Four Parties in Every Sale

Last week, I did a deep dive into this topic as part of #Cumasu, a specialised programme for female entrepreneurship in the Gaeltacht and perhaps it could be of help to you too.

I gave the example of how we thought about this when writing the Leaving Cert economics textbook with EdCo as our publisher.

The BUYER is the decision maker and they ultimately determine if the sale happens. In our #EconomicsInOurWorld case, the buyer was absolutely the teacher. They needed to want to put it on the book list. We needed to make the book exam-focused, thoroughly cover the syllabus, give lots of questions for homework, include examples for context and add in meaningful teacher resources.

The BUDGET PROVIDER is the party who pays. In this example, it used to be parents and now it can be the school. They simply needed to get what they needed where they wanted it. EdCo’s distribution network took care of that.

The USER is the party that uses or consumes the product. In our case, it was the student. We created accessible characters who were navigating stories using economic concepts backed up with student friendly design, lots of colour, simple explanations, extensive question practise (split into Ordinary and Higher Level) and links to interactive learning tools.

The INFLUENCER helps the BUYER make their decision. In our case, this was the EdCo sales team. They’re tasked with selling lots of books across different subjects, so we needed to give them the differentiating features, what was in the “flick factor”, the online support for schools with more device usage, how this one was an upgrade from the last etc.

So when it comes to designing your own messaging and even before that, building your product, think through each of the four parties who are part of your buying process.

Thank you to Michelle Lee for the opportunity to work with this new cohort right across the West of Ireland.

Maria Staunton John Magee