B2Bridge

When you are trying to enter a new market, or launching a new product on an existing market, try to find the major influencers in the professional communities of your buyers first, before attacking the buying center members from the most promising clients.

This was my conclusion after having listened to the IMP Conference presentation about "The influence of occupational communities on buying behavior" by Diego Rinallo from the Bocconi University in Milan. He mentioned that the influence from the professional communities of a buyer on the behavior of the buyer are far underestimated. In many professional communities, there are a small number of highly influencial so-called "experts" that get an overrated attention and belief from wihin the community. These experts have a large influence on the buying behavior within that community. So if you try to identify and convince these highly influencial people first, convincing other members of the community becomes much easier.