# Who decides and who pays

> In a small business the user who feels the problem, the decision maker and the economic buyer who pays are often different people. Talk to each in their own terms.

- Course: [From Idea to Profitable Product: Building Without Investors](https://productovi.com/courses/bootstrapped-product.md)
- Module: One repair shop, one problem
- Lesson 6/30, ~25 min
- Source: https://productovi.com/courses/bootstrapped-product/who-decides-who-pays

## A great demo that went nowhere

**Alex Tutor:** Oscar is back from a shop visit and wants advice from the two of us, GarageDesk's mentors.

**Oscar:** I showed the demo at Greg's shop, six bays. His administrator, Martha, loved it. She types reminders to regulars in Viber by hand, about five hours a month.

**Sofia:** Sounds like a win. Did they sign up?

**Oscar:** No. Martha said, “I'll mention it to Greg.” That was a week ago.

**Alex Tutor:** Classic. Martha feels the problem, but she can't spend Greg's money. Greg can, but he doesn't feel the problem: he's never counted those five hours.

**Alex Tutor:** In every sale there are roles: who feels the problem and uses the product, who decides, and who pays. Greg is the **decision maker**, and he also pays, so he's the **economic buyer** too.

![In a repair shop, an administrator sighs over paperwork at the front desk, the owner holds the wallet in the back office and a mechanic under a car holds a tablet.](https://productovi.com/courses/bootstrapped-product/inline/who-decides-who-pays-illustration-2.webp)

*The person who feels the problem is often not the one who can pay for a fix.*

> **Exercise:** Match each person around Greg’s shop with their role in a GarageDesk sale.

## User, decision maker, economic buyer: three roles

**Nina:** And the mechanics? They would use the repair history.

**Alex Tutor:** They're users too, and users can say no without saying a word: if a mechanic won't type in the mileage, the reminders have nothing to go on. They don't buy, but they can quietly block.

**Sofia:** And in Paul's garage?

**Alex Tutor:** Two bays, and Paul is owner and mechanic at once. All three roles sit in one person. That's faster to sell, but he has the least time to listen.

![In Greg's shop Martha feels the problem but Greg decides and pays, so her numbers must reach him; in Paul's two-bay garage one person holds all three roles.](https://productovi.com/courses/bootstrapped-product/diagrams/m2-l2-three-roles.png)

*The user makes the problem real; the decision maker says yes or no.*

**Oscar:** So in bigger shops I need to meet two people, not one.

> **Exercise:** At Greg's six-bay repair shop, the administrator, Martha, loved Oscar's GarageDesk demo and said, “I’ll mention it to Greg.” Greg owns the shop and pays its bills. A week has passed. What should Oscar do next?

**Alex Tutor:** Nina mentioned the mechanics. They don't buy anything, so why should Oscar care?

> **Exercise:** Greg's mechanics would type the mileage and the work done on each car into GarageDesk, but they will neither decide nor pay for it. Why do they still matter to the sale?

## How to talk to the economic buyer and the user

**Sofia:** What do you say to Greg, then? He wasn't even there for the demo.

**Alex Tutor:** Not the features. Greg thinks in cars and money. Martha's five hours are a cost he doesn't see; the regulars who forget and go elsewhere are revenue he doesn't see either.

**Alex Tutor:** Martha, on the other hand, cares about her evenings and fewer awkward calls. Same product, two different reasons to want it.

**Oscar:** So I bring Martha's own numbers to Greg. Better still, I ask Martha to be in the room.

![An administrator stands beside the owner at his desk, showing him a notebook page with a few highlighted rows, while a salesperson listens.](https://productovi.com/courses/bootstrapped-product/inline/who-decides-who-pays-illustration-3.webp)

**Alex Tutor:** Yes. The user makes the problem real; the decision maker turns it into a yes or no.

> **Exercise:** **True or false:** in Paul’s two-bay garage, where Paul is the owner and works under the cars himself, the person who feels the problem, the person who decides and the person who pays are the same person.

**Alex Tutor:** So how should Oscar open the conversation with Greg? Here are two drafts.

> **Exercise:** Greg owns a six-bay repair shop; his administrator, Martha, types service reminders to regulars by hand. Which opening line fits Greg, the owner who decides and pays?

## What it changes in the choice

**Nina:** Does this change which problem we pick?

**Alex Tutor:** It can. A problem only the staff feel and the owner never sees is hard to sell. The best one hurts the owner in money he can count: regulars who forget and don't come back are exactly that.

**Oscar:** Greg did grumble once that he'd lost a few old customers to a new shop across town. He just never counted how many.

**Alex Tutor:** That's the thread to pull. Ask him how many regulars came in last spring and how many of them came back this autumn. The gap is his number, not yours.

**Alex Tutor:** Say Greg does count. Here's what his records might show.

> **Exercise:** Greg's records: **120** regulars came in last spring, and **84** of them came back this autumn. A regular spends about **2,500 UAH** per visit and comes **twice a year**. How much revenue a year leaves with the regulars who didn't come back?

**Sofia:** And the phone chaos with bookings?

**Alex Tutor:** Martha feels it at the desk, Paul feels it under a car. Keep it on the list. Next lesson you check both properly, in one planned week.

> **Exercise:** Which problem would be easiest to sell to Greg, the owner who decides and pays?

## The second visit

**Oscar:** I'm going back to Greg's shop on Saturday. Martha says he's there till noon.

**Sofia:** Can I write what Oscar should say?

**Alex Tutor:** Please. Three or four sentences, in Greg's language: cars, visits, money. No feature list.

**Nina:** And leave the demo for the end, if he asks.

> **Exercise:** Greg owns a six-bay repair shop. His administrator, Martha, spends about five hours a month typing service reminders in Viber, and some regulars still don't come back. Write what Oscar should say to Greg on Saturday, in 3–4 sentences. Use Martha’s numbers and speak Greg’s language (cars, visits, money), not features.

**Sofia:** Is there an order to all this, or does Oscar improvise?

**Alex Tutor:** There's an order, a small B2B buying process. Find who feels it, get their numbers, bring those to whoever decides, then ask the decision maker for a commitment.

**Oscar:** I've been doing it backwards: asking the first person I meet.

**Alex Tutor:** Most people start there. The first person you meet is useful, just rarely the one who signs.

> **Exercise:** Put Oscar’s steps for a shop with an owner and an administrator in order.

> **Key ideas**
>
> - Every sale has roles: who feels the problem and uses the product, who decides, who pays. In a small shop the owner usually decides and pays.
> - A happy user is not a sale: users can't spend the owner's money, but they can quietly block a product by not using it.
> - In a two-bay garage all roles sit in one person: fast to sell, little time to listen.
> - Talk to each role in their terms: the owner in cars, visits and money; the administrator in hours and calls.
> - Prefer problems the payer feels in money he can count.

**Alex Tutor:** Next: a planned week of visits and calls that confirms or kills a problem before any code.

- Previous lesson: [Customer pain points they already pay for](https://productovi.com/courses/bootstrapped-product/a-problem-they-already-pay-for.md)
- Next lesson: [Customer discovery in a week](https://productovi.com/courses/bootstrapped-product/checking-the-problem-in-a-week.md)

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