Where have all the good customers gone?

The B2B SaaS/SwaS and Professional Services landscape has gotten so crowded that every Linkedin Message and half of my emails are sales pitches.? With so much noise in the marketplace, it’s even hard to find more of your best customers, and everywhere you look is even more expensive for reaching them.? This month’s article will dive into key solutions to find more of your best customers and reach them without wasting money on ads that don’t work.? For those businesses running on EOS (the Entrepreneurial Operating System) this would align with the “Customer” Element of building your Marketing Strategy.

When it comes to understanding and reaching your potential customers there are three proven tools Marketing and Sales Teams have trusted for years.? The first two, the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and the Persona / Avatar of key members of the Buying Committee, specifically, the Champion and the Decision-Maker help us to understand the organizations and the people involved in making a purchase.?? The final tool, the Buyers’ Journey Map helps us to understand the process our potential customers go through in becoming aware of a problem, evaluating options and making a decision.? This understanding reveals opportunities to influence the decision process and win more deals.? Let’s look at each of these.

The Importance of Defining Your ICP

An Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is a foundational element for any effective marketing strategy. An ICP helps identify the characteristics of the companies who are most likely to benefit from your products or services. For SaaS and Professional Services firms, focusing on specific Firmagraphic attributes such as company size, industry, and revenue are common, but including other elements leads to greater success.? Technographic details like other software used, can be helpful in identifying best fit customers, but even more important are Contextual Signals.? Contextual Signals might include things like recent funding events, indicating that the company is in growth mode.? Alternatively, if the industry Sector is shrinking or facing headwinds the company might be looking for ways to save money.? Understanding these contexts are key to quickly identifying if a prospect is likely to become an Ideal Customer or not.? If they are, lean in on the opportunity to ensure you win.

Steps to Create Ideal Customer Profile

1. Generate a report of all clients from the last 24 months.
2. Rank by expenditure
3. Calculate % of Total for each client
4. Create a Column of the Cumulative Total

Look at those accounts that collectively represent 80% of your overall billings (typically about 20% of your total number of accounts).? How are these accounts similar to each other (and different from the other 80%)?? Create a list of Firmographic, Technographic, and Contextual Signals (what brought them to market, what they most appreciate about your solution) and build out your ICP.

Common Mistakes:

●????? Overgeneralization: Trying to target too broad an audience can dilute your marketing effectiveness.

●????? Lack of Specificity: Without precise details, your marketing messages may not resonate with your ideal clients.

Developing Detailed Buyer Personas

Buyer Personas go deeper than ICPs by delving into the specific traits, behaviors, and motivations of individuals influencing the decision-making within target companies. A well-developed Buyer Persona includes demographic information, job roles, goals, challenges, and buying preferences.? It’s important to remember that real people are involved in making business decisions.? People are inherently emotional creatures, so understanding the emotional state and influence of personal preferences on decision-making are key to success.

Steps to Create Buyer Personas

1.????? Look at the Companies in Your ICP

2.????? Think back to the decision-making process when that deal was sold

3.????? What individuals were involved in the process?

4.????? Try to identify the following roles (one person may play multiple roles):

• Champion:? This is the person who fought for your solution and advocated for you over other options, even when you weren’t in the room.
• Decision-Maker:? This is the person who ultimately decided, potentially based on consensus, or a recommendation from someone else, or all on their own.
• End-User:? This is the person(s) who will benefit the most day-to-day from the solution, but they may only have a small amount of influence on the decision-making process
• Technical Influencer:? Today’s modern SaaS, SwaS, and Professional Services solutions typically have some data or technology component that needs to be evaluated for capability and fit with the company’s current infrastructure.? The Technical Influencer is the person who evaluates the proposed solution to ensure it will work.

For each of these roles, capture the following:

• Demographic Insights: Age, gender, job title, and industry.
• Psychographic Insights: Values, interests, and behavior patterns.
• Behavioral Insights: Buying habits, preferred communication channels, and content preferences.

Best practice is to really bring this to life by naming the avatar and selecting a picture to represent them.

Common Challenges:

●????? Inaccurate Data: Building personas based on assumptions rather than real data can lead to ineffective strategies.

●????? Lack of Updates: Buyer Personas should evolve as market conditions and customer preferences change.?

A simple and effective way to ensure your Buyer Personas are accurate and up-to-date is to conduct interviews with both Won and Lost account after the initial sales process (and before kick-off) to understand who your decision committee is, what pain sent them to market, what criteria they used to evaluate, why they chose you over the others they considered, and what their decision-making process looked like.? Try to capture the true voice of the customer and actual words and phrases they used and reflect this in your materials (see detail below).

Crafting a Buyers’ Journey Map

A Buyers’ Journey Map visualizes the steps a customer takes from becoming aware of a problem to making a purchase decision and ultimately renewing and advocating for you in the market (or not). Understanding this journey is critical for delivering targeted messaging and influencing the customer experience.? A rich understanding of where your prospects go for information at different stages of the funnel can reveal powerful and inexpensive ways to impact their decision making, beyond just buying ads that run right next to your competitors.

Here are the general Stages of the Buyers’ Journey:

• Unaware: Potential buyers are unaware of their problem or potential solutions.
• Problem-Aware: Potential buyers recognize they have a problem and evaluate the importance of solving the problem and the potential ROI.
• Solution-Aware: Buyers seek potential solutions to their problem, often times focusing on different classes of solutions.
• Product-Aware: Buyers evaluate specific products or services within the class of solutions they believe to be the best fit for their business.
• Most Aware: Customers are ready to make a purchase decision.
• Post-Purchase Analysis: Clients evaluate the value of their solutions, contemplating canceling altogether, switching to other solutions, or deepening relationships with current providers.

For each stage, identify the key questions buyers have to answer, the information they need to answer these questions, and where they will go to find this information.? Armed with this information, you can craft a Content Strategy designed to impact the different stages, building your differentiation and the Buyers’ preference for your solution at each stage.? You can use paid placements or partnerships to point to this content and amplify your message

Key Metrics to Track:

●????? Volume of Opportunities at Each Stage

●????? Quality for each Opportunity

●????? Conversion rates at each stage of the journey.

●????? Customer engagement levels.

●????? Time spent at each stage of the journey.

Implementing a Scorecard for ongoing tracking of these Measurables/Metrics and reviewing on a regular meeting pulse is key to ensure growth.? Using this scorecard as part of a regular meeting cadence, provides an easy way to keep everyone on the same page, and creates a framework for collaborating on ways to improve the metrics.? Focus on a few key moments that can make the biggest impact in the Journey.

Won / Lost Customer Interviews

As noted above, to ensure an ongoing and accurate understanding of your customer, try implementing a system to interview everyone who evaluates your product or service, even if they don’t wind up buying from you.? Ideally this is done after they make a final decision, but before onboarding to keep the focus on that part of the Buyers’ Journey.? Interviewing companies that chose a competitor (or to do nothing) can be tough to schedule and even harder to stomach, but the insights are invaluable.? Use the intel from these interviews to regularly refine the ICP and Personas on your best-fit opportunities that you win most often that go on to become your best clients.? Try to gain insights on their Buyers’ Journey to improve your Go-To-Market Strategies.

Putting It All Together

An integrated approach combining ICPs, Personas, and Buyers’ Journey Maps is essential to understanding your customer, so you know where to find them and what to say.

• ICPs as the Foundation: Start with a clear definition of your ideal customers. Ensure that your marketing and sales efforts are directed toward this specific group.
• Buyer Personas for Precision: Develop detailed Buyer Personas to understand the motivations and behaviors of individual decision-makers. Use this information to tailor your messaging and engagement strategies.
• Customer Journey Maps for Alignment: Map out the customer journey to identify the stages and touchpoints where you can influence decisions. Use EOS tools to track and refine your approach continuously.

By following this framework, B2B SaaS / SwaS and Professional Services firms can create cohesive marketing strategies that resonate with their target audience, ensuring sustained and predictable growth.? As your marketing and lead gen activities begin to bear fruit, be sure to use the ICP and Buyer Personas to filter out those leads that are not aligned with your best customers!

Conclusion

By leveraging proven tools like ICPs, Personas, and Buyers’ Journey Maps, combined with ongoing interviews you can gain a deep understanding of your customer, the key to success in predictable and sustainable growth. Modern Revenue Strategies empowers SaaS and Professional Services firms to breakthrough revenue ceiling with robust systems for Attracting more of the right prospects, Accelerating your best opportunities through the sales pipeline and Activating your existing clients for faster renewals, larger upsells and more referrals.? We have programs specifically designed for companies running on EOS as well.

Books for Further Reading:

1. "Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business" by Gino Wickman This book introduces the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), providing practical methods for strengthening the six key components of your business. Buy on Amazon
2. "Are Your Leads KILLING Your Business?" by Mark Osborne Learn post-Covid insights on how to build Revenue Systems that Attract the right prospects, Accelerate your best opportunities through the sales pipeline, and Activate your existing clients for faster renewals, larger upsells, and more referrals. Free Download
3. "Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen" by Donald Miller Learn how to simplify your brand message and create a marketing narrative that resonates with customers. Buy on Amazon
4. "Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want" by Alexander Osterwalder This book provides tools and processes to create compelling value propositions that align with customer needs and expectations. Buy on Amazon
5. "Buyer Personas: How to Gain Insight into Your Customer's Expectations, Align Your Marketing Strategies, and Win More Business" by Adele Revella Learn how to create detailed buyer personas and use them to confidently drive engagement and sales throughout the customer journey. Buy on Amazon