Insights · Research
What a buying group actually looks like.
The short answer
A buying group is bigger than the person who replies to your email, and most of it is invisible to you until you go looking. Research puts the average buying group at 13 people inside the company and 9 more outside it, all of whom shape the decision in some way. A warm relationship with one of those twenty-two people is not nothing, but it is not close to winning the deal.
01Inside the building
Thirteen people inside the company.
That average will run higher or lower for any given deal, and it is not a services-specific figure. But even taken loosely, it rules out a strategy built around one champion. Some of the thirteen will never speak to you directly. They still get a vote, whether by opinion, veto or simple inertia.
-
22
people shape a single buying decision: 13 inside the company, 9 outside it.
Source Forrester, "The State of Business Buying, 2026".Nearly 18,000 global business buyers. Average across purchase types, not services-specific.
Who the thirteen usually are
It depends on the firm, the industry and the size of the decision. For a consulting or professional service engagement, the thirteen typically include:
- 01The sponsor who owns the budget, often a managing director or C-level
- 02The person who found you first, your champion
- 03The heads of the teams the work will touch
- 04The people who will work with you day to day
- 05Finance, checking cost and return
- 06Procurement, running the process
- 07Legal, reviewing the contract
- 08IT and security, if data or systems are involved
- 09Risk and compliance, in regulated industries
- 10HR, if roles or ways of working change
- 11The CEO or board, for the bigger decisions
- 12A chief of staff or assistant who controls the diary
- 13A sceptic who preferred another option
02Outside the building
Nine people who do not even work there.
The same research counted 9 more people outside the company who shape the decision: advisors, peers, analysts, prior colleagues, anyone the buying group consults or is influenced by without being formally part of it. This is where a firm's visibility matters most and is hardest to control directly, since you cannot manage a conversation you are not in.
What you can do is make sure that when any of those nine are asked, or ask an AI, what comes back about your firm is accurate and consistent with what the thirteen inside the company already believe.
Who the nine usually are
It depends on the firm, the industry and the size of the decision. Typically some mix of:
- 01Peers at other firms they ask for a recommendation
- 02Former colleagues who have hired a firm like yours
- 03Their existing advisors: auditors, lawyers, incumbent consultants
- 04Board members, investors or non-executive directors
- 05Industry analysts and researchers
- 06Journalists and the publications they read
- 07Communities and associations they belong to
- 08Your clients, called for a reference
- 09Specialists brought in to check the shortlist
03The mistake
A warm relationship with one person does not win the deal.
A champion is genuinely valuable. What they cannot do is speak for twenty-one other people they may not even know.
A champion opens doors, shares context, and can move things internally that no outsider can. What they cannot do is control what the other twenty-one already believe, have read, or have heard elsewhere. Betting the whole relationship on one person's warmth is a bet that the other twenty-one either do not matter or will simply follow along. Neither is usually true.
Mapping who is actually in the group, how each of them currently feels, and what would move each of them forward is not a nicety. It is the only way to know whether a deal that feels close is actually close.
04One more thing
Most of this group is now doing its own research.
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94%
use AI during buying, and validate with trusted human sources.
Source Forrester, "The State of Business Buying, 2026", as above.Same base. Not services-only.
Twenty-two people is already a lot of surface area to build Fimiliarity across. When most of them are also asking an AI for its own view of your firm before they ever talk to each other about it, the group's shape stops being just a list of names. It becomes a live picture of what is being said about you, everywhere it gets asked. That is what generative engine optimisation, GEO, is for.
05How Fimiliar handles it
How Fimiliar works across all twenty-two.
One relationship is a start. Fimiliar builds Fimiliarity with the whole group, inside the company and around it.
- 01
Map all twenty-two
We name the people inside and around each account you want to win, not just the one who replied.
- 02
Score each person
How fimiliar each of them is with you, from what they have read, replied to or told us.
- 03
Reach the nine through what they already trust
Content, PR, podcasts and the answers AI gives, so the outside voices say the same true thing about you.
- 04
Judge the account
Whether the company is ready to act, kept separate from how warm its people are.
- 05
Decide the next step for each person
A real reason to talk to the right person at the right moment, so the meeting is with the group, not just the champion.
06Questions
What partners ask about this.
Short answers.
What is a buying group in B2B?
Everyone who shapes a business buying decision, not just the person who replies to you. It includes people inside the company and people outside it, such as advisors, peers, analysts and prior colleagues the group consults. Some of them never speak to a seller, but they still sway the decision by opinion, veto or simple inertia.
Who is usually in a buying group for a consulting or professional service firm?
It depends on the firm, the industry and the size of the decision. Inside the company it typically includes the sponsor who owns the budget, your champion, the heads of the teams the work will touch, the people who will work with you, finance, procurement, legal, IT and security, risk and compliance, HR, the CEO or board for bigger decisions, whoever controls the diary, and often a sceptic. Outside it: peers they ask, former colleagues, their existing advisors, board members or investors, analysts, journalists, communities they belong to, and your clients called for a reference.
How many people are in a B2B buying group?
On average 22: 13 people inside the company and 9 outside it, in Forrester's State of Business Buying 2026, based on nearly 18,000 global business buyers. That is an average across purchase types, not a figure measured for consulting or professional service firms, so any given deal will run higher or lower. The pattern holds regardless: the group is larger and more hidden than it looks.
Do all twenty-two people need to be reached individually?
No, and trying to would waste effort that could go toward the people who matter most for a given decision. The point of mapping the group is knowing who it contains and how warm each of them currently is, so effort goes where it will move the decision, not to everyone equally.
What if we only have a relationship with one person in the group?
Then that is a real start, not a finished job. Use what that person can tell you about who else is involved, and treat the rest of the group as unknown rather than assuming they feel the same way your one contact does.
Next step
Talk through your own buying group.
Thirty minutes on your firm and the clients you want to win, to see if you qualify.