the merits of each of the options they evaluate. As buyers
navigate the stages of their journey, they develop opinions
about the capabilities they need and seek answers that match
these expectations. Through the decision criteria insight,
buyers reveal the specific capabilities you need to talk about
to win the buyer’s trust and confidence in your approach.
5. BUYER’S JOURNEY INSIGHT.
Many companies know they need to understand their buyer’s
journey, but few have heard their buyers’ words describing what
they do to identify alternative solutions, weigh their options and
make the decision they want to influence. This insight explains those
steps, the sources buyers trust to answer their questions and each of
the different types of buyers who have influence over the decision.
DISCOVER YOUR BUYER’S VERSION
OF THE STORY OR DON’T BOTHER.
It takes a bit of sleuthing to discover the factual details for
any compelling story. Biographers and other journalists prefer
one-on-one interviews with their subject, or when necessary,
with people who are their close confidants. For stories about
people who lived long ago, their job is more difficult. These
storytellers must scour every possible resource and attempt
to build a complete picture with incomplete data.
But fortunately, the buying decisions we want to understand
are ongoing and the journalist’s preference for one-on-one
interviews is entirely achievable. The findings from a relatively
small number of skillful interviews reveal the whole truth,
and there is no need to guess about any missing pieces.
The only disappointing news is that companies cannot discover
these insights from their internal experts, current customers
or online surveys. Your internal experts, especially salespeople,
have biases based on their own effect on and involvement in the
outcome of the buying decision. The company’s customers will
have forgotten their buying experience by now, and their story
is tainted by their desire to maintain a positive relationship.
Surveys can only deliver answers to the questions we think are
important. This is why they are highly useful for validation and
completely misguided when we need to discover new insights.
MEET
ADELE REVELLA
Adele Revella is CEO of Buyer
Persona Institute and author of Buyer
Personas: How to Gain Insight into Your
Customer’s Expectations, Align your
Marketing Strategies, and Win More
Business (Wiley 2015), named a Top 5
Business Book by Fortune Magazine.
Adele’s unique perspective derives
from decades of experience as a sales
and marketing executive, trainer,
researcher and entrepreneur.
The unique value of studying a buyer’s decision is that we learn
the truth about what buyers think and want from companies
like ours. These truths can be both gratifying and disappointing,
as we inevitably discover that something we’re doing or saying
needs to change if we want to persuade buyers that we are a
perfect match for their expectations. When we approach these
studies with an open mind and deep curiosity, we consistently
find opportunities to develop strategies that align with our buyer
personas, creating a happy ending for their story … and ours.
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