You know your B2B solution is perfect for a company – but you’re struggling to get your foot in the door. Maybe you’ve spoken to a few people who are interested, but none of them can actually sign the deal. Why? Because you haven’t identified the full buying group.
And let’s be honest – identifying the full buying group is nearly impossible if you’re working with incomplete or disconnected data. Without complete and up-to-date person & company profiles, hierarchy mapping data, and an accurate persona scoring process, it’s all guesswork. You end up targeting whoever’s easiest to reach, not necessarily the people who can drive the decision forward.
Even when you do have names in the CRM, chances are they’re missing the context that matters: reporting structure, role in the buying process, influence level, and regional alignment. Without that, GTM teams are left in the dark – sending one-size-fits-all messages and hoping something sticks.
It’s not just inefficient. It’s a recipe for missed opportunities.
In today’s B2B sales landscape, no significant purchase decision is made by a single individual. Instead, buying groups – clusters of stakeholders with different roles and priorities – evaluate, influence, and approve purchases together. That’s why finding just a contact isn’t enough. You need to find the right contacts across the entire buying team – and understand how they’re connected.
That’s where B2B hierarchy mapping comes in.
What is B2B Hierarchy Mapping?
Hierarchy mapping visualizes the organizational structure of your target accounts. It can connects departments, job roles, reporting lines, and regional divisions – giving you a clear view of how the company operates internally. More importantly, it helps you pinpoint and connect the dots between the individuals that make up the buying group.
How Hierarchy Mapping Helps You Identify Buying Groups:
1. Reveal Hidden Influencers and Power Structures
Job titles only tell part of the story. A “Director” at one company might act as the final decision-maker, while at another, they’re just a gatekeeper. Hierarchy mapping in conjunction with person data shows how individuals actually relate to each other – who reports to whom, which roles tend to carry more influence, and who likely has the authority to approve a purchase.
By understanding internal structure, you can potentially identify…
- Executive sponsors
- Day-to-day users
- Budget owners
- Technical approvers
- Internal champions
… and engage them accordingly.
2. Pinpoint the Full Buying Group
Buying groups typically include:
- Initiators = identify a need, and usually the first person at a company that responds to your campaign
- Influencers = shape the requirements and show up later in the campaign process
- Decision-makers = have the final say and often are at the top of their department
- Gatekeepers = control access, and are often the finance or IT people
- Users = rely on the product day-to-day, and often do not have managerial title
Hierarchy data, along with personas and job-level information, helps you map these roles to real people inside the account. You’re not guessing based on job titles – you’re seeing how each role fits into the broader decision-making ecosystem.
3. Build a Targeted Engagement Strategy
Once the buying group is identified, hierarchy mapping lets you tailor outreach and content for each stakeholder’s unique priority:
- Finance wants ROI.
- End users want ease of use.
- Executives want business impact.
Sequence your engagement: start with an influencer, win over a champion, then go to the decision-maker with momentum behind you. It’s a smarter, more strategic approach than cold prospecting one title at a time.
4. Streamline Complex Sales Cycles
B2B deals are multi-threaded. Without a map of who’s who, reps waste time talking to the wrong people, restarting conversations, or missing stakeholders entirely. Hierarchy mapping cuts through the noise. Hierarchy data gets one step closer to knowing:
- Who’s involved?
- Who’s next?
- Where approvals get stuck?
- When to bring in a champion?
This kind of clarity will significantly shorten the sales cycle and increase your chances of winning complex deals.
5. Power More Effective ABM and Campaign Segmentation
Hierarchy data makes account-based marketing (ABM) smarter. You can design multi-touch campaigns that reach different roles within the buying group – each with content tuned to their concerns. Marketing can also prioritize accounts with fully mapped buying groups and clear entry points, improving conversion rates and ROI.
The Problem: Hierarchy Data is Hard to Maintain
Here’s the challenge: companies merge, people change jobs, and org structures shift constantly. Manually mapping and maintaining hierarchies across your CRM, MAP, and ABM platforms is not scalable.
Most teams skip this step because they lack the tools to do it well – or at all.
The Solution: Dynamic B2B Hierarchy Mapping
Today, modern B2B revenue automation platforms like Leadspace offer dynamic hierarchy mapping – automatically connecting people, companies, and parent-child relationships across your Total Addressable Market (TAM). When someone changes roles or a company gets acquired, your data updates automatically across systems via real-time integrations.
This means:
- Accurate buying groups across your TAM
- Real-time updates to org structures
- Always-on identity resolution and enrichment
- Eliminating gaps, duplicates, or outdated records
What Are You Waiting For?
If you’re still chasing individual leads without understanding how they fit into the bigger picture, you’re flying blind. Buying groups are complex, but hierarchy mapping gives you the clarity to act with precision.
Want to win more deals and shorten your sales cycle? Start by identifying the buying group – and let hierarchy mapping data light the way.
For more on how to make it happen, check out 10 Ways to Win with B2B Hierarchies.
