Buyer Personas: How to Gain Insight into your Customers Expectations, Align your Marketing Strategies, and Win More Business

PRAISE FOR BUYER PERSONAS

"I find that most marketers have no ′real′ idea how to develop buyer personas for their organization. This critical component is either missing or completed incorrectly for the majority of enterprises. Don′t let this happen to you. Buy this book and implement this strategy in your organization today."
Joe Pulizzi, Founder, Content Marketing Institute and Author of Epic Content Marketing

"In an age of Big Data analytics, where all the emphasis has been on B2C marketers inferring consumer buying tendencies by crunching Web logs, it is good to see new work on the qualitative side of the ledger, focused on specific individuals making considered purchase decisions shaped by personal and social values. Adele′s focus on buyer personas provides a great platform for building B2B marketing campaigns."
Geoffrey Moore, Author of Crossing the Chasm

"Business schools advise marketers to listen to customers. Adele Revella provides a powerful methodology to understand customers. This book is an important contribution to the marketing literature. Highly recommended."
S. Thomas Emerson, Distinguished Career Professor of Entrepreneurship, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar

"′If you build it they will come′ no longer works in the high tech industry. Adele′s book is a practical guide to starting with the customer first, making your marketing more relevant so you can close more business faster. Most important is her approach to understanding why buyers don′t choose your solutions, providing the marketing innovator with an opportunity to turn objections into key selling points."
Bridget C. Bisnette, Senior Director, Cisco Systems

"In a world where marketing is increasingly about listening to your customers and meeting their needs, you need to find a way to both do that well and do it efficiently. Here, Adele Revella delivers the prescription."
Ann Handley, Author of the bestselling Everybody Writes and Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs

"Look no further than this tried–and–true playbook from the reigning queen of the buyer persona. Adele Revella′s practical, step–by–step approach has been immensely valuable to help us develop a more effective messaging strategy. Buyer personas help us get inside the consumer′s mind–set, instead of falling back on the ′me–too messaging′ that′s so prevalent in our industry."
Marissa Myers, Director of Marketing, Dreyfus Sotheby′s International

"Adele′s message is simple but incredibly powerful market from an understanding of what really matters to buyers. It might sound simple, but it′s hard to do. Want to know your customer better? Want a better way to communicate with them? Want to change the game on your sales and marketing? This book shows the way, with a clear and effective road map for developing and using personas."
Tim Cook, Partner & Vice President of Client Services, The Mx Group

Introduction: Listen First, Then Speak

Why Is Everyone Talking About Buyer Personas?

Will This Approach Work For You?

Chapter One: Understand Buying Decisions and the People Who MakeThem

Why the Know Your Customer Rule Has BeenRedefined

A Clothes Dryer s Extra Setting Made All the Difference

Will You Understand Your Buyer, Or Their Decision?

Relying On Buyer Demographics and Psychographics

How Marketers Benefit From Buyer Profiles

Buying Insights Complete Your Persona

High Consideration Decisions Reveal the Best Insights

Buying Insights from A Quick Trip To London

Chapter Two: Focus On Insights That Guide MarketingDecisions

Listening To Kathy

Frustrated, a Newly–Minted Consultant Invents Personas

Buyers Have Distinct Expectations

The 5 Rings of Buying Insight

Give Your Buyer a Seat at the Table

Buying Insight Open Doors to C–Level Executives

Chapter Three: Decide How You Will Discover Buyer PersonaInsights

The Most Important Nine Months of My Career

How Interviews Reveal Insight

Is This Another Kind Of Qualitative Research?

Crafting The Low Consideration Buyer s Story

Using B2B Sales People to Build Buyer Personas

The Pros and Cons Of Buyer Surveys

When to Use Focus Groups

Will Big Data Deliver Insights?

How Social Media Contributes To Buyer Personas

SAP Gains a High–Value Insight Through Web Analytics

PART TWO: INTERVIEWING FOR BUYING INSIGHTS

Chapter Four: Gain Permission and Schedule BuyerInterviews

Convince Stakeholders That You Need Buying Insights

Overcome the We Know Our Buyers Objection

When You Don t Have Time for Buyer Persona Interviews

Use Your Sales Database to Find Buyers To Interview

Sometimes You Want To Avoid Your Internal Database

Using Professional Recruiters To Set Interview Appointments

Which Buyer Should You Interview?

Interview Buyers Who Chose You As Well As Those Who Did Not

Contacting Buyers to Request An Interview

Chapter Five: Conduct Probing Buyer Interviews

Who Should Conduct The Interview?

Prepare For Your Buyer Interview?

Getting It On The Record

Take Me Back To The Day

Use Your Buyer s Words to Probe for Insight

Go Slowly to Capture the Whole Story

Questions that Keep the Conversation Flowing

An Example Interview with Tim

Look for Insight When Buyers Use Jargon

Make Your Questions About Your Impact Count

Probing On Who Influences This Decision

Asking About the Perceived Value of Your Differentiators

When Features Affect Decisions, Look for Insight

First and Foremost, Be a Respectful Listener

Chapter Six: Mine Your Buyer Interviews For BuyingInsights

You Need Fewer Interviews Than You Expect

Step One: Mark Up Your Interview Transcript

Step Two: Organize the Story Based on Buying Insights

Step Three: Write a Headline for Each Key Insight

Chapter Seven: Determine How Many Buyer Personas You Need

Segment Buyers Based On Insights, Not Profiles

Conduct More Interviews to Test Segmentation Options

Analyze Insights to Decide How Many Personas

Will Two Buyer Personas Help You Win More Business?

Presenting Your Buyer Persona

Copywriting Your Buying Insights

Building The Buyer Profile

How To Find Buyer Profile Information

PART THREE: ALIGNING YOUR STRATEGIES TO WIN MORE BUSINESS

Chapter Eight: Choose What You Will Say to Buyers

Will Your Current Approach Work?

Set the Agenda and Invite The Right People

Ask For Pre–Meeting Contributions

Develop a Complete List Of Capabilities That Matter

Apply Two Filters for Short Messaging

Evaluate Your Competitive Ranking

Assess Relative Value io Buyers

Bring In the Copy Writers And Creative Teams

Chapter Nine: Design Marketing Activities To Enable YourBuyer s Journey

Understand The Buyer s Journey

Patrick s Journey for an Employee Benefits Decision

Prioritize Assets That Align With the Buyers Journey

Prepare To Be Surprised

How Buyer Personas Affect Industry or Solution Marketing

A Global Perspective on Buyer Personas And Campaigns

Can You Be Useful to People Who Aren t Buying?

Educate Buyers That Success Is Within Reach

Reach C–Level Buyers Who Don t Know You

Autodesk Helps Buyers Achieve Their Top Priorities

Chapter Ten: Align Sales and Marketing to Help BuyersDecide

Changing the Conversation with Salespeople

Share Insights, Not Buyer Personas

Deliver Buying Insights through Sales Playbooks

Enabling the Challenger Sale

Helping Salespeople Break Into The C–Suite

Insight Into the Nurse s Emotions Halts Sales Losses

Sales and Marketing: Vive La Difference!

Chapter Eleven: Start Small, With an Eye to the Future

Where to Begin Your Buyer Persona Initiative

How to Earn Your Stripes as A Strategic Resource

How Buyer Personas Benefit Product Strategy

Building Buyer Personas for New Products

Communicating Insights That Affect Other Teams

Using Buyer Personas to Guide Strategic Planning

Start Small and Make a Big Difference

ADELE REVELLA is the CEO and Founder of Buyer Persona Institute and a leading authority on buyer personas. Through her company′s research and workshops, Adele′s buyer persona methodology has become the gold standard for thousands of marketers in hundreds of global companies. She is widely recognized as a marketing and business leadership speaker, consultant, blogger, and workshop facilitator. In her decades–long marketing career, Adele has seen the discipline from all sides: executive, consultant, trainer, and entrepreneur.