How to Write to your B2B's Buying Committee Without Losing Half the Room
- Vivien
- Sep 15
- 5 min read
Updated: Nov 26
If your B2B messaging gets treated like background noise, there’s a good chance you wrote it with a B2C brain.
In B2C, one person decides.
In B2B, it’s a committee — usually 7–10 people (depending on the size of the company), all reading the same message… and seeing ten completely different things.
That’s the B2B challenge: The 10 Mind Problem
While every company is different, most buying decisions involve a familiar cast — each filtering your message through their own lens.
Here are the 10 people in the room, — and what they REALLY care about:
THE INITIATOR:
Managers, Operations,
“Will my team perform better?”
THE (END) USER:
Frontline Staff, Department Users, Executives, Sales
“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 different minds.
Zero chance they all interpret it the same way.
The Classic Mistake: Messaging for One Persona
When you write to one “ideal customer,” your message becomes either:
too generic, or
weirdly specific.
Trying to please that 1 person, will result in your message being ignored by the other 9 people in the room.
Here's what's 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.
A single, catch-all message rarely survives the committee split.
So how on earth do you write 1 message that speaks to everyone in the room?
You don't.
The New Way: Modular Layered Messaging
(You can do it yourself — or ask me.)
The secret isn’t to stuff everything into one monster message.
It’s layering your messaging like a giant chocolate cake — so each person sees what matters to them without breaking your core narrative.
Let me show you.
Example in Action: A Cloud Security Software
The Common One-person message: “Upgrade today to protect your business from threats.”
It might sound great internally, but your committee just rolled their collective eyes.
Map the committee.
Don’t guess.
Identify the top 4-5 committee members who will be involved in the buying decisions.
The usual suspects often include The Initiator, The User, The Champion, The Gatekeeper, The Approver and The Decision Maker.
Anchor in their reality
Every member has their own agenda
List their top concerns and desired outcomes,
for example,
The User: wants a product that will make their day easier without complex training.
The Decision Maker: wants an easy-to-roll-out solution that streamlines their operations, and something their team won't complain about in the next six months.
Frame Your Soundbites
(If you don’t frame it up front, someone else will.)
Use a K.I.T.E. (key insight, takeaway, emotion) to create a clear soundbite that will stay consistent every retelling.
A good way is to stack the emotional, shared pain moment, and then add logic to back up. You can ask "So what?" to find the real benefit.
For Example:
End user: “No more late nights on repetitive tasks. Free up time for your higher-value work.” (“Make my day easier without complex training.”)
Tech Expert: “Our Solution securely integrates with your existing systems, 92% of users reported no downtime required.”
Budget Holder: “Cut manual processing costs by 30% in the first 6 months. Get immediate, trackable savings you can take straight into your next board meeting.”
Decision Maker: “Protect critical operations without disruption so the business can grow without adding operational risk or slowing down innovation.”
Auditor: “Full GDPR, HIPAA, and ISO 27001 compliance reduces liability from day one, removing legal friction and keeping audits clean and predictable.”
Approver: “Predictable pricing with multi-year savings, no hidden fees — making approval straightforward, defensible, and budget-friendly.”
Gatekeeper: “Recognised by Gartner as a Leader in Cloud Security 2025, giving you a trusted shortlist option without the usual research rabbit hole.”
Champion: “Endorsed by leading cybersecurity analysts you can trust."
Initiators: “Automated reporting improves response speed by 40%, helping your team show quick wins and build momentum early.”
Same product. Same story. Different entry points.
Create Your Layers:
Your message has to survive the journey through multiple readers.
You want the Same story but different entry points.
In B2B, we usually talk about a primary audience and a secondary audience.
Primary audiences: Influencers and Interpreters
Receive and filter information.
They influence decisions but don’t hold formal power. (PAs, agencies, managers, users)
They are in charge of discovery, advocacy, and shaping your message.
Secondary audiences: Decision and Risk Holders
They approve, allocate, or block.
They make the final call.
They validate, evaluate, and make the final decisions
Start with the shared problem
You can identify the pain everyone recognises: that unites the room before you split into details.
The idea is to find a few core sentences that would carry from one audience to the other.
We could take the two ideas that they want a product that is easy to install.
Users get “how it makes my life easier.”
Decision Makers "“A smooth rollout that streamlines operations — and zero complaints six months later.”
Make it easy to read even when they're distracted
Structure your content so each person can skim and instantly find the angle that's relevant to them.
Simple subheadings can help draw them to relevant messaging.
For your Primary audiences: The ease of set up.
Just 2 Hours to Set Up
"Securely integrates with your existing systems, 92% of users reported no downtime required.”
Endorsed by leading cybersecurity analysts you can trust."
For your Secondary Audience: The long-term results.
“Cut manual processing costs by 30% in the first six months.” Get immediate, trackable savings you can take straight into your next board meeting.”
“Protect critical operations without disruption so the business can grow without adding operational risk or slowing down innovation.”
That’s what modular, layered messaging looks like.
The Key Takeaway
B2B isn’t about finding the one perfect message for one perfect person.
It’s not about writing ten different messages either.
It’s about designing one story with modular layers that can travel across Finance, IT, Legal, Leadership, and Users — so everyone finds exactly what they need to make a decision.
One message, ten interpretations, zero confusion.
That’s how your message stops getting lost, ignored, or thrown out…and starts surviving your buyers' ecosystem.
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
