Want to Increase the Value of Buyer Personas? Here’s 5 Ways.
In the last edition of this newsletter, we described why an actionable Buyer Persona must include insights about the specific buying decision you want to influence to be useful to marketers and sellers. Describing characteristics of an individual or role involved in the decision process is NOT enough.?
Taken a step deeper, there are 5 Rings of Buying InsightTM ?within the buying decision that will inform every marketing and sales decision you make, including what you need to communicate to prospective buyers (messaging), who you should communicate it to (targeting), plus where and when buyers are looking for your content (buyer’s journey).
Let’s take a close look at each of the 5 Rings to understand what each insight is, and why they’re so important to your marketing and sales efforts.
Priority Initiative
What Is It?
Priority Initiative insights explain the most compelling reason(s) that buyers begin to evaluate a solution like yours. It’s the trigger event or conditions that cause a buyer to look for a solution NOW while others (even those with similar needs), are content with the status quo. These triggers could include personal or organizational circumstances. Consider a digital solution to support hybrid events (in-person and remote attendees).?Examples of a Priority Initiative that triggers the search could include:
Why Is It Important?
Because Priority Initiatives insights describe in detail why an organization allocates their time, budget, or political capital to purchase a solution like yours, you’ll know when buyers are receptive to hearing from you and which roles are triggering the decision to make this investment.?
Marketers use this insight to define and execute marketing strategies that resonate with buyers at the earliest stages in their decision. By demonstrating that you understand their situation, you also take the first step in developing a buyer’s trust and positioning yourself as a market leader.
Success Factors
What Is It?
Success Factors insights describe the results that buyers expect from purchasing a solution like yours. Success factors resemble benefits or outcomes from the buyer’s perspective – what THEY expect to achieve.?Examples of Success Factors for a hybrid event solution could include:
Why Is It Important?
Success Factor insights eliminate the need for marketing to guess or reverse-engineer messaging based on your solution’s capabilities.?These insights enable more targeted content plus the certainty that prospects are motivated to buy a solution that delivers these benefits.
For example, where you might be emphasizing your solution’s ability to reduce expenses, Success Factor insights could tell you that your buyers are more motivated to achieve one company-wide, centralized solution.?Your unique clarity about the outcomes buyers expect from a centralized solution will ensure that you tailor this message to your buyers’ mindset.?
Perceived Barriers
What Is It?
Perceived Barrier insights reveal the fears and concerns that cause buyers to prefer the status quo, and why they perceive a competitor’s solution as a better fit for their needs. This insight identifies everything that eliminates providers from consideration as buyers narrow down their options. Examples of Perceived Barriers for a hybrid event solution could include:
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Why Is It Important?
Perceived Barrier insights are sometimes overlooked by marketing – why focus on the negative? But wait! If you’re able to directly address a prospective buyer’s top concerns, this could be your best opportunity to differentiate your solution from everyone else’s.
For example, if a Perceived Barrier insight describes the buyer’s belief that most of their users are non-technical and that they’re concerned about the implementation time, you could deliver videos and customer stories emphasizing your ease of use.?The insight would reveal the details about this concern so that you can create content that addresses a top buyer concern.
Once companies identify Perceived Barriers, we often see them develop Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) and sales support assets that directly address a buyer’s top concerns.
Decision Criteria
What Is It?
Decision Criteria insights reveal the specific company and solution capabilities that matter to buyers as they evaluate your ability to deliver success.?These insights are the questions that buyers are asking throughout the buying journey.?Marketers are frequently surprised that cost is a small part of their buyer’s Decision Criteria, and that buyers explore their solution’s features and company capabilities in such detail during the buying journey.?Examples of Decision Criteria for a hybrid event solution could include:
Why Is It Important?
Decision Criteria help marketers escape the trap of benefits-only marketing that sounds just like their competitor’s. Companies that communicate relevant and straightforward answers to a buyer’s most important questions will gain their trust and win their business. You’ll see how to focus on the capabilities that have the most impact on your buyer’s decision, delivering proof that your company is best qualified to deliver the benefits buyers want.?
Remember that in high stakes buying decisions, buyers are looking at multiple options and it’s often confusing to make direct comparisons.?By directly addressing your buyer’s questions, you will make the buying decision easier and instill confidence in choosing you.
Buyer’s Journey
What Is It?
Buyer’s Journey insights reveals the behind-the-scenes story about the work your buyers do to evaluate options, eliminate contenders, and settle on their final choice.?These insights include who is involved in the buying decision, the specific work your buyers must do at each step, plus?the information sources they use and trust. Examples of Buyers Journey insights for a hybrid event solution could include:
Why Is It Important?
Buyer’s Journey insights enable you to align your marketing and sales activities to the most influential buyers at each phase of their decision, with an emphasis on the resources that matter most to them.?While the first four Rings of Insight will inform your content and messaging, this last Ring specifies who you should communicate to, how, and where.
We call these the 5 Rings of Buying Insight because they work together to deliver confidence that every one of your sales and marketing activities will deliver value to buyers and help you win more business.
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Thank you for reading this edition of Buyer Persona Buzz. I hope you enjoyed the topic, and we welcome your comments and suggestions.
Here are some other ways to access insights about your target buyers:
Jim Kraus - a colleague of mine at work shared your article with me and this immediately clicked into place for me and was put to use in some buyer journey interviews. Thank you!
?? Regional Vice President of Sales | Passionate about Growth, Sales & Marketing | ?? Championing Process Automation with DocuWare | ?? Partner with me to scale your DocuWare business to 1 million+.
2 年Jim thank you for sharing. In my team we call the Success Factors Value. We reference problem with how our solution helps them to address it and what's the real value behind this. At the beginning it was difficult for us to map this. But the longer we tried the easier it got. Recently David interviewed one of existing clients and discussed what we worked out in the workshop. Because of this we found out new problems and values which we were not aware of. Plus we discovered that some of the values were not that high on priority list of the customer.
Very helpfu… thanks Jim Kraus