build buyer personas

Build Buyer Personas to Create a More Effective Sales Process

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We’ve talked about the buying process but another very important tool is the buyer persona. You may have heard the term avatar, buyer profile, ideal prospect, target market, or others to describe this or something similar.

When I use the term, I’m talking about something very specific. A buyer persona as defined by expert Adele Revella is “…an example of the real person you need to influence, crafted from specialized interviews that you conduct with actual buyers.”
Buyer personas go beyond the traditional “target market” demographics information and include psychographics and buyer behavior. You want to learn (and document) as much as you can about each person in the buying process – what are their hobbies, what are their ambitions, what does this decision mean to their career, etc.

You may have one or many different people in different roles that are all part of your buying process. For example, you have your decision maker or economic buyer, you may have a technical buyer who has to sign off on the purchase from a technical standpoint, you may have influencers that influence the buying decision — each of these has a role to play and it’s important for your marketing and sales teams to understand as much about them as possible.

But, that’s always been the case, hasn’t it? So, what’s new?

Well, now you take these detailed personas, far more detailed than what you created in the past (if you created them at all) and you use them to create content that speaks to each of those individuals specifically. And yes, name them – you may sell to Marketer Mary or Attorney Andy or VP of Sales Sally. Know them each as individuals. Be able to write for them and their specific needs, wants, goals, challenges and desires. Focus on them individually.

So, now you have specific content by buyer persona and mapped to the stage of the buying process they are in that is automatically being delivered to them. Do you think that won’t get noticed by your prospects?

Your 2013 is going to be rockin’!