Key takeaways
- Seniority alone misleads. A "manager" at a 10-person firm may decide more than a VP at a bank.
- Map three roles: problem owner, budget owner and daily user.
- Reach two or three people per account. Single-threaded deals stall.
Step by step
- Write down the problem you solve. The decision maker is whoever is measured on that problem. Marketing software is bought by marketing leadership, not by IT.
- Adjust for company size. Under 20 employees, go to the owner. From 20 to 200, a director or head of function. Above that, a VP sponsors and a manager evaluates.
- Search by title and seniority together. Combine a department with a seniority level, for example marketing plus director and above, then scan the real titles that come back.
- Check for ownership evidence. For small businesses, titles like owner, founder, principal and partner are stronger signals than any seniority label.
- Build the buying group. Save the sponsor, the evaluator and a finance contact to the same list so your outreach covers the whole decision.
| Company size | Who usually decides | Who else to include |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 19 employees | Owner or founder | Office manager |
| 20 to 199 | Director or head of function | Owner or CEO for larger spend |
| 200 to 999 | VP or director | Manager who evaluates, finance |
| 1,000 and up | VP sponsor with a committee | Procurement, IT or security, finance |
What to know
Most prospecting tools let you filter by seniority, and most sellers stop there. The problem is that seniority labels are inconsistent across companies and data sources. Reading the actual job title, and for small firms the ownership evidence, is far more reliable.
Buzzlist ranks people by this kind of evidence. Describe the role in plain English and BuzzAI reads real titles and profiles, then shows why each person fits. A Sales Brief then lists the likely buying group for one account, with what each person cares about.
