In B2B marketing, the “buying committee” is frequently reduced to a collection of titles on a slide. Marketers meticulously map out the CEO, CFO, and CTO, often treating them as static personas rather than real individuals navigating complex pressures, evolving workflows, and rigorous decision-making criteria.
But as John Wilkes, Co-Founder of Somebody Digital, points out in a recent episode of the B2B Influx podcast, these stakeholders are far more than just roles in a deck. “In B2B software and tech marketing, we often talk about the buying committee… but to the marketing team trying to reach them, those stakeholders don’t always feel like real people. They stay as titles on a slide or a persona in a deck.”
To understand this gap, John recently sat down with guest speaker Felipe Stark — a seasoned CTO and former CEO with a background in electrical engineering — to dissect how technical leaders actually evaluate software and identify where traditional marketing often misses the mark.
The CTO’s Primary Focus: Building vs. Buying
One of the most common misconceptions about the CTO role is that they are primarily “buyers” of technology. In reality, a CTO’s first instinct is often to build. “Most people assume that a CTO is much more involved in buying technology or in the decision-making of those vendors,” says Felipe. “But at the end, we’re much more focused on producing software, building something from the ground up.”
For B2B marketers, this means the primary competition isn’t always another vendor; it is often the internal engineering team. When a CTO evaluates a third-party solution, they are constantly navigating the “build vs. buy” dilemma. Stark observes that “techies tend to… always think that they can build [it] themselves.” To secure their buy-in, vendors must demonstrate how a partnership provides a strategic advantage that far outweighs the long-term cost and effort of internal development.
The New Standard: UX and API Connectivity
When a CTO does decide to look at vendors, their criteria have shifted significantly in recent years. While non-technical users might focus on features, Stark emphasizes two critical pillars: User Experience (UX) and API Connectivity.
- UX is a Productivity Multiplier
Even for technical products, the visual and functional experience matters. Stark argues that a seamless UX makes people happy, and “happy people are more productive in the end.”
- The “Age of Agents” and API Maturity
In the era of AI, a closed system is a dead system. Stark is adamant that data silos are no longer acceptable. “If you use a system where the data is completely in silos, it’s not going to cut it in the age of agents that we live right now. So, you do have to have a very good API if you use that,” he notes.
When researching vendors, Stark’s first stop is often the technical documentation. He shares an example of discovering a CRM called Folk through AI research: “I went to their website, checked their API documentation, and then it was clear for me what they were doing… then I could make a decision.”
How to Win Over the Technical Stakeholder
If you want to influence a CTO, traditional “message-only” marketing isn’t enough. Here are three actionable takeaways from the conversation:
- Show, Don’t Just Tell
CTOs are moving away from marketing fluff. They want to see the product in action, specifically how it integrates and how quickly it can be set up. Stark reinforces this notion: “We’re moving away from a message only and much more, ‘Show me, show me what you can actually do.’ I think that video formats are a good way forward.”
- Bring a Technical Person to the Sales Call
One of the biggest bottlenecks in B2B sales is the gap between a non-technical salesperson and a technical buyer. Stark agrees that bringing an engineer or technical lead into early conversations is a “win-win.” It allows for immediate answers to technical questions and helps the vendor’s team understand the real-world problems the customer is facing.
- Factor in the “Intrinsic Value” of Training
A CTO doesn’t just look at the price tag on the contract. They look at the total cost of ownership, including the “learning curve” for the team. “Whenever you buy something, it’s never the value that you see up front. You have to calculate all the intrinsic value of it. And training is definitely one of them,” says Stark.
The Final Word: Leverage Technological Shifts
The B2B landscape is currently in a state of flux, driven largely by the rapid advancement of AI. For marketers and sales teams, this disruption is your greatest opportunity.
As Felipe Stark concludes: “Use the opportunity that technological changes bring because that’s where you have an edge, and that’s when you have a huge way in to any organization.”
For B2B marketers, the message is clear: Stop selling to personas and start solving for the real-world technical and operational challenges that leaders like Felipe Stark face every day.
To hear the full conversation and gain more insights into the B2B buying committee, listen to the B2B Influx podcast at somebodydigital.com.
