The basic aspects to be noted about the buying centre are that:
--The influences across the centre can differ from one product category to another.
--The composition itself can differ from one product to another.
--Monitoring the buying centre must be a dynamic process personnel may enter and leave an organisation and hence constant monitoring is required.
--Informal power equations in an organisation are able to affect a buying centre.
--In a smaller organisation the similar employee (as a participant in the buying centre) can play several roles involved in the buying centre. For instance in a small-scale industry the managing director who monitors the stock levels of various needs may initiate the purchase of drill bits and as well select the brand during the purchasing process.
--The composition of the buying centre will differ across the different phases of industrial buying. This denotes that the buying centre which faces the marketer during the pre-sale phase can be different from the one which deals with the same marketer after the sale of the product is over. An organisation marketing computers will countenance financial executives corporate planning and perhaps the departmental heads of respective departments where the computer is intended to be used during the pre-sale phase. The similar organisation may have to work with the training department of the buyer organisation subsequent to the sale is over.
John R. Devincentis as well as Neil Rackham in their article Breadth of a Salesman (The McKinsey Quarterly 1998) highlight the significance of the changing sales function.