The Buying Center

The firm that I work for, wishes to buy us laptops computers and this will be facilitated by different departments and their respective roles.  Our engineering department and the top management have come up with the need to buy new laptop computers due to the problems we have been having lately of sharing computers in carrying out our tasks hence causing delays in work.

 Once the management team in my firm has proposed the purchase of these laptops, the next role will go to the buyers who will source for the potential suppliers to supplier with the computers. They will also play a major role in selection of vendors and to negotiate on price. Our buyers will give out give out laptop’s specifications to the suppliers to ensure that they have supplied us with quality laptops that will ensure that our tasks run effectively. However, the buyers will go ahead with these transactions after they have received the quotes and proposals from the managements, and after they have negotiated with the respective suppliers in the terms and conditions , they will then keep track of deliveries and make follow ups.

During the buying processes, engineers who are qualified, consultants, technical personnel and experts will draw the computer’s specification hence influencing the purchasing decisions ion our firm. Despite of these personnel the management can also take the role of influencers if there will be long-term benefits or if high costs will be involved. According to Boone, (2012), these influencers can also play a great role in provision of information that is used to evaluate alternatives strategically.

Generally, my firm also has the purchasing executives, who will act the role of the decider. Following those people that are going to market these laptops computers here, will maintains contacts throughout to our purchasing executive so as to check when we need those computers delivered to our firm. In our firm, the purchasing executive runs the decisions for the routine purchasers but when there is a need for complex goods such as these computers, senior executives can be involved to take the processes through. There will then be the authorization of our proposals by the finance department and the top management in order to take the buying process ahead.

There is also the purchasing manager in our firm who will be the first people that the marketers of the laptops will get in touch with, these have the mandate to allow or prevent them from reaching us, as employees, if their laptops will not be up to date. This is normally facilitated by be telephone operators or the receptionists. The marketer of these laptops must however pass through our purchasing managers before reaching our purchasing executives to ensure that they have brought with them the accurate number of order that had been made and premium laptops

Following the website of; Buying Center Decisions (2015), my firm has entitled these roles to the various departments and job titles to their respective departments because; the engineering department will ensure that product specifications are met. The buyers will ensure that potential suppliers are sourced hence delays are not made on delivery of the products. The technical personnel and experts are the determinants of the products to be bought as they handle the desired specifications of the products to be bought. The purchasing executives are also assigned their roles so as to ensure that whenever goods are required, they can be obtained by the firm, a reason as to why they should have communications with the marketers regularly.

The top management is also very critical in their roles as they will ensure that proper decisions have been made for buying their employees these laptop computers. They also prevent losses that could be incurred in buying unnecessary goods or services to the firm. The receptionists in the firm makes sure that only the preferred and selected marketers of these computers are allowed in the firm.

The salesperson selling laptops to the firm should focus on the purchasing managers and the purchasing executives. This is because, once they have sold us the laptops and maybe other model of computers comes up, they can still be allowed to come in and air their views  on their new models of computers and this can only be allowed by the purchasing managers. It is also important that they focus on the purchasing executives because, in case there is need of the same type of laptops in the future, they can still be contacted and sell them to us.

However, buying between organization and consumers differs because the costs of buying products by consumers maybe high due to purchase in retails but the organization will have the advantage of buying goods at lower prices because of buying goods in bulk. In addition to that, buying in an organization involves processes before making the actual purchase unlike the consumers. In addition to that, Organizations wastes time on decision making unlike the consumers who make decisions individually, Boone, (2012).

        In conclusion, while confronting buying centers, it is advisable for marketers or suppliers to first find out what role is played and by whom. This will therefore, enable the marketer to address each member’s needs as they might differ significantly. For example, a certain decider maybe the president of the company, and wants to ensure that the purchase will not affect the bottom-line of the company negatively whereas the buyer needs the assurance of the product’s delivery on time. Hence, the approach of each member of the buying organization requires a planning procedure that is so careful so as address the unique requirements or needs of each member.

References

Dawes, P., Dowling, G., & Patterson, P. (n.d.). Factors affecting the structure of buying centers for the purchase of professional business advisory services. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 269-279.

Buying Differences: Buying Center Decisions – KnowThis.com. (n.d.). Retrieved April 25, 2015, from http://www.knowthis.com/business-buying-behavior/buying-differences-buying-center-decisions

BOONE, L. (2012). Contemporary marketing, 2013 update. S.l.: Cengage learning custom p.