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Getting one or two leads on a call might be easy, but in today’s sales market, it doesn't do much to get you in the door with a company completely. According to Forbes, the average buying committee has ballooned to 10-14+ people, as opposed to the previously expected 6.
Even more, recent data from Clari suggests that for deals valued between $50,000 and $250,000, sellers need to establish not only a warm connection but a relationship with an average of 10 people between the companies to reach a close. This means understanding everyone's unique needs, priorities, and timelines and providing value for every member of the buying committee.
When you consider the time it would take, it doesn’t seem doable. When the group is so large, sellers might run into issues with identifying a clear authority, balancing conflicting goals, and the logistics of keeping so many people looped in. In addition to those issues, there’s always a risk of having a shadow decision-maker swooping in and derailing the deal at the last minute.
Is a buying committee this high maintenance too much for a sales team to reasonably handle?
With Pod, it doesn’t have to be.
Pod is pipeline coaching made with sellers in mind. It integrates with your go-to CRM and sales systems — email, calendar, notes, task, LinkedIn, call transcripts — and offers prioritization features, supercharged organization, and even a personalized AI sales coach.
But Pod helps with your buying committee specifically, we’re highlighting three key features.
Here’s how each of them works.
Contact Sentiment will be critical for monitoring your engagement with each member of the buying committee. It uses data from emails, call recordings, meeting transcripts, and meeting notes to synthesize a prospect’s concerns, questions, and excitement. Then, you can better understand the health of the relationship with each stakeholder.
The best times to utilize Contact Mapping are at the beginning of the deal when you want to engage positively with stakeholders, and when the relationship needs attention so you can address concerns before they snowball. Additionally, you could use contact mapping during your follow-up activities to tailor your touch points and improve the overall deal health.
By providing insights into engagement trends and overall sentiment, the Contact Mapping feature empowers sellers to tailor their approach to each stakeholder, therefore improving their chances of bringing the deal across the finish line. Keeping track of each stakeholder’s role, goals, priorities, and engagement has never been easier. Here are some quick facts on how it works:
Sentiment analysis & trends
Sentiment synthesis
Action recommendations
As we mentioned in that study from Clari, it’s not just about knowing who everyone on the buying committee is; it’s all about building and understanding your relationship with each individual stakeholder. For that, Contact Mapping is invaluable.
Framework Analysis takes your qualification frameworks to the next level by analyzing meeting notes, emails, and even calls to flag critical topics in your team’s implemented framework. It highlights which topics are covered and what you still need to dig deeper into.
Framework Analysis is helpful in a few key areas, the first being before your sales calls when you’re reviewing topics of your framework that haven’t been covered. During deal review, Framework Analysis will also help you track your deal progression and where the gaps are. Finally, use it when you're preparing client follow-ups so you know what needs to be covered and where your opportunities are.
Pod generates a summary for each topic within the framework, giving reps clear, actionable steps for moving their deal down the pipeline. Missing information on a given topic may be better addressed by another stakeholder, giving reps a reason to reach out and continue fostering relationships with different members of the buying committee. Here’s a deeper dive into how it works:
Frameworks available
Soon, Pod will be able to support custom frameworks.
Discussed topics
Summary of topics
AEs and BDRs often have qualification criteria requirements baked into their compensation. Framework Analysis also clarifies for reps and managers whether and how those targets have been reached.
Stakeholder Recommendations suggests critical members of the buying committee that should be involved in the deal to help it convert quicker. By harnessing machine learning and historical data, the recommendations are given based on title, seniority, and department.
During the deal progression phases, Stakeholder Recommendations suggest new stakeholders who may be helpful in speeding things along. Also, if your deal stalls, it will recommend a new stakeholder who played a critical role in similar deals historically and could get things back on track.
Stakeholder Recommendations unleashes a strategic advantage for sellers by uncovering the buying committee earlier in the process. Sales research is lengthy and tedious, and leveraging data like historical deal data, deal fields, activity data from previous deals, and stakeholder profile data cuts the time down so reps can get back to what matters. Here’s the rundown on how it works:
Similar Deals
Stakeholder recommendations
Department recommendations
For some businesses, the buying committee isn’t set in stone and flexes depending on the product they’re pursuing. Stakeholder Recommendations takes the guesswork out of who is who and who is needed to push the deal forward.
Don't let your deals stall in the pipeline because buying committee management is intimidating or a waste of time. With Pod, you can work more effectively, give better visibility to your managers, build a streamlined strategy, and ultimately convert.
Try it out, and thank us later. Book your demo today.
