Buyer Personas Flow

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Chart 7: Buyer Personas Flow

The organization you work for should stop whatever you are doing in marketing and get your personas identified. Personas identified for one provider may not be the same for another. Work with the sales team to get to the real truth, look at existing internal data and call buyers in your industries to review their roles, what they believe in and how they contribute to major purchases. To not do this work is a real missed opportunity to get the provider’s organization focused. Knowing the expectations and needs of the specific personas will make the provider more relevant to prospects, increase the provider’s ability to anticipate needs and help target marketing efforts. It’s a foundational piece of the overall strategy.

Different buyers wear different hats

It may seem counterintuitive, but different personas can co-exist in one individual. For instance, if the potential client is the CFO of an organization, they may be the Business Buyer and the Financial Buyer. If the prospect feels that a new financial reporting system would garner business benefits across the entire enterprise, they could end up justifying the business need and the economic outlay. Usually, the smaller the organization, the buyer will represent multiple personas. In larger organizations that have a checks and balances process in place, it’s more codified as to who plays the part of the Financial Buyer persona.

In this case, the provider would provide good arguments to the same person who is evaluating a decision based on two personas. What has not changed is that the provider must address the needs of both personas even if it’s the same person. The solution being offered is moving through the collective thought...

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... people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou

There has been much dialogue over the years of what’s the difference between marketing to a business buyer and a consumer. Some writers and analysts claim there is no difference. While others are quick to say that business buyers clearly buy off of logic only.

Like most things in life and business, it’s a question of balance. True, logic and an understanding of their goals is necessary. The provider will want to start mapping its proof points to the needs of their segmented markets. The buyer will go through a step process of evaluating and checking off the most important requirements of the solution. But beyond well-documented and measurable logic, there are the emotional motivators that are also influencing buyers.

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