Overview
Admin-Managed Buying Teams give D&B Hoovers Site Administrators a centralized way to define which types of contacts are most relevant to their users and how they are highlighted in the D&B Hoovers application.
Admins can create reusable Buying Team templates and make them available to all users, User Groups, or specified users across their site. This allows organizations to establish a consistent contact strategy without requiring each user to independently research and configure their own Buying Team.
An assigned Buying Team will influence the contacts highlighted in SmartFeed recommendations and can also be used across Contact Search, contact lists, and contacts displayed on a Company Summary.
Why use Admin-Managed Buying Teams?
Different sellers may need to reach similar types of decision-makers or influencers. For example, a sales organization targeting IT buyers could create a Buying Team containing roles such as:
- CIO
- CTO
- Information Technology leaders
- Information Security leaders
- Job titles with keywords describing specific technologies or initiatives
Rather than asking every seller to create that configuration independently, a Site Admin can configure the Buying Team centrally and assign it to the applicable users or User Groups.
These features provide D&B Hoovers Admins with a scalable way to standardize contact targeting while allowing users to personalize which Buying Team they use as their default.
Managing Buying Teams
Accessing Buying Team administration
Users granted administrative access to their D&B Hoovers site have a Buying Team Management section within the Administration menu. If you are an Admin, look for the gear icon in the top navigation bar to access the Administration menu.
Buying Team Management allows an Admin to see the Buying Teams they have created, and the Users or User Groups associated with each one. Selecting a Buying Team provides access to its assignment information.
A site can have a maximum of 50 Site-Level Buying Teams.
Creating a Buying Team
When configuring a Buying Team, the Admin is expected to create a contact search template using words and phrases that often appear in the job title of a key decision maker or influencer in sales discussions.
For the best results, use the Title Contains field by itself or the Job Function / Contact Level fields in combination. Requiring specific keywords along with job function or seniority is needlessly restrictive and will prevent you from seeing interesting prospects on your SmartFeed and across D&B Hoovers.
If your Buying Team is too specific, the number of contacts returned by the template could be restricted to the companies in your Territory with an employee matching your configuration. If your Buying Team settings are too broad, you may see Buying Team Highlights for contacts that are not ideal for outreach.
After creating the Buying Team, the Admin can use it as a centrally managed configuration and assign it to the appropriate users or groups.
Example
An Admin might create:
Buying Team: Enterprise Technology Decision Makers
with criteria designed to identify contacts such as CIOs, CTOs and senior IT decision-makers. The Admin could then assign that Buying Team to the Enterprise Sales User Group.
Assigning Buying Teams
Admins can distribute their configured Buying Teams as a site-wide Global Default, to selected D&B Hoovers users, or to all users added to a User Group.
Some users may have an existing default Buying Team or alternate Buying Teams saved in their Preferences. Assigning a Buying Team to these users will not delete or transform their existing Buying Teams. Rather, a new Buying Team will be inserted alongside any others that may exist and additionally made the default. The user can choose to revert to a different default Buying Team if they prefer not to use the Admin-assigned default.
These methods can be used to assign a Buying Team:
- Site-wide default: Admins can also establish a Buying Team as a global default for site users, including both current and future users. This option is useful when most users at an organization pursue the same types of contacts.
- Selected users: A Buying Team can be assigned to multiple individual users selected one by one. Once assigned, the Buyer Team becomes available to those users and is initially configured as their default.
- User Groups: Admins can assign a Buying Team to members of one or more User Groups. This makes it possible to align Buying Teams with different selling motions or organizational structures.
For example:
- Enterprise Sales → Enterprise Buying Team
- Financial Services → Banking Buying Team
- Technology Sales → IT Decision-Maker Buying Team
For more information about defining User Groups, view this knowledge base article.
How default Buying Teams work
Users can have access to multiple Buying Teams, but only one operates as their default at a time.
The guiding rule is:
The most recently assigned or selected default Buying Team becomes the user's active default.
This applies whether the latest default originates from an Admin or from the user's own selection.
For example:
- A user receives the site's global default Buying Team.
- The Admin directly assigns a different Buying Team to that user.
- The direct assignment becomes the new default.
- The user later selects a personal Buying Team as their default.
- The user's selection becomes the active default.
The user can switch between defaults if they choose by clicking the star icon to the right of the Buying Team on the User Preferences > Personalization tab. For example, a seller might want to target a Buying Team configured to find influencers early in the month, and a different Buying Team configured to find decision makers late in the month. While only one Buying Team can be set as the default at a moment in time, the user has control over which one is in effect no matter what the Admin may have applied.
Multiple User Groups
A user may belong to multiple User Groups, each potentially associated with different Buying Teams.
If multiple defaults apply, the most recently assigned default takes effect. Any other Buying Teams assigned in the context of another User Group will remain available for the user to select or apply as a default.
What users experience
Admin-assigned Buying Teams
Buying Teams assigned by a Site Admin are centrally managed, which means users can apply these Buying Teams to their D&B Hoovers experience, but they cannot edit or delete the Admin-managed configuration.
This ensures that an organization's standard Buying Team definition remains consistent for everyone to whom it has been assigned.
If the Admin later changes the centrally managed Buying Team, those changes are reflected for users who have been assigned that Buying Team. For example, the Admin may select a Buying Team and add new keywords describing contacts ideal for outreach, and all users with that Buying Team set as their default will see those changes reflected on their SmartFeed and elsewhere in the D&B Hoovers application.
Choosing a different default
An Admin assigning a Buying Team does not permanently lock the user to that default. All available Buying Teams appear can be seen at User Preferences → Personalization and the default is marked with a star icon.
Users are free to select another available Buying Team and mark it as their default, overriding the Admin-selected default for their own experience.
This provides a balance between centrally managed targeting and individual personalization.
Existing personal Buying Teams
Assigning an Admin-managed Buying Team does not delete a user's existing Buying Team.
If an existing personal Buying Team was previously the user's default, it remains available as a non-default Buying Team after the Admin-managed Buying Team becomes the new default.
The user can subsequently choose it again as their default if appropriate.
Where the default Buying Team is used
The active Buying Team is designed to influence several D&B Hoovers experiences:
- SmartFeed: The user's default Buying Team influences the contacts surfaced through SmartFeed, so our recommendations are focused on the organization's targeting strategy.
- Contact Search: Buying Teams can be applied on the Contact Search & Build A List to quickly filter results to contacts matching the template. Look for the Select Buying Teams drop-down at the top of the page and locate the default with a star to the left of its label.
- Company Summary: Buying Team criteria can also be used when working with contacts on a Company's Summary experience. Look for the Limit to Buying Team drop-down in the toolbar when viewing a list of company contacts and locate the default with a star to the left of its label.
Together, these integrations allow organizations to use the same targeting concept across multiple contact-discovery workflows.
Removing or changing assignments
Admins can remove assignments or delete Site-Level Buying Teams. When a Site-Level Buying Team is deleted or a user is unassigned from it, D&B Hoovers attempts to fall back to the user's previously selected default Buying Team when one is available.
In some circumstances, a user may therefore have no default Buying Team when they have never previously configured a Buying Team, and none has been assigned by the Admin. This feature is designed so that D&B Hoovers continues to operate normally in this state rather than requiring every user to have a default.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can the Admin create a Buying Team for multiple users?
Yes. Admins can configure a Buying Team once and assign it to multiple users, User Groups, or broadly across the site.
Can a user change an Admin-assigned Buying Team?
Users cannot edit or delete the centrally managed Buying Team itself. They can choose another available Buying Team as their personal default or create a new one.
What happens to a user's existing Buying Team when an Admin assigns another one?
The existing Buying Team is retained. It can remain available to the user even when it is no longer the active default.
Which Buying Team takes precedence when multiple defaults have been applied over time?
The most recently assigned or selected default wins. This includes Admin assignments and subsequent selections made by the user.
What happens if a user belongs to multiple User Groups?
If different defaults are applied through multiple groups, the most recently assigned default takes effect.
Can users see Buying Teams assigned by their Admin?
Yes. Admin-assigned Buying Teams are available in User Preferences → Personalization, where users can also choose which available Buying Team they want as their default.
What happens when an Admin updates a Buying Team?
Changes to the centrally managed Buying Team are reflected across all users who have been assigned that Buying Team.
Is there a limit to the number of Admin-managed Buying Teams?
Yes. The feature enforces a maximum of 50 site-level Buying Teams per site.
Does every user have to maintain a default Buying Team?
No. Certain assignment or deletion scenarios can result in a user having no default Buying Team, and the product is designed to continue functioning in that state. However, users without a default Buying Team will not see recommended contacts in their prioritized SmartFeed on the D&B Hoovers homepage, so maintaining a Buying Team is considered a best practice for all users.