Decision-Maker Research: Finding the Role That Owns the Problem
Titles are a proxy for responsibility, and a poor one. Research the responsibility instead.
7 min read · Updated 2026-01-15
Map the buying group
Most B2B purchases involve several roles. Researching only the most senior title misses the person who scopes the requirement.
Normalise titles across regions
The same responsibility carries different titles by country and company size. Normalisation makes segmentation possible.
Key takeaways
- Job titles are an unreliable proxy for who owns a problem.
- Research the function and the reporting line, then attach the title.
- In smaller companies, ownership sits several levels above the title you expect.
Same title, different job
A marketing manager at a two-hundred-person software business may own budget, tooling and vendor selection. The same title in a large group may own campaign execution only.
Filtering a database by title alone therefore mixes decision-makers with people who cannot act, and the campaign response rate absorbs the difference.
How the responsibility is established
We look at how the company describes the function publicly, where the role sits in the structure, and what the person is visibly accountable for. Company size and structure then adjust the expected level.
The output is a contact mapped to a responsibility, with the title recorded as an attribute rather than as the selection criterion.
Practitioner note: for companies under fifty staff, assume the decision sits with a founder or director until evidence says otherwise.