Engaging the wider buying committee

B2B marketing has evolved. It’s no longer enough to know your ideal customer profile (ICP) inside out and target a single key decision-maker. Today’s complex buying processes – especially in industries like Cloud, Data, Cybersecurity, and Telecoms – involve larger, more diverse buying committees. And these aren’t just passive observers. They’re active participants with influence, insights, and in many cases, veto power.

Engaging this wider buying committee isn’t just about expanding your audience reach – it’s about increasing your influence, building trust at every level, and enabling the internal conversations that ultimately lead to purchase decisions. But to do that effectively, you need a smart approach, grounded in data, buying behaviour insights, and tailored content strategies that resonate beyond your primary contact.

Why the buying committee has grown – and why it matters

In sectors like Cybersecurity or Cloud services, buying decisions are rarely made in isolation. A CTO might lead the evaluation, but procurement, compliance, security teams, and even finance or operations are likely to be involved. According to recent research, the average B2B buying group now consists of 6 to 10 stakeholders (with some research showing 2 or 3 times this size), each bringing unique concerns, objectives, and levels of influence.

For marketers, this presents both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge? You can’t rely on a single champion to carry the torch – your messaging needs to land with technical experts, budget holders, and risk-averse stakeholders alike. The opportunity? When you understand the dynamics of the full committee, you can shape a campaign that resonates at every level, driving faster alignment and reducing friction in the sales cycle.

Rethinking the C-Suite as the primary target

Many B2B brands default to targeting the C-suite as the entry point for their marketing – assuming that seniority equals influence from day one. Whilst the C-suite do have strong influence on decisions, their hands-on involvement may lean more towards shaping the research in the consideration stage than actively carrying it out, then becoming more actively involved as the journey progresses into consideration and beyond. Whilst we should not exclude them, they are not always the holy grail that many brands feel they may be – once the groundwork has been done, options evaluated, and internal consensus is already building.

This presents a strategic shift. Instead of focusing solely on executives from the outset, marketers should prioritise the personas involved in the day-to-day – those researching solutions, shortlisting vendors, and running initial evaluations. Think IT leads, engineers, operations managers, security analysts. These managers and directors are often the stakeholders who shape the early buying journey and guide the conversation internally. If they’re convinced, it becomes far easier for leadership to approve.

This doesn’t mean ignoring the C-suite. It means tailoring content to their needs at the right time. When they enter the journey, they’re looking for strategic value – outcomes, ROI, risk mitigation. If you’ve already equipped their teams with content that speaks to operational challenges and positioned your brand as a trusted partner, you’re far more likely to win that final nod of approval.

Getting visibility into the full committee

One of the key hurdles in engaging the broader committee is knowing who they are in the first place. This is where tools like HG Insights and 6sense come into their own. These platforms help you move beyond assumptions and gut feel, offering real-time insight into account dynamics, job roles, and buying signals.

With HG Insights, you can identify which technologies an organisation is already using – giving you clues about who’s likely to be involved in discussions. For example, if you’re marketing a cybersecurity solution and see that the account has recently invested in cloud infrastructure, you can infer that cloud architects, security leads, and IT compliance officers are part of the conversation.

6sense adds another dimension, providing valuable intent data that shows not just who’s in the account, but who’s actively researching solutions in your category. Mapping these insights back to buyer personas helps you understand the full committee, and what matters most to each stakeholder.

The dark funnel: turning research into opportunity

Most B2B buyers prefer to do their own research long before engaging with a vendor. This behaviour happens in the “dark funnel” – the part of the buyer’s journey that isn’t visible to your CRM or sales team. If you’re not proactively engaging the wider committee early, you risk being excluded from the conversation altogether.

Here’s the challenge: by the time prospects are ready to speak to sales, they’ve already built their shortlist. And if your brand hasn’t made it into that list during that initial research phase, you may never get the chance to compete. The solution? Engage every persona early and often. Awareness campaigns, thought leadership, and persona-specific content help ensure your brand is present wherever research is happening – turning that hidden journey into an opportunity for influence.

Tailoring content for multi-stakeholder journeys

Once you’ve identified the committee, your content needs to speak their language. For your core ICP – typically the primary user or decision-maker – content can be more technical or detailed. But for the wider committee, you need to consider the different value levers:

• Risk mitigation for compliance or security stakeholders
• Cost efficiency and ROI for finance
• Ease of integration and operational impact for IT and Ops
• Strategic fit for leadership

And remember, it’s not just about broadcasting your message. It’s about enabling the internal conversation. The content you create should empower your champions to advocate for your solution within their organisation. That could be in the form of tailored use cases, competitor comparisons, or value calculators – tools that help stakeholders justify the decision internally.

Building brand awareness and trust at every level

One of the pitfalls in B2B marketing – especially in technical industries like Cloud or Data – is focusing too heavily on lead generation and missing the broader influence play. The wider buying committee may not convert into leads in your CRM, but that doesn’t mean they’re not crucial to winning the deal.

That’s why brand awareness and strategic reach still matter. Display advertising, paid social, and even programmatic campaigns targeted at specific job functions or accounts help you stay top-of-mind across the committee. Even if they’re not clicking “book a demo,” they’re seeing your brand, absorbing your value proposition, and forming trust. When the shortlist is being made, that recognition can be the edge you need.

Viewing the buying committee through a wider lens

Engaging the wider buying committee is no longer optional – it’s fundamental. For marketers in Cloud, Data, Cybersecurity, and Telecoms, success means understanding who’s really involved in the buying journey, and when, how they consume information, and how they influence decisions.

Shift your focus beyond the C-suite. Illuminate the dark funnel. Enable the internal conversation. And deliver content that doesn’t just sell your solution – it empowers stakeholders to champion it.

With the right tools, insights, and content strategy, you can engage the full committee, build alignment faster, and move from shortlisted to selected.

Need help expanding your reach and influencing every decision-maker in your accounts? Let’s talk.