Tech Buyer Personas: Who Do You Think You're Talking To?

Tech buyer personas help you segment your audience, map content and create more effective lead nurturing campaigns. But if you only have one or two and are still mainly targeting the IT department, the CIO or the “tech guy” I’ve got news for you. You’re doing it all wrong.  

According to a recent survey 57% of IT buying decisions are now made by committees of IT and non-IT professionals. And by 2020 the Garter Group predict that 80% of all IT spend will be under the control of non-IT functions in the business.

Since IT affects the whole business there are a lot of different interests represented around the table when it comes to making vendor selection or purchase decisions . Each of those decision makers will have different goals, motivations, concerns and perspectives and will need to be communicated with differently.  And then of course, there are the researchers and hidden influencers who also play a key role and cannot be ignored. 

With so many players, marketing and sales teams can no longer target content and communications solely at IT professionals.  Instead, they need a comprehensive strategy for engaging with both the IT and non-IT users in the business.

This strategy needs to be grounded in a deep understanding of the goals and key concerns of each of these buyers, how they and their departments will be affected by the technology, their role in the IT buying process and their content needs at each stage of the buyer’s journey.

For example:

• CEOs are visionaries, focused on the big picture so forget the technical detail when communicating with these buyers! The only thing they’re interested in is how your solution is going to help them deliver better business outcomes, build competitive advantage, make the organisation more agile and resilient and grow their revenues and bottom line profits. They’ll also want to understand the impact on the whole organisation. Get them onside by demonstrating a sophisticated understanding of the company’s overall business objectives and competitive landscape and explain clearly how your solution will create business value and how any potential hurdles can be overcome.
• CFOs are the financial gatekeepers, with responsibility for ensuring a solid business justification for investing in technology and that key business risks are managed effectively. Give them measurable outcomes backed up by hard data and real world examples rather than a vague description of intangible benefits and explain how your solution will help the business make more money, avoid or reduce costs and improve productivity and efficiency if you want to win them over.
• CIOs have a difficult balancing act to pull off between innovating for competitive advantage on the one hand and keeping IT costs as low as possible on the other, all while keeping the lights on and systems, networks and data secure. Be prepared to address their concerns around issues such as integration with legacy systems, data security, scalability, multi-device management and resilience head-on with hard proof in the form of case studies and third party content backed up with plenty of technical detail.
• When speaking to business users focus on how your solution will affect the way they do their jobs (for example, how will it help them save time and effort and be more efficient) and provide reassurance around key user concerns such as ease of use, training and post-sale support. Help them sell the solution to their teams and bosses by arming them with case studies, stats and key talking points.

By tailoring your content and messaging to each of these groups you’ll be better able to help them navigate the buyer’s journey and position your solution as the answer to their problems.

Reviewing your buyer personas is a great place to start. Here’s a useful resource to get the ball rolling…