What you'll learn
By the end of this lesson you can turn a buying committee map into a one-page stakeholder brief for each person, use an AI assistant to draft it from sources you supply, and mark what you know, what you infer and what you must not guess.
Where the brief sits
The map tells you who is on the committee. The brief tells you what to do with each person. You write it after the map, never before, because you cannot brief someone you have not named.
If you have not built the map yet, start with Mapping the Buying Committee and the free Buying Committee Mapper. The Buying Committee Map template has the nine roles to look for.
The sources come from the lesson before this one: Sources First, Prompts Second. Here the sources are about one person, and the output is a page you can read in two minutes before a call.
What one brief holds
Keep it to one page. If it runs longer, you are writing a profile, and nobody reads a profile before a call.
| Section | The question it answers | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Role in the decision | Why does this person matter to the deal? | One line, from the map |
| What they have said | What are their own words on this topic? | Quote, with source and date |
| What they probably care about | What might matter to them, given their job? | Label it as inference |
| What to say first | What is the one thing worth opening with? | Tied to something they said |
| What not to say | What would land badly or wrongly? | Anything you cannot source |
| What we do not know | What must we ask? | At least two questions |
The last two rows do the most work. A brief that lists only what you know teaches you to talk. A brief that lists what you do not know teaches you to ask.
One-person stakeholder brief
Account: [company]
Person: [name], [title as of date]
Role in the decision: [economic buyer / technical buyer / user / other]
Last checked: [date]
What they have said (quote, source, date):
1. "[quote]" ([source], [date])
2. "[quote]" ([source], [date])
What they probably care about (inference, not fact):
[one or two lines]
What to say first:
[one sentence tied to a quote above]
What not to say or guess:
[for example: their view of our category, their budget, who they report to]
What we do not know (ask, do not assume):
1. [question]
2. [question]Collect what the person has said
Use public, professional material about this person and their area:
- Remarks on a results call or in an interview
- A conference talk, a webinar or a published article
- A post on a professional network, in their own words
- The job posts on their team, which show what they are building
- Your own notes from earlier conversations, if any
Save each with the link and the date. Stay with their work. Their family, health, home or anything personal does not belong in a brief, and a buyer who sees it in your message will not reply.
If you find nothing, write that down. "No public statements found" is a useful line. It tells you to open with a question, not a point of view.
Draft with the assistant, from your sources
Give the assistant the template, the sources and one strict rule: use only the sources.
Brief-drafting prompt (paste with your sources)
I am preparing to contact [name], [title] at [company]. Their role in the decision is [role]. I have pasted the sources below, each with a link and a date.
Use only these sources. Do not use anything else you know about this person or company.
Fill in the stakeholder brief template below. Rules:
1. Under "What they have said", use exact quotes only, with the source and date.
2. Put anything you conclude yourself under "What they probably care about" and start it with "Inference:".
3. Under "What not to say or guess", list the things the sources do not support.
4. Under "What we do not know", write the questions I would need answered.
5. If the sources say nothing on a section, write "not in the sources". Do not fill the space.
Template:
[paste the brief template]
Sources:
[paste]Read the result against the sources before you trust it. Every quote must be findable, the date must be right and the person must still hold the job. The next lesson is a full method for that check.
The do not guess list
Some things look obvious and are not. An assistant will state them smoothly, which is the danger. Keep these out of a brief unless a source says them:
- What they think of your category or of the supplier they use today
- Their budget, or whether they hold one
- Who they report to, and what that person thinks
- Why they joined, or why they might leave
- Anything about how they feel
Each of these is a question, not a fact. Put it under "What we do not know". On the call, ask it.
Read the set together
Write a brief for each person you plan to approach, then lay them side by side. Check three things:
- Do they agree? The economic buyer, the user and the technical buyer will say different things about the same programme. Note where.
- Does each get a different opening? The same message to three people is a mailshot, not a conversation.
- Is anyone missing? A seat with no brief is a seat you have not reached. That is your next piece of research.
Update a brief when something changes: a new post, a job move, a reply from someone else on the committee. Put the date at the top. A brief with no date cannot be trusted.
Key takeaways
- Write the brief after the map: one page per person, with their own words, an opening line and a list of what you do not know.
- Give the assistant sources about the person and tell it to use only those. Label every inference.
- Do not guess motives, budgets, reporting lines or feelings. Turn each into a question.
Exercise (40 minutes)
- Pick one Tier 1 account where you have a map with at least three named people. (5 minutes)
- Choose the person you will approach first. Collect two to four sources about them, with links and dates. (15 minutes)
- Run the brief-drafting prompt. Open each source and check every quote. (15 minutes)
- Write the one sentence you would say first, and the two questions you would ask. (5 minutes)
Why this works on named accounts
Put it into practice
Buying Committee Mapper
Map the people behind a decision by role, stance and influence, and see who to approach next. Runs in your browser.
Buying Committee Map
For sellers working a large account through a single contact.
You leave with nine roles to look for, a map you can paste into a spreadsheet, a brief for each person and a coverage check that shows where the account is exposed.
AI Prompts to Personalise by Buying-Committee Role
For sellers who send the same message to every person in an account.
You leave with a fact sheet, 7 prompts, a consistency check and one fact turned into 3 role-specific openings.
15 AI Prompts for Account Research
For sellers who use Claude, ChatGPT or Perplexity to prepare for an account.
You leave with a set-up prompt, 15 research prompts in working order, a fact check that catches invented details and a sample of its output.