How to Write to your B2B's Buying Committee Without Losing Half the Room
- Vivien
- Sep 15
- 4 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
If your B2B messaging gets treated like background noise, odds are you wrote it like you’re selling sneakers with a B2C brain, not navigating ten decision-makers.
In consumer marketing, one person decides. But in B2B, decisions are made by committees — often 7–10 people, (depending on the size of the company) all reading the same message but seeing something completely different.
That’s the B2B challenge: How do you write Messaging that speaks to everyone in the room?
The B2B Buying Committee: The 10 Mind Problem
Every company’s different, but most buying decisions involve a familiar cast of characters — each filtering your message through their own lens.
Who’s really in the room and what do they want to know:
THE INITIATOR:
Managers → “Will my team perform better?”
THE (END) USER:
Frontline Staff, Department Users, Operations Manager → “Will this make my workday easier?”
THE INFLUENCER (INTERNAL & EXTERNAL): Industry Advisors → “Will this position us as leaders?”
THE EXPERT:
IT Manager, CTO, Security → ““Show me the proof this will work here”
THE GATEKEEPER:
Procurement, Executive Assistants → “Is this worth our shortlist?”
THE CHAMPION:
Head of Innovation → “If we don’t adopt it now, will we regret it later.”
THE DECISION MAKER:
CEO → “Is this going to move the business forward faster than our competitors?”
THE BUDGET HOLDER:
CFO, Head of Purchasing, Finance Director→ “What’s the ROI?”
THE AUDITOR:
Legal Advisors → “Is it secure? Is it compliant?”
THE APPROVER:
IT, Board Members → “Does this align with strategy?”
One message. Ten very different minds.
The Wrong Way: Messaging for One Persona
The classic mistake: Treating B2B like B2C and writing as if there’s one ideal buyer.
Your message can become generic and vague or weirdly very specific, trying to please that 1 person, resulting in your message getting forgotten and ignored by the other 9 people in the room.
Because here's what really happening:
The CFO doesn’t care about your Demo.
The user doesn’t care about your Risk Compliance
And Legal sees vague claims sounding risky.
One generic message rarely survives the split.
The Right Way: You can do it yourself or ask me about Modular Messaging.
The secret isn’t to smash every message into one messy paragraph.
It’s to layer your messaging so each person in the buying circle sees what matters to them — while keeping a single, consistent story.
The storyline stays the same.
The emphasis shifts depending on who’s reading.
Everyone finds something that speaks to them.
How to Make It Work
Map the committee.
Don’t guess. Identify who will be involved and what their top concerns are.
Start with the shared problem
Frame the key insight, takeaway, and emotion (K.I.T.E)
If you don’t frame it up front, your message will be re-framed (badly) by someone else when they forward it.
A clear, single-line message ensures consistency across multiple voices.
Identify the pain everyone recognises: that unites the room before you split into details.
Anchor in their reality
Every member has their own agenda: Finance cares about ROI. IT cares about security. Ops cares about efficiency.
So speak their language.
Add explanations if you need to, but don’t overcomplicate.
Anchoring means highlighting their problems and goals, not your product features.
Create the layers
Your content should survive the journey through multiple readers.
Champions get the big picture.
Budget Holders get the ROI.
Experts get the technical proof.
Users get “how it makes my life easier.”
Stack the emotional trigger moment, and then add logic
Example: A workflow automation platform
End user: “No more late nights on repetitive tasks — free up time for higher-value work.”
Expert: “Our Solution securely integrates with your existing systems, no downtime required.”
Budget Holder: “Cut manual processing costs by 30% in the first year.”
Same product. Same story. Different entry points.
Make it modular
Break your content into sections with clear headings.
Each reader should be able to skim and instantly see their part.
Example: “For Finance,” “For IT,” “For Your Teams."
Example in Action:
Cloud Security Software
One-person approach:
“Upgrade today to protect your business from threats.”
Committee-ready approach:
Decision Maker: “Protect critical operations while enabling innovation without disruption.”
Budget Holder: “Independent audits show 3.8x ROI through reduced breaches and lower compliance costs in year one.”
Auditor: “Full GDPR, HIPAA, and ISO 27001 compliance reduces liability from day one.”
Approver: “Predictable pricing with multi-year savings, no hidden fees.”
Expert: “SOC 2 certified, integrates with AWS, Azure, and 50+ enterprise tools.”
Gatekeeper: “Recognised by Gartner as a Leader in Cloud Security 2025.”
Champion: “Endorsed by leading cybersecurity analysts and industry experts.”
Initiators: “Automated reporting and dashboards improve response speed by 40%.”
End User: “Onboarding in under 2 hours with an intuitive, mobile-first interface.”
The Key Takeaway
B2B isn’t about one perfect message for one person.
It’s not about writing ten separate messages either.
It’s about designing one piece of content with modular layers that travels across finance, IT, legal, executives, and users — so everyone finds what they need.
If your messaging is getting stuck, I can help you build one that creates movement.
🎯 Hi, I'm Vivien,
I work with Heads of Communications, CMOs, and B2B internal and external comms teams who desperately need messaging that:
Sticks
Travels accurately
Gets repeated and remembered
Ticks internal alignment
Creates momentum in buying committees
And moves decisions forward
