B2B buying is rarely a solo sport. Significant purchases involve a group of stakeholders who see risk and value differently. Some hold the budget and final say; others define requirements, shortlist vendors and can quietly veto a deal.

If your marketing treats “the company” as a single buyer, you’ll keep running into long sales cycles, surprise objections and stalled deals. The fix is not just “personalization.” It’s to design parallel but connected journeys for primary and secondary decision-makers.

Here’s a practical step-by-step guide.

Step 1: Define who is primary vs. secondary for each offering.

Start by mapping stakeholders with each major product or solution, so your go-to-market is aligned with what you’re selling. Be specific. Who signs the contract or approves the PO? Who could kill the deal at the last minute? If they can do either, they deserve their own marketing path.

Primary decision-makers: The people who own the budget and the final “yes/no.” 

• CFO, COO, CIO, VP of Operations, VP of Sales
• Business unit leaders or P&L owners

Secondary decision-makers and influencers: The people who shape requirements, build the shortlist or can veto.

• Day-to-day users
• IT and security
• Operations leaders
• Procurement and legal
• Regional or plant managers

Step 2: Build distinct profiles and value propositions.

Once you’ve identified the roles, move beyond generic personas and define role-specific value. This clarity is what enables your content, campaigns, and sales enablement to feel tailored instead of generic.

Focus on business outcomes for primary decision-makers. 

Your value proposition needs to prove real business impact with minimal risk.

• What metrics matter most? (e.g., revenue growth, margin, throughput, utilization and risk reduction)
• What objections do they raise? (What’s the ROI? What’s the risk if we switch? How disruptive will this be?)
• What proof do they trust? (ROI models, peer case studies, benchmarks and third-party validation)

Focus on day-to-day realities for secondary decision-makers.

Your value proposition needs to prove how your solution will impact their daily tasks. 

• What pain points do they experience? (e.g., areas of friction, manual processes)
• What are “must-have” requirements? (e.g., integrations, usability, workflow fit, reporting, data controls)
• What risks do they worry about? (e.g., extra workload, broken processes, support burden, compliance issues)

Step 3: Create role-specific content for each buying stage.

After creating profiles for each role, it’s time to evaluate their unique buying stages. Both primary and secondary decision-makers go through a journey—but they don’t need the same assets at each step.

Early stage: Problem/solution awareness.

The goal is to help each role name the problem and see why it matters—to the business and to their daily work.

• Primary decision-makers: trend reports, benchmark data, short-form videos on industry risks, blog posts about the cost of inaction
• Secondary decision-makers: how‑to guides, best-practice checklists, technical explainers, use-case overviews

Middle stage: Evaluation.

The goal is to make it easy for teams to move from “this might help” to “this vendor fits how we work.”

• Primary decision-makers: vendor comparison sheets, case studies, tailored ROI insights, one-page value-prop summaries by function to simplify internal alignment
• Secondary decision-makers: product demos or feature deep-dives, integration guides, technical capabilities, FAQs about implementation and training

Late stage: Decision and risk reduction.

At this stage, both groups are close to committing—but they have different last-mile questions. If each role sees their concerns addressed, the less likely deals are to stall.

• Primary decision-makers: live demos tied to their KPIs, free consultations, implementation timelines, resource expectations and risk mitigation
• Secondary decision-makers: detailed implementation plans, security/compliance documentation, and training resources that reduce anxiety about the change

Step 4: Use data to segment and personalize outreach.

As your database grows, you’re likely working with multiple contacts per account. Use that to your advantage. Segment contacts by job role, seniority, department, and company industry, size or region. The goal is to create emails and content relevant for each role.

Then, using a marketing automation platform, such as HubSpot, you can create role-specific workflows.

• For executives: High-value strategic, ROI- and risk-focused nurtures.
• For users and technical stakeholders: Deeper educational, how‑to and feature-focused nurtures.
• You can also trigger role-specific messaging when certain pages are visited (e.g., security or pricing pages) or when contacts engage with specific content.

Step 5: Equip champions with internal selling tools.

Very often, your strongest advocate is not the person who signs. That’s why secondary decision-makers need tools to advocate for you inside the organization. If you don’t provide tools, your champion will still sell your solution internally—but with inconsistent or incomplete messaging.

Create simple, shareable assets.

This helps prevent deals from stalling when other stakeholders weigh in late.

• Short internal pitch decks (5–7 slides) that champions can share up the chain.
• One-pagers by role (e.g. ,“What this means for Finance,” “What this means for Operations,” “What this means for IT”)
• Email templates or talking points champions can adapt for their leadership teams.

Step 6: Measure and optimize.

Finally, measure how effectively you’re engaging each role. Look at which content offers convert executives vs. non-executives, which roles are engaging with content at early, middle and late stages, and where deals most often stall. Could projects be blocked by IT or compliance? Do users push back during pilots?

Use those insights to:

• Add or refine role-specific assets where friction is highest.
• Adjust outreach frequency—fewer, high-value touches for senior leaders; sustained education and support for users and technical teams.
• Tighten handoffs between marketing, sales, and customer success so each role is supported throughout.

Getting started.

Marketing to primary and secondary decision-makers requires a structured, role-aware buying experience. When you do this well, not only do you get in front of the right people—you help the entire buying group move forward together with fewer surprises and stronger internal alignment.