Your champion just sent another “checking in” email. Three weeks since the demo. Finance needs more proof. IT has questions. Operations wants implementation details. The deal that should have closed last quarter is still sitting in limbo.
You know how this goes. Your champion loves the solution. But then they need to get buy-in from finance, IT, operations, and the C-suite. Each stakeholder brings different concerns to the table. Your champion gets stuck trying to speak everyone’s language, and the deal stalls.
The problem isn’t your product. It’s that you’re not addressing the concerns that unite buying committees.
Because here’s the thing: while each persona has specific concerns that require tailored messaging (the CFO needs ROI proof, IT needs security details, Operations needs implementation timelines), there are also universal problems that nearly everyone in that conference room shares.
Your messaging needs both layers. Persona-specific content addresses individual stakeholder needs—which is exactly what the Problem-Persona Matrix helps you build. But universal messaging creates the common ground that gets everyone aligned in the first place. When you can frame your solution around these shared problems, you stop forcing your champion to translate between stakeholder priorities. You give them a language that helps the entire committee see why this decision matters.
This is exactly what effective buyer enablement looks like—helping real people navigate complex buying decisions instead of just generating leads.
Here are the five problems every buying committee member cares about, and how to position your messaging to address them.
1. Wasted Time (Because Everyone’s Calendar is Already Full)
Time is the only resource nobody has more of.
CEOs see wasted time as missed revenue and slower growth. Sales leaders view it as fewer deals worked and less pipeline built. Operations leaders see it as hours burned on manual tasks that should be automated. IT leaders feel it when their teams spend all day fighting with inefficient tools instead of actually building anything.
The common thread? Everyone agrees that wasted time is a problem worth solving.
If your solution eliminates steps, automates repetitive work, or streamlines broken workflows, you have an angle that resonates across the entire committee. But here’s where most marketing fails: they say “saves time” without getting specific.
What works better: Quantify exactly how much time gets saved and where. “Reduces month-end close from 8 days to 3” hits harder than “saves time on accounting.” “Cuts sales follow-up from 45 minutes to 5 minutes per prospect” is more credible than “improves efficiency.”
When you can show specific time savings tied to actual workflows, you cut through skepticism. And when multiple stakeholders see how your solution saves their time specifically, you build consensus.
2. Rising Costs (And the Budget Pressure That Won’t Stop)
Every organization is under pressure to control costs right now. It shows up differently depending on the stakeholder, but nobody’s immune.
Finance sees it in budgets and margins. Operations sees it in overtime, wasted resources, and rising supplier costs. Marketing and sales see it in customer acquisition costs and program efficiency. Even stakeholders who don’t manage a P&L directly feel the ripple effects when budgets tighten and scrutiny increases.
This is why positioning your product as a cost reducer is powerful—but only if you go beyond surface-level savings.
What most marketing gets wrong: They focus on purchase price instead of total cost of ownership. They highlight what you save without showing what you avoid losing.
What actually moves committees: Demonstrating how you reduce total cost of ownership across the organization. Showing how you prevent expensive errors that drain resources. Proving how you reallocate budget from low-impact activities to high-impact initiatives.
Frame cost in both direct savings and avoided losses. That’s what makes the message credible in group discussions where finance, operations, and leadership are all evaluating from different angles. And when you’re allocating budget to messaging that addresses cost concerns, make sure your own marketing budget is properly calculated to support both acquisition and enablement.
3. Risk and Exposure (What Keeps Executives Up at Night)
Risk is where buying committees get nervous. And risk takes different forms depending on who’s in the room.
Executives worry about reputational damage, compliance penalties, and shareholder pressure. IT leaders focus on data security and system uptime. Operations cares about accidents, equipment failure, and service interruptions. Sales and marketing worry about customer churn, brand damage, and lost market share.
The types of risk vary wildly, but the shared concern is the same: disruption.
When you can show how your solution lowers exposure to external or internal threats, you make it easier for stakeholders to agree. When you demonstrate risk reduction through case studies, compliance standards, or third-party benchmarks, you make the argument harder to dismiss.
Here’s the key: Don’t just claim you reduce risk. Show how you’ve done it for companies similar to theirs. Reference calls, pilot programs, and phased implementations all address risk concerns by reducing commitment before they see proof.
This is why buyer enablement assets like implementation timelines and reference customers matter so much—they directly address the human reality of risk aversion in buying committees.
4. Lack of Visibility (Why Decisions Keep Getting Delayed)
Buying committees often stall because nobody feels they have the full picture.
Executives want forecasting confidence. Sales leaders want pipeline visibility. Marketing leaders want attribution clarity. Operations leaders want real-time performance metrics and bottleneck identification. IT wants system health monitoring.
Without visibility, each group operates with partial information. They debate decisions from different vantage points. And nothing moves forward because nobody can agree on what’s actually happening.
This is where solutions that centralize data, track performance, and report in real-time gain serious influence.
The positioning opportunity: Frame your product as a visibility enhancer that bridges the gap between functions. Emphasize clarity, shared dashboards, and real-time reporting that helps different stakeholders see the same data at the same time.
Messaging that shows how your solution creates a single source of truth doesn’t just appeal to each stakeholder individually—it demonstrates how you help the entire group reach decisions with confidence.
And confidence is what moves stalled deals forward.
5. Missed Growth Opportunities (The Fear That Someone Else Will Get There First)
Growth is the thread that runs through every committee conversation, even if nobody says it directly.
CEOs frame it as hitting revenue targets. Sales leaders think in terms of expanding pipeline and closing more deals. Marketing leaders want to reach new audiences and build brand recognition. Operations leaders want to scale efficiently without breaking existing processes. IT leaders view growth as a chance to modernize infrastructure and prove technology’s value.
Stakeholders may disagree on how growth should happen, but all of them share the urgency of not getting left behind.
This is your opportunity: When you connect your solution to growth, you shift the conversation from cost avoidance and risk mitigation to potential upside. You move from defensive buying (“we need to fix this problem”) to offensive buying (“we need to capture this opportunity”).
Positioning your product as a way to unlock growth helps build consensus around investment. Because while committee members might debate whether a problem is urgent enough to solve right now, nobody wants to be the person who blocked the opportunity that could have accelerated growth.
This growth-oriented positioning works especially well when you’re using both demand generation and ABM strategies to reach buying committees—creating awareness of the opportunity while also directly engaging stakeholders who can act on it.
Stop Pitching Features, Start Speaking Their Language
These five problems—wasted time, rising costs, risk exposure, lack of visibility, and missed growth—aren’t just talking points. They’re the shared language that connects diverse committee members who otherwise might never agree on anything.
Even when individual personas have unique pain points that require specific messaging and proof points, they align on these universal concerns. That’s why effective B2B messaging works on two levels: universal problems that create initial alignment, and persona-specific solutions that address individual stakeholder needs.
Your job as a marketer isn’t to choose between these approaches. It’s to use both strategically.
Instead of listing what your product does, highlight the ways it saves time, controls costs, reduces risk, improves visibility, and fuels growth. That creates the foundation of consensus. Then layer in persona-specific proof points (ROI models for finance, implementation plans for operations, security documentation for IT) that address individual concerns.
When you combine universal messaging with targeted enablement, you stop forcing your champion to build two separate cases. You give them one coherent narrative that resonates across the committee while still addressing each stakeholder’s specific needs.
That’s how deals actually close.
And if your current marketing strategy focuses more on lead generation than on helping buying committees reach decisions, you’re treating human beings like database entries. The companies that consistently grow in B2B aren’t the ones with the most leads. They’re the ones that make it easiest for real people to buy. Which means building marketing plans that connect to revenue outcomes, not just activity metrics.
Understanding these five universal problems is a critical component of problem-centric messaging. Want to see how they fit into a complete messaging framework? Read our complete guide to problem-centric messaging in B2B marketing.
Ready to see where buying committees are stalling in your funnel and what messaging will actually move them forward? Our B2B Growth Audit shows you exactly where deals get stuck and what buyer enablement assets will break the logjam. Get your audit HERE.
