The purchase decision is often made not by one person; there are those who influence it. Therefore, we need to direct our influence to the right address. To do this, we will identify three groups: Buyer, Payer, and User. Let's look at an example of a program for office employees, such as a CRM system purchased by a large corporation:

User - these are ordinary employees and middle management who will interact with the system. They encounter it the most, write reviews on forums, etc., but their influence on the purchase is almost zero.

Payer - the one who controls the budget. The general director of the subsidiary where the implementation takes place. He will not make the choice, but rather simply approve the implementation. The degree of influence on the purchase decision is higher than that of users, but also minimal.

Buyer - the one who conducts the actual transaction. In this situation, it will be the person responsible for selecting the software, most likely the deputy director for IT. It is he who will assign subordinates to conduct research and make the final decision.

As you understand - often founders direct their sales energy in the wrong direction. And it turns out that users like the solution, the director likes the amount, but the deal is not closed. These roles can also be all three in one person.

And we will end the post with a riddle - in which industry is the decision about which product will be chosen made by an external expert, and not by any of the above roles?

Answer: Pharmacology - the doctor decides which medications the patient will buy and take. Although the user is the child, the buyer is the mother, and the payer is the father.