The Hidden Costs of Neglecting Buying Group Automation in Salesforce

B2B buying decisions are no longer made in isolation. A C-suite executive responsible for purchases ranging from several thousand to multi-million dollars operates within a network of influencers, champions, and decision-makers. Yet, many companies still rely on outdated sales methods, failing to engage the full buying group effectively. 

The result? Lost opportunities, stalled deals, and misattributed marketing efforts. 

Neglecting Opportunity Contact Roles and not automating them in Salesforce doesn’t just slow down sales—it creates hidden inefficiencies that impact revenue, customer retention, and GTM strategies. 

This article explores the actual cost of ignoring buying group automation and why modernization is the need of the hour.

Risks of Ignoring Buying Group Automation

Companies that neglect automation to associate the right contact roles with Opportunities to build a buying group run the risk of lower opportunity win rates, slower sales cycles, poor adoption, and even churn. 

1. Revenue Impact and Lost Opportunities
   Without opportunity contact role automation in Salesforce, sales teams might miss adding key stakeholders, leading to stalled opportunities and lost revenue. 81% of sellers have lost deals due to stakeholder turnover. Tracking and updating contact roles manually slows sales cycles, increasing the risk of competitors engaging decision-makers first.
   
2. Misattributed Marketing ROI
   When buying group members aren’t linked to opportunities, Marketing’s impact goes untracked, leading to potential budget cuts for effective campaigns and programs. Incomplete attribution skews data, causing poor investment decisions and misalignment with revenue goals.
   
3. Customer Retention Risks
   Missing key stakeholders post-sale leads to low adoption and increased churn. Automating buying group tracking ensures customer success teams engage decision-makers for renewals and upsells, improving retention.
   
4. Operational Inefficiencies
   When sales teams assign contact roles manually, it can be painstaking to find the right contacts and, in some cases, find the right lead records and convert them into contacts. This results in opportunities with no (or limited) contact roles, wasted resources, and a distraction for sellers from what they’re supposed to do i.e. selling. 

The Path Forward: Buying Group Automation in Salesforce

The risk of neglecting Buying Group Automation compounds over time as B2B buying becomes increasingly complex, and sales cycles become longer. Organizations can solve this by:

1. Automating Contact Role Management in Salesforce
   Automating contact role assignment brings a plethora of benefits and eliminates the above issues by:
   • Dynamically associating contacts with opportunities based on engagement, job role, and account history.
   • Applying customizable rules to update Contact Roles as deals progress.
   • Ensuring visibility for sales, marketing, and customer success teams, improving coordination and deal execution.
2. Establishing Buying Group Engagement Processes
   Along with automation, teams also need structured engagement workflows to maximize impact. This includes:
   • Standardized playbooks to engage decision-makers, champions, and influencers at the right time with the right message
   • Marketing and Sales alignment strategies to ensure all campaign-engaged contacts are tied to opportunities.
3. Training Sales Teams on Contact Role Management
   Without proper training, automation can not be fully adopted. To train teams:
   • Educate sales reps on why managing the right contacts improves deal progression and win rates.
   • Implement guided flows in Salesforce, making it easy for reps to identify and assign missing Contact Roles.
   • Enhance reporting and visibility, ensuring sales teams can easily track engaged stakeholders, understand buying group influence, and make data-driven decisions within Salesforce.
4. Metrics & Accountability
   Tracking the impact of buying group automation ensures continuous optimization. Key metrics to track include:
   • Opportunity forecasting in Salesforce: Track the percentage of opportunities that convert into closed-won deals.
      
   • Deal Velocity: Measure the time taken to close deals to track improvements post automation. 
     
   • Contact Role Accuracy: Measure the % of opportunities with correctly assigned stakeholders.
     
     

Regular CRM audits, peer reviews, and automated reports maintain data quality and optimize engagement strategies.

By implementing RevOps Global’s Buying Group Automation, businesses reduce administrative overhead, increase marketing attribution accuracy, and accelerate revenue growth—all while ensuring sales teams engage the right stakeholders at the right time.

A B2B SaaS company, a leader in web content operations, leveraged RevOps Global’s Buying Group Automation to enhance visibility into key stakeholders, streamline sales and marketing alignment, and improve revenue attribution. The results:

• 60% more Contact Roles per Opportunity, ensuring full stakeholder engagement.
• 48% reduction in unassigned Contact Roles, eliminating data gaps.
• 71% increase in marketing-attributed influenced opportunities, proving marketing ROI.

Unlock Higher Win Rates, Faster Deal Cycles, and Improved Sales Efficiency

By neglecting buying group automation in Salesforce, businesses risk inefficiencies, lost revenue, and poor customer retention. As the B2B buying process grows more complex, organizations must adopt automation to track stakeholders, drive deal success, and and maximize revenue opportunities.

RevOps Global’s Buying Group Automation helps companies eliminate these challenges, ensuring complete stakeholder engagement, accurate marketing attribution, and accelerated revenue growth. Don’t let outdated processes hold your business back—book a demo with our team and take the first step toward smarter, more efficient sales operations.