Identifying buying influences for a professional service: Implications for marketing efforts

This study analyzes the structure of a buying center for a professional service—CPA services. The results suggest CPA buying centers are similar in size and in the number of levels of corporate hierachy and functional areas involved to buying centers for other industrial services. Various buying firm characteristics (size, amount of audit fee, presence of an audit committee) were associated with differences in CPA buying center structure. The relationship of the results to prior industrial marketing research and their implications for marketing CPA services are discussed.