Risk & Business Magazine Marcotte Magazine Fall 2017 | Page 21

BUYER PERSONA
BY: ADELE REVELLA
CEO, BUYER PERSONA
“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.”
environment or attitude at the moment
when he or she decides that now is the
time to take action - investing time,
money or political capital in this type of
purchase.
2. SUCCESS FACTORS INSIGHT
You don’t need personas to identify
all of the benefits you can deliver, but
it’s difficult to know which of these
benefits will have the most impact on
your buyer’s decision to do business
with a company like yours. When you
understand the emotional and practical
outcomes that matter to your buyers,
you eliminate the noise and emphasize
those benefits that matter to your
buyers. This insight makes it easy to
develop simple, persuasive messaging
and content.
3. PERCEIVED BARRIERS INSIGHT
Otherwise known as the “bad news”
insight, this is the part of your buyers’
story where you learn why they might
choose a competitor’s solution or decide
to stay with the status quo. Although
many companies have heard that their
solution is too expensive or missing a
critical feature, this insight often reveals
that buyers have false notions based on
prior experiences or what they’ve heard
from their peers. Companies that know
how and why buyers form these negative
opinions can develop effective strategies
to change them.
4. DECISION CRITERIA INSIGHT
This part of your persona’s story details
the product or service and company
attributes buyers investigate as they
weigh 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.
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. +
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.
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