The New Reality for B2B Sales: 6.8 Stakeholders Who Can Say No

The data is in, and it‘s not pretty. The average number of customer stakeholders involved in a B2B purchase decision has ballooned to 6.8 – up from 5.4 just 18 months ago. That‘s a 25% increase in less than two years.

Think about that for a moment. For every deal on the table, you now have to convince, cajole, and corral nearly 7 different people to get to yes. It‘s like herding cats, if each cat had veto power over your quota.

And make no mistake, more stakeholders = more risk to your deal. Research from CEB shows that with every additional stakeholder beyond 3, the likelihood of closing the deal drops by 15%. So at 7 stakeholders, your odds of sealing the deal plummet to a coin flip – 50/50 at best.

No wonder sales cycles are getting longer and more complex. A 2020 study by CSO Insights found that nearly 75% of B2B sales to new customers take at least 4 months to close, with almost 50% taking 7 months or more. And the culprit is clear: 78% of respondents said the number of stakeholders involved in a typical deal has increased significantly.

So who are these mysterious 6.8 stakeholders gumming up your deal? Let‘s break it down:

The Anatomy of the 6.8

While every deal is different, most multi-threaded sales involve some combination of the following buying personas:

1. End User – The most vocal of the bunch, this stakeholder actually has to live with your solution day-to-day. Their primary concern is how your product will make their job easier/better.
2. Champion – This stakeholder emerges as your biggest internal advocate, selling your solution within their organization. They‘re motivated by recognition for bringing in a valuable new solution.
3. Decision Maker – The person who can ultimately sign on the dotted line. They care about the business case – proving the ROI and superior value vs. alternatives.
4. Influencer – A trusted advisor to the decision-maker, this stakeholder provides input and sways opinions behind the scenes. They‘re risk-averse and wary of unproven solutions.
5. Economic Buyer – The one holding the purse strings. They scrutinize the pricing, payment terms, and value equation. Every solution is expensive in their eyes.
6. Gatekeeper – This stakeholder controls the flow of information and access to other stakeholders. Often found in procurement/vendor management. Their mission is to eliminate vendors, not add more.
7. Legal/Compliance – The "fun police" of the buying group, they poke holes in your contract, terms of service, and security practices. They default to inertia and the status quo.
8. Wildcards – Every buying group has a curveball – the CEO‘s nephew, the retired founder who still sits in on key meetings. You won‘t see them coming, but they can still kill your deal.

The specific mix of stakeholders varies, but the key point is there are more of them than ever, with more competing priorities and definitions of value:

What‘s Driving the Stakeholder Boom?

So how did we get here? Why has the B2B buying group doubled in size? There are four key factors inflating the stakeholder roster:

1. The Great Recession Hangover. The 2008-09 financial crisis left deep scars in the business psyche. "The mantra became ‘we need to be more careful and conservative in our spending.‘ And that‘s translated to more people weighing in on purchase decisions," says Brent Adamson, co-author of The Challenger Customer. One recent survey found 83% of enterprise buying decisions now require director-level or above approval – up from just 64% in 2014. And 78% had a formal buying group or committee in place, compared to only 57% seven years ago.

2. The Solution Sale Arms Race. In the battle against commodification, vendors have raced to expand their solutions with more features, integrations, and cross-functional capabilities. But a more comprehensive solution invites more stakeholders to the party. CSO Insight‘s 2018 Sales Operations Optimization Study showed a direct correlation between solution complexity and average number of stakeholders:

As Adamson puts it, "The bigger your solution‘s footprint, the more toes you‘re likely to step on, and the more people who feel they need a say in the matter."

3. Globalization Without Consolidation. Business keeps going global, but governance often stays local. Each new market brings new stakeholders to navigate. Research from Forrester shows international companies have an average of 8 buying influences for a typical purchase, vs. just 6 for domestic firms. And those global deals take 22% longer to close on average. As one global account manager told Adamson, "It‘s like playing multi-dimensional chess. I‘ve got influencers in 5 regions who‘ve never met each other, but they all have to be on board for the deal to go through."

4. Flat and Fluid Orgs. The traditional corporate hierarchy is crumbling, with 95% of organizations shifting to matrixed or project-based structures according to Deloitte research. And with flatter orgs comes more distributed buying power. "When decisions get pushed down in the organization, everyone feels they should have a voice," says Byron Matthews, President and CEO of Miller Heiman Group. "Instead of one decision-maker, you‘ve got a decision-making unit." One study found that in organizations adopting agile methodologies, the average number of stakeholders on a buying team shot up to 12.

The High Cost of Stakeholder Soup

Okay, so there are more B2B cooks in the kitchen. So what? Can‘t savvy sellers just adapt their tactics to a bigger buying group?

Not so fast. A larger buying group isn‘t just a logistical challenge – it‘s a huge risk factor. More stakeholders = more chances for misalignment, confusion, and ultimately, stasis.

"The problem isn‘t the number of people, it‘s the diversity of opinions and agendas each one brings," says Adamson. "You‘ve got all these disparate priorities and metrics that need to line up – it‘s like solving a Rubik‘s Cube."

That stakeholder discord has real consequences in win rates. CEB found that the likelihood of a purchase drops by 17% for each additional buying influence after 3:

Not surprisingly, deals with misaligned stakeholders are also much more likely to end in a "no decision":

Even when stakeholders can agree, the compromises required shrink deal sizes. An HBR analysis found that the bigger the buying group, the smaller the average deal:

And all that back-and-forth with buying groups eats up valuable selling time. Salespeople in multi-threaded deals spend over twice as much of their day on stakeholder management vs. those in single-threaded opportunities. No wonder quota attainment has dropped from 63% to 53% in the latest Miller Heiman study.

"Sellers feel like they‘re trapped in a dysfunctional buying cycle," says Matthews. "It‘s not that they don‘t know how to sell. It‘s that their customers don‘t know how to buy."

The Challenger Customer Playbook

So what‘s the path forward for B2B sales orgs drowning in stakeholder soup? Adamson says the key is to stop thinking of the 6.8 stakeholders as a barrier, and start treating them as an opportunity.

"Multi-threaded selling is the new table stakes," he argues. "If you can crack the code on aligning diverse groups of customers, that‘s a huge competitive advantage."

To do that, sales orgs need to shift from an "outside-in" to an "inside-out" approach. "The old model was responding to the customer‘s requests and reacting to their process," says Adamson. "Today, sales needs to proactively shape the customer‘s journey and decision criteria."

The framework for this proactive approach is Challenger™ – a selling model built around delivering insight, showing customers a new path forward, and coaching them through a complex purchase. And it‘s tailor-made for the 6.8-stakeholder world.

Challengers win by choreographing the customer buying process in three acts:

1. Warmer: Lead with a provocative insight that reframes the customer‘s business problem and criteria for solving it. Show them something new about their business that they didn‘t fully appreciate before. This creates the "aha moment" that intrigues a diverse group of stakeholders and drives them to consider alternatives.

2. Warmer: Introduce "rational drowning" by showing customers all the different ways they could solve their newly-defined problem. Compare the different approaches, risks, and tradeoffs. This positions the Challenger rep as an expert navigator to guide stakeholders through the options.

3. Mobilizer: With the map laid out, it‘s time to plot the route to your preferred destination. The Challenger rep becomes a coach to their internal champion, equipping them with tools to evangelize, negotiate with, and align their fellow stakeholders. It‘s a call plan in disguise – a step-by-step path to driving team consensus.

Here‘s a snapshot of the Challenger playbook for multi-threaded deals:

The key through-line is that the Challenger controls the process. They don‘t just respond to the 6.8 stakeholders‘ competing demands. They anticipate them, shape them, and architect alignment around their solution.

To do this, Challengers arm themselves with:

• Stakeholder-specific insights – Tailor your lead insight to pique the interest of each persona. For the end user, it‘s a frustration they didn‘t realize they had. For the economic buyer, it‘s hidden costs they‘re not accounting for.

• Persona-based business cases – What‘s in it for each stakeholder to buy? Equip your champion to "sell" internally by mapping your value to each persona‘s metrics.

• Buying team discovery template – A structured question set to uncover each stakeholder‘s unique needs, concerns, and decision criteria. Use this to build stakeholder empathy.

• Consensus accelerator workshop – Bring the broader buying team together (live or virtually) to align on problem statement, decision criteria, and solution requirements. Facilitate the dialogue to surface and resolve disconnects.

• Executive sponsor roadshow – Get your executive sponsor in front of theirs. Coach them to connect your initiative to strategic priorities in a compelling way.

• Buyer enablement toolkit – Don‘t just sell – teach stakeholders how to buy. Provide a clear evaluation process, sample project plans, ROI calculators, and proposal templates. Make it easy to choose you.

Be the Buying Sherpa

At the end of the day, the Challenger seller earns the right to be prescriptive by first demonstrating empathy – understanding each of the 6.8 stakeholder‘s unique pressures, needs and goals. They‘re not just vendors, but partners invested in the customer‘s success.

That empathy provides the foundation for shaping each stakeholder‘s vision of a better future and steering the collective buying team to your solution as the way to get there. You‘re not just processing orders, but guiding the journey.

As Adamson says, "The critical skill in B2B sales today is guiding your customers through the purchasing process. Be the Buying Sherpa."

The data on the 6.8 stakeholders is daunting, for sure. But for organizations willing to embrace a Challenger mindset, it‘s not an obstacle – it‘s an opportunity to differentiate. To paraphrase the old saying – "In the land of stakeholder misalignment, the Challenger seller is king."

So gear up and get out in front of those 6.8 stakeholders. It‘s a daunting climb, but the view from the top will be worth it.

Ready to enable your team to navigate the multi-threaded selling landscape? Check out our guide: The 7 Stakeholders Who Can Say No – And How to Win Them Over.