A small business can pursue a large customer for months, meet everyone who returns its calls, answer every question, submit a proposal that passes every internal check, and still never speak to the person who could say yes without asking anyone. This is rarely a failure of effort. It is the natural result of following the easiest path through another organisation, and that path leads to whoever is paid to talk to suppliers.
The question worth asking before any significant pursuit is simple: are we talking to someone who can decide, or to someone who can only decide how much? The two conversations sound alike. Only one of them has anything to negotiate except price.
This article explains how larger organisations buy, why approval is spread across many people while refusal is concentrated in a few, why procurement teams focus on price and are right to, how to reach the person who owns the outcome before the requirement is fixed, and three simple tests to apply to any significant opportunity. It also covers the rules that apply when selling to government.
Organisations buy through a group, not a person
In 1972, marketing researchers Frederick Webster and Yoram Wind described organisational buying as a buying centre: a group of roles rather than a single buyer. The idea remains useful. Different people hold different powers:
| Role | What they can move | Can they stop it? | If you enter here |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outcome owner | Scope, budget, urgency, specification | Yes, alone | Value can be discussed; price is one term among several |
| Trusted adviser | How the decision-maker reads the market | Often, informally | Influence helps, but only if their advice is sound |
| Technical or risk authority | Whether the solution is acceptable, conditions of use | Yes, firmly | Compliance is settled early; commercial terms remain open |
| Budget or compliance holder | Timing, process, paperwork | Yes, procedurally | A clean process, but the value conversation never starts |
| Procurement | Price and terms within a fixed specification | Yes | Discounting is close to certain; scope is fixed before you arrive |
| End users | Adoption and satisfaction after the purchase | Rarely | Strong evidence, little authority unless carried upward |
The person who signs is often not the person who chooses. And the group changes as a purchase moves: wide while the problem is being defined, narrower during specification, wide again at approval. A relationship with the right person at the wrong stage may be worth little.
Access is not authority
Four misreadings make it easy to spend months with the wrong people:
- Responsiveness looks like importance. The people most available to suppliers are often those whose job is to deal with suppliers. Meetings held and questions answered rise steadily while the opportunity goes nowhere.
- Seniority looks like authority. The person who can stop a purchase may be the engineer who must certify it, the risk manager who must accept it or the operations manager whose team must live with it. They rarely announce their veto.
- The group is assumed to be fixed. Opportunities that seemed to be progressing can reverse suddenly because the people involved changed.
- A good value case is assumed to travel by itself. It travels only as far as someone inside is willing to carry it, and only in the form they can repeat in a meeting you will not attend.
Ask who can refuse
In larger organisations, approval is usually shared: several people must agree, and looking for “the decision-maker” can be a mistake because no single one exists. Refusal is different. It is concentrated and personal. One person withholding a technical approval, a budget line or a risk sign-off can end an opportunity alone.
This asymmetry is practical. Mapping everyone who must agree produces a long list you cannot cover. Mapping everyone who can refuse produces a short list you can, and it decides whether the opportunity survives. For each person on it, you should be able to say what would make them say no, and whether anyone has asked them.
Procurement’s job is price, and that is right
This is the uncomfortable part. Entering a significant opportunity through procurement makes discounting close to certain, and it has nothing to do with the people. A good procurement team is measured on price, terms, supplier risk and a fair process. That is its proper job. Given that job, the only things it can move are price and terms. Present a value argument and it will listen politely, then negotiate the number, because that is what it is authorised to move and judged on.
The results show up in the sales figures long before anyone diagnoses the cause: smaller first orders, deeper discounts, longer cycles and customer relationships that never rise above the level where they began.
None of this means going around procurement, which is unwise and often improper. It means reaching the person who owns the outcome before the requirement is fixed, so that what reaches procurement is a specification your offer answers well, and then treating procurement as a function with a legitimate mandate that your offer must satisfy.
A discount request from someone whose only lever is price is not necessarily a sign your price is wrong. It may simply show where in the organisation your proposal currently sits. The what a discount request is telling you article covers how to read such requests.
When the rules set the sequence
When selling to government, and to many regulated organisations, the sequence is not entirely yours to choose. Procurement rules commonly restrict who suppliers may contact and when, especially once a tender is open. Contact intended as relationship-building during a live tender can disqualify a bid or compromise the process. The rules vary between jurisdictions, agencies and types of purchase, so read the tender conditions carefully and take advice if unsure.
The strategic consequence is important: where contact is restricted during a tender, the time to understand the organisation and its needs is before the tender begins, through legitimate market engagement such as industry briefings, responses to requests for information and capability presentations. Businesses that treat that early period as marketing rather than strategy arrive at the tender with no understanding of the buyer and only one thing left to compete on. The asking the market the right question article explains how buyers use these early stages.
The trusted adviser inside
Most significant purchases involve someone whose judgement the decision-maker trusts: an internal specialist, an outside consultant or a long-serving operator with no formal title. Their influence is real but rarely documented.
Investing in that relationship pays off only if their judgement is sound. An adviser who is confident and wrong may carry your case into the room and lose it there, having assured you it was going well. Two practical checks: does their account of their organisation’s constraints match what you observe for yourself, and have they ever told you something you did not want to hear?
Three tests for any significant opportunity
Before committing serious effort, apply three tests:
- The veto test: name every person who could stop this on their own, and what would make each of them do so. If the list is short and vague, you do not yet understand the opportunity.
- The carrier test: who inside the customer will restate your case in a meeting you will not attend, and what exactly will they say? If nobody can be named, your case will not travel.
- The mandate test: for the person you spend most time with, what can they authorise other than price? If the answer is nothing, you are in a price negotiation, whatever you call it internally.
Opportunities that fail all three tests may deserve less effort, or a different approach, rather than more of the same.
Send people who can discuss the outcome
Access to an outcome owner is usually granted to someone who can talk credibly about the outcome: the operations problem, the technical risk, the result the customer needs. That often means involving your own technical specialists or experienced operators in the sales process, not just salespeople. For a small business, it may mean the owner or a senior engineer visiting the customer’s site early, to understand the problem before any specification is written.
A worked example
This is an illustration. A small industrial automation business is pursuing a packing line upgrade at a large food manufacturer. For six months it has dealt mainly with the manufacturer’s procurement officer, who issued the request for quotation. The business quoted $480,000. Procurement responds by asking for a 12% discount to match a lower competing quote and states that the specification cannot change.
The owner steps back and maps the buying group:
- The plant manager owns the outcome: the line has been missing its output targets and causing overtime costs.
- The maintenance manager can refuse any system his team cannot support.
- The finance manager controls the timing of the capital budget.
- Procurement manages the process and price.
- The line operators will use the system every day.
The business has never spoken to the plant manager or the maintenance manager. Through a legitimate request, it offers a short site assessment of the line’s current performance, which the plant manager accepts. The assessment shows that most lost output comes from changeovers and unplanned stoppages, which the original specification barely addressed. The maintenance manager’s main concern turns out to be support response times.
The manufacturer revises its specification to include changeover performance and a support agreement, and reissues it to all bidders. The business’s revised proposal includes an output guarantee measured at commissioning and a service agreement with a defined response time. Its price for the line is $455,000, about 5% below its original quote, plus a support agreement of $36,000 a year. It wins, because its offer answers the problem the plant manager actually has, and procurement can still run a fair comparison on the revised specification.
How this applies to a small Australian business
Small businesses selling to larger organisations often have limited time and few contacts, which makes choosing where to spend effort important. Practical steps:
- Map the buying group for every significant opportunity.
- List who can refuse, and what would make them do so.
- Reach the outcome owner early, before the specification is fixed.
- Respect procurement’s role, and give it a specification your offer answers well.
- Follow tender rules on contact, especially for government buyers.
- Use legitimate early engagement such as industry briefings and responses to requests for information.
- Involve technical people who can discuss the customer’s outcome.
- Apply the veto, carrier and mandate tests before investing heavily.
Signals worth watching
- Many meetings but no movement.
- All contact through procurement.
- Discount requests as the main form of feedback.
- Opportunities reversing suddenly late in the process.
- No named person inside the customer who will carry your case.
- Losses explained only by price.
Common mistakes
- Treating responsiveness as importance.
- Equating seniority with authority.
- Trying to win a value argument with someone who can only move price.
- Arriving after the specification is fixed.
- Making improper contact during a live tender.
- Relying on an internal champion whose judgement you have not tested.
Frequently asked questions
Is it wrong to contact people outside procurement? Not in general, before a formal process starts and within the customer’s rules. During a live tender, follow the tender conditions strictly. When in doubt, ask the procurement contact what is permitted.
How do I find out who the outcome owner is? Ask open questions early: who is affected by the problem, who will be measured on the result, who must approve the solution technically. Industry contacts and the customer’s public information can help too.
What if procurement insists on price alone? Then ask whether the specification captures what the business needs, offer clarifications through proper channels and decide whether the opportunity is worth pursuing at that price.
Does this apply to smaller customers too? The principle does, but the group is smaller. In a medium-sized business, the owner may be the outcome owner and the decider, with a manager or adviser influencing them.
How much should we invest before knowing who can say no? As little as possible. Use early conversations to map the buying group before committing significant time to proposals.
What if the outcome owner is too senior to reach? Start with the people who report to them and who feel the problem directly, such as a production supervisor or maintenance planner. Offer something genuinely useful, such as a short assessment or relevant data, that gives them a reason to involve their manager.
Questions to ask
- For our largest current opportunity, who can stop it, and what would make them?
- Who will carry our case in meetings we will not attend?
- What can the person we deal with authorise other than price?
- Did we reach the outcome owner before the specification was written?
- What do the tender rules allow us to do, and when?
- Who in our business can talk credibly about the customer’s outcome?
Bringing it together
Larger organisations buy through groups. Many people can approve; a few can refuse; procurement can only move price, and that is its proper role. Map the buying group, identify who can refuse and why, reach the person who owns the outcome before the requirement is fixed, follow the rules on contact, and make sure someone inside will carry your case. The veto, carrier and mandate tests show quickly whether an opportunity deserves more effort, or a different approach.
Source: KEVOS notes, drawing on F. E. Webster and Y. Wind’s 1972 work on organisational buying behaviour and the buying centre. Examples and figures in this article are illustrations. This article is general information, not legal advice.
