TABLE OF CONTENTS Organizations' purchase decisions are likely to be more complex because of the number of individuals and groups involved in the purchase decision and the possibility of the actual product/service being more expensive and sophisticated. All the individuals that participate in the decision-making process will have interdependent goals and share common risks, although they may face different systems of reward. What emerges is a decision-making unit (DMU) made up of all these individuals and groups. Individuals in the DMU will play one of six main roles:
Initiator Identifies a problem that can be overcome by the purchase of a product or service. An individual in a retail company may, for instance, identify a problem in the merchandising function of the company that could be resolved by a new piece of software. (The merchandise function develops the buying plan for a retail company, monitors sales and product margins amongst other things.)
User Will be the actual user of the product in the merchandising function of the company in this case. They may well be the initiators, although this role may be filled by someone outside the user group.
Buyer Actually undertakes the negotiation with potential suppliers. The brief for the technical requirements of the software needed, however, is likely to come from one of the other areas of the DMU.
Influencer Does not directly make the product or supplier choice but has a major impact on the decisions made. In this case an individual...
