleman (1970)