Economic buyer: what it means, where the term comes from, and how to find and reach them

This page is for account executives, founders and sales managers working B2B deals with more than one person involved. It defines the economic buyer, shows how the term is used in Miller Heiman and MEDDIC, and gives a practical way to identify the right person and get in front of them.

What an economic buyer is

The economic buyer is the person who gives final approval to buy, releases the money and can stop the purchase even when everyone else supports it.

The term comes from Strategic Selling by Robert B. Miller and Stephen E. Heiman (1985), which names four buying influences in a complex sale: economic, user, technical and coach. The book puts it simply: "The Economic Buyer is the person who gives final approval to buy your product or service." Three of its points still matter most:

• One per sale. The book says the person in the role "often changes from sale to sale within the same account," but "there's always only one Economic Buyer per sale."
• It can be a group. The role may be played by a board, a selection committee or another decision-making body.
• It rises with the price. "Generally speaking, the higher the dollar amount of the sale, the higher" the economic buyer will be in the organization.

MEDDIC, the qualification checklist developed at the software company PTC in the 1990s, made the economic buyer its E. MEDDICC Ltd, which teaches the method, describes the economic buyer as the person with overall authority in the buying decision, who can approve a deal others oppose and block one others support. The Miller Heiman method page covers the other three buying influences.

Economic buyer vs the other roles

The last row causes the most lost deals. The person who picks your proposal can be different from the person who approves the spend.

How to identify the economic buyer

Titles mislead. A CEO may never see a $30,000 purchase, and a plant manager may approve $500,000 out of an operating budget. Look for four signs:

1. They approve spending of this size. Most companies set approval limits by amount.
2. The money comes from their budget, or they can find money that isn't budgeted.
3. The result lands on them. They'll be asked in a year whether it was worth it.
4. They can veto it. If they said no, the deal would stop.

The fastest route is to ask your contact questions like these:

• "How did the last purchase of about this size get approved?"
• "Whose budget would this come from?"
• "If you and your team want to go ahead, who could still stop it?"
• "Above what amount does a purchase need sign-off, and from whom?"

Worked example: the role moves with deal size

Illustrative example. The companies, people and thresholds are invented to show the method.

Granite Peak Roofing (granitepeak.example) sells to Harvest Lane Foods (harvestlane.example), a regional grocery distributor with four warehouses. Its contact is the facilities manager. Asking how past projects were approved turns up Harvest Lane's spending limits:

On the $480,000 reroof, the facilities manager is the champion and a technical buyer, the VP of operations is a user buyer (the work disrupts loading docks), and the CFO is the economic buyer. Selling only to the facilities manager would leave the one approval that matters to a forwarded PDF.

The CFO wants to know three things: the return (avoided emergency repairs and lower insurance risk), the risk (downtime during the work) and the timing (whether it fits this year's capital budget). So the rep's next step is a one-page business case in those terms, and a meeting with the CFO.

How to reach the economic buyer

• Go through your champion, not around them. Ask them to set up 20 minutes, and give them a reason the economic buyer will accept. Someone who won't help you get there may be a friendly contact rather than a champion.
• Bring their numbers. A short business case built from figures your champion supplied, not a deck about your product.
• Trade for access. Before a costly step, such as a full survey or a pilot, ask that the economic buyer join the review.
• Match seniority. Your own leader may get a meeting your rep can't.

Subject: [Project]: 20 minutes before we [next step]

Hi [economic buyer's first name],

[Champion's name] and I have been working on [project] for [their team]. Before we [next step, such as a full survey or pilot], it would help to check three things with you:

1. The result you'd need to see, such as [the metric they care about]
2. Any risks you'd want covered, such as [downtime, security, timing]
3. Whether [timing] fits this year's budget

A one-page summary is attached. Would 20 minutes on [day] or [day] work?

[Your name]

Finding who sits in each role is research before it's selling. Bebop finds the people at each account and writes a playbook with who to talk to and why, so you go into the first call knowing whose budget a deal like yours usually lands in. For finding names, see the guide to finding decision makers.

Common mistakes

• Calling your contact the economic buyer because they're senior or enthusiastic. Ask who signs at this deal size.
• Going around the champion. It can cost you the person who knows how the decision really gets made.
• Meeting the economic buyer without numbers. You may get only one meeting.
• Assuming the role is fixed. A larger scope, a reorganization or a new budget cycle can move it.
• Forecasting deals you haven't taken to the economic buyer as likely to close.

Next step: put the economic buyer into a full qualification check with the MEDDIC checklist.