Keeping It Simple
The fastest, simplest ways to grow your business - no jargon, no fluff. Practical strategies that actually work for SME owners in the USA, New Zealand, and worldwide.
Monday, October 05, 2026
There is no single best business coach in the USA. Here are five criteria for choosing one, a fair look at the main formats, and why an outside perspective can change what you see in your own business.
You had the perfect call. The buyer nodded, asked good questions, said it sounded exactly like what they needed, and then the deal went quiet.
If that pattern feels familiar, the problem is almost never your pitch. It is that the person you pitched to was never the only person deciding, and you had no plan for the room you could not see.
The Single-Buyer Fantasy
Most SME sales processes are still built around the idea of one decision maker. Research based on Gartner's buying committee studies found that B2B buying groups have grown sharply, from an average of around 5.4 stakeholders in 2015 to between 8 and 13 stakeholders by 2023, depending on deal size and complexity, nearly doubling in less than a decade. Every one of those extra people can quietly stall a deal your champion alone cannot save.
The Buying Committee Map
You do not need to name every stakeholder to sell to a committee well, you need to know the four roles that show up in almost every SME deal above a certain size.
- 1. The Champion — wants you to win internally, but cannot approve the deal alone.
- 2. The Economic Buyer — feels the price, and whose silent no kills more deals than any objection said out loud.
- 3. The User — will actually live with what you sell, and whose quiet doubts spread fastest.
- 4. The Blocker — often operations, finance or legal, brought in late, equipped with a reason to say not yet.
"Kevin doesn't just present, he electrifies the room and drives massive, real-world value! He drops game-changing insights and actionable shortcuts that show businesses exactly how to turn everyday customers into raving, loyal fans, and acquire new ones faster than ever thought possible."
— Gareth Bayliss, Sales Manager, The Icehouse
Why Salespeople Keep Pitching to One Person
It is faster and more comfortable to build rapport with one enthusiastic champion than to ask who else needs to be convinced, and asking can feel like admitting the deal is not as far along as it seemed. The real obstacle is that nothing forces the question who else is in the room before a deal gets called hot. This is exactly where an outside sales system earns its keep, asking the uncomfortable mapping question before the proposal gets built, not after it stalls.
Quick Wins This Week
- On your next qualifying call, ask directly who else needs to say yes before a contract is signed.
- Ask your champion to name the person who could still say no even if everyone else loves it.
- Build one short, specific answer to the economic buyer's likely objection before they ever see your proposal, instead of after they ask.
Key Takeaways
- B2B buying groups have grown from roughly 5.4 stakeholders in 2015 to 8 to 13 today, per Gartner-based research.
- A single enthusiastic champion cannot carry a deal through a committee you have not mapped.
- Name the champion, the economic buyer, the user and the blocker before you call a deal hot.
- Deals stall in the room you were never invited to, not in the room you pitched.
If a deal has gone quiet after a great conversation, the fix is rarely a better pitch, it is a better map of who else is deciding.
Kevin D’Ambros-Smith
Kevin is the founder of Simple-Growth and a business growth coach with experience at DDB, Ogilvy, and Saatchi & Saatchi. He has co-founded 9 companies, coached 200+ business owners one-on-one, and holds a 9.5/10 NPS. Every article on this blog reflects real-world experience - no theory, no fluff.
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Monday, October 05, 2026
There is no single best business coach in the USA. Here are five criteria for choosing one, a fair look at the main formats, and why an outside perspective can change what you see in your own business.
Monday, October 05, 2026
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