Complex B2B deals don’t just have buyers—they have buying committees, sub-committees and Board approval processes. If you’re not actively selling to all of them, you’re setting yourself up for failure.

Across the last 15 years of Win/Loss Reviews, our data shows that over 70% of lost deals involved multiple stakeholders with conflicting priorities. When sellers focus on just one or two key contacts (becoming single-threaded), they ignore the harsh reality of modern B2B buying: complex buying decisions are actually made by groups, not individuals.

Why Committees Complicate Deals

1. Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen

A typical enterprise deal involves anywhere from 6-10 decision-makers, each with different concerns…Finance wants cost control and immediate ROI, IT wants security and a reduced vendor stack, and business users want ease of use and responsiveness. If your sales process doesn’t proactively address all these perspectives, and a bunch of other ones, the deal will likely stall or fall over.

Win/Loss Insight: A Trinity client in the Professional Services space improved their win rate by 30% by creating stakeholder-specific messaging and assets to ensure each decision-maker had a tailored reason to say “yes.”

2. The Internal Politics Game

Not all stakeholders carry equal weight, and some may have hidden agendas. A skeptical CFO can quietly torpedo a deal, while a procurement team can delay approval indefinitely. If you don’t uncover internal politics early, you risk getting blindsided late in the cycle.

Win/Loss Insight: How do you influence someone you’ve never met before? Having a strong internal coach or sponsor is one of the best strategies to understand, manage and mitigate risk for key decision makers, some of whom you may never get to meet in person. Building these relationships takes time and effort. 

3. No Single ‘Yes’—But Plenty of ‘No’s

In a large buying group, no single person usually has final authority—but anyone can raise a red flag and block progress. If even one key stakeholder has concerns, the safest option is often to delay or reject the deal.

Win/Loss Insight: Ghosting, deal slippage, and shrinking budgets have been hugely impacting the B2B sales industry over the past 18 months. Recognise that a complex B2B deal is not actually a single purchase but a collection of small yes’s, which eventually create a big YES.

How to Win in Committee-Driven Deals

1. Map the Buying Group Early

You need to know exactly who is involved in the decision and what matters to them. Many sales teams assume their main contact can advocate for them internally, but without the right intel, your champion could be missing critical stakeholders.

Action Step: Use a stakeholder mapping exercise early in the process. Identify every decision-maker, influencer, and gatekeeper—and understand their motivations.

2. Build Consensus Through Tailored Messaging

A one-size-fits-all pitch won’t work. Each stakeholder has unique priorities, so your messaging must reflect that.

Action Step: Develop a messaging framework that speaks directly to each stakeholder type, but be careful not to make assumptions purely based on their job title or role. For example:

• CFO: Cost savings and ROI…but they may in fact be more business-centric

• IT: Security and scalability…not always the case, particularly in high-growth industries

• Operations: Ease of implementation…In theory, yes, but change mgt could be #1 priority.

• End-users: Productivity and experience…Usually the case, but many default to their old solutions.

3. Create Internal Champions

Your job isn’t just to sell—it’s to equip your internal advocates with the tools to sell for you when you’re not in the room. Decision committees hold internal meetings where vendors aren’t present, and those moments often determine the outcome.

Action Step: Provide your champions with a simple, clear business case, tailored slide decks, and FAQs to help them sell your solution internally. These should use their own internal language and data sets, which will look and feel completely different to your own.

4. Preempt Objections Before They Derail You

Objections don’t kill deals—unaddressed objections do. If you wait until the final stages to handle concerns, you’re already too late.

Action Step: Run “objection workshops” where you proactively address common pushbacks before they arise. Validate concerns with your champion and adjust your approach accordingly. Capture this feedback and create mini-assets with the responses so you don’t have to cover old ground when new stakeholders join the conversation.

Bottom Line: Master the Group Dynamic, Win More Deals

If you’re only selling to one or two people in a large organisation, you’re likely losing more deals than you should. By mastering stakeholder alignment, anticipating objections, and empowering internal champions, you turn decision complexity into a competitive advantage.