Selling to Committees – An Excellent Primer
By Leena Jayachaandran, CEO & Founder of Transdefy in Dubai
Mike’s Note: I met Leenna at a Korn Ferry/MHG sales event over 10 years ago. Since then I regularly follow and read her very insightful blogs on sales productivity. Read on as she gives valuable insights for all B2B salespeople who sell to buying committees.
Single-decision-maker deals are becoming the exception. Most meaningful B2B decisions today are made by committees, formal or informal, aligned or conflicted, visible or hidden. Yet many sales conversations still behave as if one person decides. Sellers chase approvals while buyers juggle internal alignment. Momentum fades, follow-ups slow, and deals stall in silence. The issue is not complexity. It is a misunderstanding of how decisions actually happen inside organisations.
The Myth Sellers Still Operate Under
Most sellers are trained to find a champion, someone who believes, pushes internally, and gets the deal done. That approach worked when organisations were simpler. Today, champions are constrained. They carry influence, not authority. They manage risk as much as outcomes, and they protect credibility inside their organisations. When sellers overload a single champion, deals do not move faster. They slow down.
How Buying Committees Really Behave
Committees rarely decide together in one moment. They decide sequentially, often in separate conversations. Operations looks at disruption, Finance looks at risk exposure, IT looks at security, and leadership looks at reputation. Each group evaluates the same decision through a different lens. Progress happens only when these lenses converge. Selling to committees is not about persuasion. It is about orchestration.
Why Committees Slow Decisions
Decisions slow when risks are discussed privately but not resolved collectively, when trade-offs are understood by some stakeholders but not others, and when one group feels forced to absorb consequences for another. In these moments, silence replaces objection. Buyers stop responding and meetings lose momentum. Sellers often assume disinterest. In reality, buyers are trying to protect alignment.
The Seller’s New Role: Alignment Architect
High-performing sellers do not push decisions forward. They hold them together.
They help committees surface unspoken concerns, translate value across functions, and anticipate where consensus may break. Instead of asking who signs this off, they explore where the decision could become uncomfortable internally.
That shift changes everything.
A Moment From The Field
I remember a conversation with a client sponsoring a transformation initiative. On paper, the decision looked straightforward and the business leader was fully on board. But beneath the surface, Operations feared disruption, Finance worried about sunk cost, and IT was concerned about long-term ownership. The seller who pushed urgency lost credibility. The seller who facilitated alignment won trust. They created space for concerns, helped sequence internal conversations, and provided language for trade-offs. The committee moved.
What This Means for Sales Teams
Selling to committees requires different skills: broader listening, better framing, and slower pacing at critical moments. Teams that master committee selling reduce deal slippage, improve forecast reliability, and strengthen buyer relationships. They do not rely on pressure. They rely on clarity.
A Self-check for Sellers
Before your next multi-stakeholder deal, ask
whether you have mapped all perspectives or only the loudest one
whether you understand which risks matter to whom
whether you are helping the buyer align or asking them to do it alone.
The answers reveal why deals move, or don’t.
In Leenna’s View
From what she sees, committees are not a hurdle. They are a signal of decision maturity. Sellers who learn to work with committees, not around them, build deeper trust and longer-term value. Alignment closes more deals than persuasion ever did.
In Mike’s View
Selling to buying committees across Asia Pacific, I have found three other key components that lead to orchestrating and aligning committee members to come to mutually beneficial decisions among themselves and the seller to move the sale forward:
Sellers who communicate well with different buyer personalities and motivators earn quicker trust with the buying committee. I prefer to train sellers using the DISC sales communication profile so sellers understand their own communication style and then how to adapt and communicate to serve different personalities.
Linked to the seller’s ability to communicate is their “Emotional Intelligence.” Self and social awareness, combined with self and social regulation helps sellers with maturity and patience with different buying personas.
Learning how to align different buyer needs/motivators is crucial as Leenna mentioned earlier. Xerox Learning Systems taught me this years ago: focus on uncovering and satisfying the “Need behind the Need” for each committee member. These needs may be Finance, Productivity, Image, Safety, Order, or Affiliation. These motivators must be satisfied by different product benefits as “one size does not fit all” in selling to committees.
Thank you Leenna for your insights! She can be found in LinkedIn by clicking here. Hopefully we will hear more from her as 2026 progresses.
Michael J Griffin
CEO & Founder of ELAvate
Global Sales Productivity Consultant/Trainer
TTISI DISC EQ Sales Coach
michael.griffin@elavateglobal.com
+65-91194008 (WhatsApp)