Think Customer Back: Part 1, Got a Buyer Persona?

... demographics, schmemographics.  It's your Buyer Persona that will make or break your results.

PROLOGUE:  Know what I think about when I feel like I'm banging my head against a wall in Marketing?  I fantasize about running a beer and bait shop out on Molokai.  I tell you this because there were moments -- okay, make that days -- during the fact-finding for this posting that I spent a lot of time daydreaming about Molokai.  Yeah, it was demoralizing.


I thought I was going to be able to tell you about some best practices out there.  But --glass half-full -- it was also eye-opening.  Instead of best practices,  I became aware of a need -- an Information Gap, shall we say.  So, this posting will not be an anthology of best practices.  Rather, it is a "How-to."  And, in the end, maybe it will inspire a few folks to take action as a means to gain a leg-up in highly competitive market sectors.  Seize the opportunity!  And keep me posted on your progress.

Once upon a time, available B2C market data only included things like prospect age, gender, address, occupation and maybe credit ratings.  Today, market data can tell marketers the number and ages of your children, income level, reading preferences, health problems, college GPA, political party, and what you eat for breakfast. No, really -- what you actually eat for breakfast.

An ever-increasing number of B2C marketers rely on this detailed information to help them effectively target prospects, develop relevant messages and imagery, select optimal communications channels, and fine tune their timing.  And, they don't stop there.  Sophisticated practitioners take it a step or two further by then researching, extrapolating and analyzing behavioral profiles and characteristics of their prospects and customers.  The profile they end up with is called a "Buyer Persona."

So, what about B2B Buyer Personas?  Good question.  

Nine out of ten B2B marketing programs still develop their buyer "profiles" based on the limited company data from sources like D&B and Hoovers -- if they're developed at all.  This didn't make a lot of sense to me.  I mean, competition for every dollar is pretty fierce out there.  Why wouldn't B2B marketers seek out every advantage they can get?  So, I started asking around.  

I spoke with sales and marketing decision makers (i.e., VP-level and above), across several b2b market sectors (enterprise software, envirotech, IT consulting, and management consulting).  Each of these folks could accurately be described as well-educated, seasoned, successful, articulate and conscientious professionals.

Early-on, I began to see an distinct pattern in our conversations. In fact, every sales and/or marketing executive I spoke with said:

1.  What's a Buyer Persona?

2.  I don't see the added value -- we have focused our efforts and know our market very well.

3.  Of course, our lead gen results could always be better ...

4.  Everybody's conversion rates are way down -- we're not special in that regard.  (Okay, is that irony or coincidence?  I can never keep them straight).

Molokai was looking really good.  This was when I decided to talk about "How-to" vs. "Best Practices."

Why bother developing Buyer Personas?

1.  Relevance.  We all know about relevance.  The more relevant your messaging and content, the more your likely you will be identified with the solution to the problems/desires of your target market.  That said, if all you know is how large your target customer is, you can't address what keeps their decision makers up at night, let alone use tone and style that will create affinity.  In fact, you may not even being communicating with them through a means or media that they monitor.

EXAMPLE:  (I swear to you, this really happened).  Company X decided it needed to hold a sales event in the Bay area to beef up their west coast presence.  They got a big name keynote speaker, booked the ballroom of a prominent venue, flew in sales and marketing staff from all over the country, created and mailed both hard copy and e-invites, and rented lists from every tech publication that said it was read by IT executives.  In the end, Company X successfully attracted 300 attendees to its event.  In order to get their 300, they sent out over 60,000 invitations.  Why?  They never looked beyond the classification "IT Executive" -- were they corporate IT execs or developers from competitive providers?  Were they decision makers?  Were IT execs even really the customer?

2.  Budget.  We also all know about budget. If you're not targeting specifically enough, your paying for a lot of impressions that you'll never benefit from.

EXAMPLE 1:  If you send 60,000 invitations for an event that only resulted in 300 attendees, you paid for 59,700 names, invitations, and postage; as well as the man-hours required to invite and follow-up.  The cost of the event above was over $100,000 -- most of it spent on list rental.

3. Conversion Rates.  Leads generated by programs that are poorly targeted are unlikely to be qualified, let alone "hot."  Sales will burn more time and budget trying to sell to cool/lukewarm prospects with only marginal probability of success.  The whole process more closely resembles the Lottery than targeted sales and marketing.

EXAMPLE:  Company X sent 60,000 invitations, attracted 300 attendees, of which a grand total of 4 were new viable leads. Exactly 0 of the new leads were converted.

True story.  I mean, seriously, who could make this stuff up?!

So, what about your Buyer Persona?  Start by taking a look at your actual customers and start listing their characteristics individually.  From here, you can begin looking for patterns; i.e., commonalities between them.  This is your baseline.  From here it gets interesting.

Your target market is probably composed of several different Personas.  They may share common demographics, but once you start to really work on accurately identifying your Buyer Personas, you'll find some differences.  

Here are a few behavioral variables for you to consider, that comprise Buyer Personas:

• Familiarity with products/services in your space
• Level of business case needed to justify purchase
• Interests
• Motivation
• Expectations
• Decision making role
• Urgency
• Objectives
• Pain points

Makes sense, don't you think?  That said, I urge you to do more than sketch out your Buyer Persona single handedly, based on your own perceptions.  It takes some legwork, but the additional insight is worth it.

Next post:  Think Customer Back: Part 2, Doing the Legwork