A modern buyer persona comprised of the 5 Rings of Buying Insight reveals what your prospective buyers need to know and experience to have confidence buying from you.

What BPI鈥檚 Clients are Saying鈥�

鈥淲e didn鈥檛 even know what the buying triggers were. Now, it鈥檚 like getting the answers before the test. Because we鈥檙e using the language of customers and focusing on their priorities, we鈥檝e engaged 8,100 new buyers this year, nearly doubling the 4,400 from all of last year.鈥�

(CMO, Network Management Provider)

 

鈥淥ur pipeline experienced triple digit growth after the new messaging was provided. Our sales reps really appreciate it. It makes their lives easier because we鈥檙e telling them how to win. Now everybody has the ability to be a top seller!鈥�

(VP Product Marketing, Data & Records Management Provider)听

 

鈥淎t a recent trade show, our biggest competitor was directly across the aisle from us. When visitors crossed the aisle to come to our booth, they asked what made us different. Our team was ready 鈥� the persona work had made it easy for us to communicate differentiation. In fact, it was the most successful trade show we鈥檝e ever done!鈥�

(SVP Marketing, Cybersecurity Compliance & Auditing Provider)

 

鈥淲e streamlined our messaging to the most important touch points, to the kind of education buyers actually want. Now we can say to our colleagues, 鈥楾hese are the messages we need to say and why.鈥� 鈥�

(Marketing Director, CRM SaaS Provider)

 

鈥淭he persona insights told us what was key to say 鈥� and not to say. These insights contributed to a new and to a deeper awareness of customer journey stages. It helped us build specific marketing elements for different stages: what to say to whom, when.鈥�

(VP Revenue & Growth, Medical Equipment Manufacturer)

The post 21 Ways Companies Are Using Modern 色花堂s appeared first on 色花堂 Institute.

, a leading authority focused on data-driven marketing, recently featured an exclusive interview with BPI President, Jim Kraus. Known for their in-depth coverage of emerging trends and actionable expertise, DM Magazine captured Jim鈥檚 unique perspectives on buyer personas. Below is a snippet from this insightful conversation.

色花堂s: An Interview with Jim Kraus, President, 色花堂 Institute

You may have seen them displayed on large wall posters in your building hallways and common areas. Maybe you were given laminated one-page summaries of them. Or possibly been handed a richly illustrated reference booklet prior to a brainstorming session. Quite likely you were asked to attend a kick-off event or been taken through an overview slide presentation. Perhaps you were directed to an internal web site dedicated to explaining them. Or given promotional trinkets like coffee mugs, mouse pads and key chains, even trading cards, in a company-wide effort to heighten awareness of them.

Whatever form they take, buyer personas have been widely embraced by all kinds of businesses to help foster customer first thinking. They are a way to gain insight into the needs and motivations of customers 鈥� their goals and aspirations 鈥� their beliefs and values. To understand what bothers them 鈥� what pleases them. To know, in brief, who they are, and what makes them different. That insight, or so the theory goes, should breed empathy for customers, ultimately leading to better products, more intuitive interfaces, more persuasive messaging.

In theory. But only if they yield meaningful insight. And therein lies the challenge. Because if they are too superficial or too general or too vague, they stand little chance of being widely adopted.

The concept of a buyer persona was first introduced and popularized in a book called 鈥�The Inmates Are Running the Asylum鈥� back in 1998 by the software pioneer Alan Cooper. In those days software applications were based on extensive 鈥渦ser requirements鈥� compiled by business analysts and converted into design specifications. A more productive approach, Cooper felt, was to center design thinking around the needs of a single primary user who could be personified as a fictional character based on the synthesized needs of actual people. That concept resonated with the technology community and personas soon became a standard tool in software development.

Product managers and designers also saw the value in using personas to guide the innovation and development process by minimizing assumptions about what buyers might want while keeping the focus on the needs of 鈥渢he ideal customer鈥�. And then, as more and more people began to interact across multiple media channels in the 2010s, marketers began to recognize the importance of personas as a means of developing deeper insight into the lives and digital habits of the target audience. 色花堂s became the crucial jumping off point for customer journey design.

Today rich, incredibly detailed personas can be generated automatically using machine learning and artificial intelligence which hoovers up publicly available data from open sources and combines it with internally generated behavioural and survey data. These personas can then help to drive marketing messaging and content creation.

Yet no matter how much time and effort goes into the creation of buyer personas, no matter how enthusiastically they are merchandised, they are only useful if they lead to more buyers willing to buy more of what marketers are trying to sell. Which is why, according to persona design expert Jim Kraus, persona development should revolve around the buying decision and not the buyer. Otherwise, all that effort can easily go to waste, no one really sure how to make optimal use of them.

Ten years ago, Jim Kraus鈥� company published a groundbreaking book called 鈥�色花堂s鈥� by the founder Adelle Revella which called for a novel approach to persona design based on a thorough exploration of buyer decision making rather than the invention of fictional buyer profiles. And now a revised and expanded edition of the book has come out which takes into account the more complex business decision making environment of today.

The post DM Magazine Cover Interview with Jim Kraus appeared first on 色花堂 Institute.

In their revealing book, , and partnered with dozens of companies across a variety of industries to collect and analyze over 2.5 million sales calls including both simple, transactional sales and complex, solution sales.*

What they learned is compelling new insight for any marketer trying to help sellers overcome听one of the biggest obstacles they face 鈥� customer inaction: a buyer鈥檚 decision not to purchase anything, even after going through the entire sales process and expressing purchase intent.

Prior to their analysis, customer inaction has historically been attributed to one cause 鈥� the customer鈥檚 preference for the status quo. Sales training and sales books have long focused on helping sellers overcome this obstacle, instructing them to 鈥渞elitigate鈥� the sale by re-emphasizing the benefits of their solution and risk to the customer if they don鈥檛 do anything. In other words, ratchet up the fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) and what the customer will be missing if they don鈥檛 make the purchase.

The Dixon and McKenna study shows that this is a flawed strategy and actually detrimental to closing deals.

They note in particular:

• A prospective buyer鈥檚 inability to make a decision is the most frequent reason for their inaction (occurs 56% of the time) rather than preference for the status quo (44%) 鈥� this, in itself, is a significant finding as it bucks what has been a sales truism until now
• A staggering 87% of sales conversations show moderate-to-high levels of buyer indecision regardless of the sales outcome 鈥� indecision is everywhere
• Win rates drop precipitously as the level of customer indecision听grows 鈥� win rates are 45-55% when there are low rates of customer indecision, 25-30% at moderate levels, and drop below 5% when indecision is high
• Indecision is driven by the buyer鈥檚 fear of messing up (error of commission) more so than missing out (error of omission) 鈥� pointing to decades of social science research, Dixon and McKenna correctly point out a fundamental truth about buyer behavior:

鈥淏ut once they [buyers] have agreed that they should move on from the status quo, the thing they now fear 鈥� and fear more 鈥� is the failure that may result from their actions: what will happen not if they do nothing but rather if they do something.听And听those costs will be concrete and directly attributable to their decisions.鈥�

• FUD tactics that emphasize what buyers are missing out on if they don鈥檛 make a purchase just makes them MORE anxious and indecisive 鈥� a staggering 84% of the time this approach has a NEGATIVE impact on win rates.听In other words, the traditional playbook of relitigating the sale results in less business, not more.

Implications for Marketers

In The JOLT Effect the authors identify a number of worthwhile tactics that sellers can use to overcome buyer indecision.

Their analysis also points to a clear opportunity for marketers who realize that at a certain point in the sales process, buyers are looking for a provider that won鈥檛 let them down. They want a provider that understands their fears implicitly, clearly articulates capabilities that address them, and faithfully guides them into making a buying decision that will help their organization and themselves.

From a marketing perspective, this realization has two important implications:

• First, benefit-focused messaging has a shelf-life in the sales process. Understanding the outcomes that a buyer expects is important early on in the sales proceedings. It lets buyers know that you understand their challenges and can help alleviate them. If aligned to what buyer鈥檚 really need, it will help you get into the initial consideration set.

However, continuing to push benefits later in the sales cycle, and what a buyer will lose if they do nothing, will only make them more fearful and hesitant. At that point, it鈥檚 counterproductive.

• Second, strategies and messaging that directly address a buyer鈥檚 fears can have a significant impact in the latter stages of the sale cycle. Once the buyer decides something should be done, you have a perfect opportunity to differentiate yourself by taking a different approach. This is a time to confront what may be hanging a potential buyer up and elevate their confidence that your capabilities won鈥檛 let them down. You want to be the company that directly addresses the buyer鈥檚 fear of making the wrong decision.

How 色花堂s Can Help

A buyer persona, developed from interviews with individuals who have recently made the exact buying decision that you鈥檙e trying to influence, is uniquely capable of informing your marketing strategy in both the early and later stages of the sales cycle.

Based on the 5 Rings of Buying InsightTM:

• Priority Initiatives and Success Factors reveal the most compelling reason(s) that buyers begin to look for a solutions like yours and the results they want from their investment. Use these insights to connect with buyers early on in the sales process by demonstrating you understand their core needs and expectations.
• Perceive Barriers and Decision Criteria reveals the concerns that buyers have about making the investment, or making it with you, and the decision criteria they use to evaluate solution alternatives. Use these insights to directly address the questions and fears buyers have, particularly in the later stages of the buying decision when buyer trepidation is at its highest.

The importance of developing your buyer persona based on interviews with recent buyers cannot be overstated.听As Dixon and McKenna note, buyer fears are particularly insidious because they are typically unspoken. Only by carefully interviewing recent buyers can marketers accurately identify concerns that would otherwise paralyze prospective customers and stop the sale.

鈥淎 big part of the challenge for salespeople鈥攁nd one of the main reasons indecision has gone unrecognized for so long鈥攊s that it is difficult for a salesperson to detect in a conversation鈥� Because it鈥檚 rooted in personal fears, it鈥檚 something customers either don鈥檛 feel comfortable admitting to or, more likely, are unaware is even affecting them and preventing them from making progress.鈥�

As the proliferation of competitive options and information continues to increase, buyers will only get more uneasy about their buying decisions. Marketers that develop buying insights to develop strategies and messaging tightly aligned to buyer needs and concerns will be in the best position to earn their trust, and their business.

_____________________

*The Dixon and McKenna study was only possible because for the first time, in the Spring of 2020, sales calls could easily be recorded as the world went virtual when COVID-19 hit. Advances in automatic speech recognition and machine learning also enabled the rigorous coding and analysis needed to effectively analyze this large, unstructured data set.

The post How Marketers Can Help Sellers Overcome Their #1 Hurdle 鈥� Buyer Indecision appeared first on 色花堂 Institute.

Many buyer personas fall short of their potential impact, often limited to surface-level details like job titles and demographics. But to truly drive your marketing and sales efforts, personas need to go deeper. Actionable buyer personas must capture insights about the specific buying decisions you aim to influence鈥攈elping you engage more effectively and guide buyers toward a decision.

At the heart of this deeper approach are the 5 Rings of Buying Insight, each offering valuable information that can transform your strategy. From understanding buyer motivations to mapping the journey and identifying key decision-makers, these insights are crucial for making the right connections at the right time.

In this article, we鈥檒l break down each of the 5 Rings, exploring what they reveal and why they鈥檙e vital to creating buyer personas that truly inform your marketing and sales efforts.

Priority Initiative

What Is It?

Priority Initiative insights explain the most compelling reason(s) that buyers begin to evaluate a solution like yours. It鈥檚 the trigger event or conditions that cause a buyer to look for a solution NOW while others (even those with similar needs), are content with the status quo. These triggers could include personal or organizational circumstances. Consider a digital solution to support hybrid events (in-person and remote attendees).听Examples of a Priority Initiative that triggers the search could include:

• COVID changed everything overnight, no one was meeting face-to-face
• Our current solution can鈥檛 achieve the quality of voice and video we need
• We鈥檙e using different solutions across the company which is frustrating and inefficient

Why Is It Important?

Because Priority Initiatives insights describe in detail why an organization allocates their time, budget, or political capital to purchase a solution like yours, you鈥檒l know when buyers are receptive to hearing from you and which roles are triggering the decision to make this investment.

Marketers use this insight to define and execute marketing strategies that resonate with buyers at the earliest stages in their decision. By demonstrating that you understand their situation, you also take the first step in developing a buyer鈥檚 trust and positioning yourself as a market leader.

Success Factors

What Is It?

Success Factors insights describe the results that buyers expect from purchasing a solution like yours. Success factors resemble benefits or outcomes from the buyer鈥檚 perspective 鈥� what THEY expect to achieve.听Examples of Success Factors for a hybrid event solution could include:

• We will have one centralized, holistic solution for meetings across the entire company
• We will use reliable, high-quality tools that enable effective communication
• We will engage with our international teams across the globe

Why Is It Important?

Success Factor insights eliminate the need for marketing to guess or reverse-engineer messaging based on your solution鈥檚 capabilities.听These insights enable more targeted content plus the certainty that prospects are motivated to buy a solution that delivers these benefits.

For example, where you might be emphasizing your solution鈥檚 ability to reduce expenses, Success Factor insights could tell you that your buyers are more motivated to achieve one company-wide, centralized solution.听Your unique clarity about the outcomes buyers expect from a centralized solution will ensure that you tailor this message to your buyers鈥� mindset.

Perceived Barriers

What Is It?

Perceived Barrier insights reveal the fears and concerns that cause buyers to prefer the status quo, and why they perceive a competitor鈥檚 solution as a better fit for their needs. This insight identifies everything that eliminates providers from consideration as buyers narrow down their options. Examples of Perceived Barriers for a hybrid event solution could include:

• We need a global company that has a local presence in the countries we operate in
• We need a licensing structure that is flexible and adaptive to our unique requirements
• We can鈥檛 consider providers that don鈥檛 pass muster with our security team

Why Is It Important?

Perceived Barrier insights are sometimes overlooked by marketing 鈥� why focus on the negative? But wait! If you鈥檙e able to directly address a prospective buyer鈥檚 top concerns, this could be your best opportunity to differentiate your solution from everyone else鈥檚.

For example, if a Perceived Barrier insight describes the buyer鈥檚 belief that most of their users are non-technical and that they鈥檙e concerned about the implementation time, you could deliver videos and customer stories emphasizing your ease of use.听The insight would reveal the details about this concern so that you can create content that addresses a top buyer concern.

Once companies identify Perceived Barriers, we often see them develop Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) and sales support assets that directly address a buyer鈥檚 top concerns.

Decision Criteria

What Is It?

insights reveal the specific company and solution capabilities that matter to buyers as they evaluate your ability to deliver success.听These insights are the questions that buyers are asking throughout the buying journey.听Marketers are frequently surprised that cost is a small part of their buyer鈥檚 Decision Criteria, and that buyers explore their solution鈥檚 features and company capabilities in such detail during the buying journey.听Examples of Decision Criteria for a hybrid event solution could include:

• What is your process and timeline for implementing the solution?
• Is the solution scalable to allow the right number of people to join simultaneously?
• What bandwidth does your solution require for a stable connection?

Why Is It Important?

Decision Criteria help marketers escape the trap of benefits-only marketing that sounds just like their competitor鈥檚. Companies that communicate relevant and straightforward answers to a buyer鈥檚 most important questions will gain their trust and win their business. You鈥檒l see how to focus on the capabilities that have the most impact on your buyer鈥檚 decision, delivering proof that your company is best qualified to deliver the benefits buyers want.

Remember that in high stakes buying decisions, buyers are looking at multiple options and it鈥檚 often confusing to make direct comparisons.听By directly addressing your buyer鈥檚 questions, you will make the buying decision easier and instill confidence in choosing you.

Buyer鈥檚 Journey

What Is It?

Buyer鈥檚 Journey insights reveals the behind-the-scenes story about the work your buyers do to evaluate options, eliminate contenders, and settle on their final choice.听These insights include who is involved in the buying decision, the specific work your buyers must do at each step, plus听the information sources they use and trust. Examples of Buyers Journey insights for a hybrid event solution could include:

• We form an internal committee to develop and prioritize a list of requirements
• We review analyst reports to identify an initial set of solutions to look at
• We conduct a proof of concept with finalists to evaluate use cases in a test environment

Why Is It Important?

Buyer鈥檚 Journey insights enable you to align your marketing and sales activities to the most influential buyers at each phase of their decision, with an emphasis on the resources that matter most to them.听While the first four Rings of Insight will inform your content and messaging, this last Ring specifies who you should communicate to, how, and where.

We call these the 5 Rings of Buying Insight because they work together to deliver confidence that every one of your sales and marketing activities will deliver value to buyers and help you win more business.

The post Want to Increase the Value of 色花堂s? Here鈥檚 5 Ways. appeared first on 色花堂 Institute.

, a rich and trusted resource that offers actionable know-how to help you market your products and services both smarter and better, published the following article written by .

A New Age of 色花堂s: Navigating Today’s High-Consideration Buying Decisions

Imagine you’re about to make a significant purchase for personal or business reasons鈥攁 decision involving considerable consequences and investment of time, effort, and money.

Consider a scenario where the item or service is something you’ve never purchased before or purchased only infrequently. You might find yourself comparing multiple providers and their various solutions, only to discover that the options are difficult to differentiate and evaluate.

Meanwhile, the decision carries substantial risk: The wrong choice could have long-lasting repercussions. This type of decision may also require the input and agreement of several people involved.

Examples of such high-consideration buying decisions for consumers include buying a house, choosing a college, and deciding where to relocate and retire. For businesses, high-consideration decisions might include the procurement of enterprise software, selection of a professional services firm, or investment in major equipment.

Such decisions are marked by their complexity and high stakes, and buyers in those scenarios often experience considerable anxiety. To understand how to navigate today’s high-consideration buying decisions;

The post MarketingProfs Features BPI Article on Navigating Today’s High-Consideration Buying Decisions appeared first on 色花堂 Institute.

is a digital publication that aids business leaders in developing and innovating their customer-centric enterprises and business strategies. The journal published the following article written by

Unlocking Modern 色花堂s: 5 Key Buyer Insights to Supercharge Your Marketing & Sales

Have you ever been involved in a high-consideration buying decision? Consider a time where you were purchasing a product or service, for personal or business reasons, where:

• It was something you鈥檇 never purchased before or only infrequently
• You looked at multiple providers and solution options
• The options were a little confusing and difficult to compare
• There was some risk involved making the 鈥渨rong decision鈥� (and having to live with it)
• More than one individual was involved in the buying decision

Examples of high-consideration buying decisions include buying a car, choosing a vacation destination, or purchasing a new home. In a business environment, they include buying enterprise software, choosing a professional services firm to work with, or purchasing capital equipment are all examples of high-consideration buying decisions.

The post CustomerThink Features BPI Article on Unlocking Modern 色花堂s 5 Key Buyer Insights appeared first on 色花堂 Institute.

Buyers involved in important purchase decisions want to feel confident about three things BEFORE they buy:

1. Their investment will produce a better outcome than doing nothing (status quo).
2. The solution they choose is the best one for them and their organization.
3. They are not 鈥渕essing up鈥� by making the wrong decision (error of commission).

As a result:

The provider that does the best job of making a buyer feel CONFIDENT and SECURE in their buying decision usually wins the business.

This basic truth creates a significant opportunity for marketers that follow a two-step formula:

1. Take time to understand the needs and concerns your prospective buyers have in relation to the they are making.
2. Develop strategies, messaging, and proof points that confidently address these needs and concerns throughout the entire buying journey.

Searching for a Vacation Destination

A buying decision I was recently involved in illustrates the impact of using this two-step approach to influence a buyer鈥檚 behavior鈥攊n this case, my own. Although it is a personal buying decision, the same principles apply for earning a business buyer鈥檚 trust and confidence.

Every few years, my extended family and I go on a retreat to a tropical location 鈥� wife, kids, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc., there are a lot of us! It is a trip everyone looks forward to, saves for, and plans their vacation time around. Our next retreat is coming up later this year, and it was my turn to plan everything including selecting the destination, accommodations, and activities.

No pressure!

Initial Search

To start my search, I asked for advice from friends and did some of my own online research 鈥� mainly visiting travel and resort websites. Based on these inputs, I narrowed it down to three resort destinations and felt reasonably confident that each was around the same price and offered accommodations, dining options, and activities my family would enjoy. My next step was contacting the resorts directly to learn more.听Here鈥檚 a summary of my experience with each:

Resort A

• Their website had a few stock images of pools, restaurants, and outdoor activities 鈥� none of the actual resort itself or its amenities.
• There were a handful of online reviews that were mainly moderate-to-positive;听the resort did not reply back to negative feedback.
• When I called the resort directly, the concierge wasn鈥檛 there, and the front desk didn鈥檛 know many details about dining options or activities.

Resort B

• Their website had beautiful photos and videos of the resort – room options, restaurants, pools, beaches, the golf course, and fitness center.
• Online reviews were plentiful and included mostly positive ratings along with a few drawbacks that the resort addressed by replying back to the reviewer.
• When I called them directly, the concierge was immediately available and able to answer many of my questions.

Resort C

I had a similar experience as Resort B in terms of the website, photos, and online reviews. When I called them directly, the concierge:

• Asked me how many people were in my party, the types of activities we enjoy, and what a 鈥減erfect vacation鈥� might look like for us.
• Answered specific questions I had including inside information on activities he’d recommend or skip.
• Arranged a time to call me back the next day with recommended accommodations, activities, and excursions along with pricing.
• Left his direct number in case I had any additional questions.
• Offered to book the entire vacation for me if we decided to stay with them (or alternatively book online if I preferred).

After all of this, we ultimately chose Resort C. I suspect you would too.

听

Implications for Marketers

Ultimately, Resort C understood two important things better than the others.

FIRST, they recognized that this was a 鈥渉igh-stakes鈥� decision for me鈥攏ot life or death, but the vacation is important to my family and there is a vested interest in making it as successful as it can be. Resort C also realized that I didn鈥檛 want to mess up by making a bad choice!

SECOND, they knew I was considering other resort options that would be difficult to compare. As I looked at different resorts, things got confusing quickly since I hadn鈥檛 been to any of them and, on the surface, they were all very similar.

Given the importance and difficulty of the decision, Resort C鈥檚 marketing and customer experience professionals did a few key things that gave me the CONFIDENCE and SECURITY I needed to choose them:

In the EARLY stages of my search:

• Resort C made relevant and detailed information available on their website and through reviews. They knew I鈥檇 do research on my own first and that I鈥檇 want as much information as possible about what an experience at their resort might be like.
• It put them on my shortlist and gave them a leg up versus other resorts I was considering.

In the LATER stages of my evaluation:

• Resort C took the time to understand what a successful vacation looked like for my family and any concerns we had (i.e., barriers to purchase).
• Provided detailed information about how the resort would meet our needs and address our concerns. I didn鈥檛 need to guess or hope they would鈥擱esort C enabled me to SEE how they would.
• Offered honest suggestions to optimize our experience.
• Provided a buying experience that made it easy to book with them.

Resort C also realized that in a more mature market like theirs, desired outcomes are fully understood by most marketers and there is little room to differentiate on benefit-focused messaging alone.听Instead, they opted to understand my needs at a deeper level and provided information that gave me the confidence I needed to choose them.

色花堂s Provide the Insights Needed to Build Buyer Confidence

A buyer persona, developed from interviews with individuals who have recently made the exact buying decision that you鈥檙e trying to influence, is uniquely capable of informing your marketing strategy in both the early and later stages of the buyer鈥檚 journey.

Based on the 5 Rings of Buying Insight:

• Priority Initiatives and Success Factors reveal the most compelling reason(s) that buyers begin to look for a solution like yours and the results they want from their investment. Use these insights to connect with buyers early on in the sales process by demonstrating you understand their core needs and expectations.
• Perceive Barriers and Decision Criteria reveals the concerns that buyers have about making the investment, or making it with you, and the decision criteria they use to evaluate solution alternatives. Use these insights to directly address the questions and fears buyers have, particularly in the later stages of the buying decision when buyer trepidation is at its highest.

Once understood, marketers can create strategies and messaging that increases buyer confidence in their solution. The result is more qualified leads and improved win rates.

The post A Two-Step Approach to Earning a Buyer鈥檚 Confidence and Their Business appeared first on 色花堂 Institute.

, an independent digital publication with an international scope, providing insights and resources about strategic branding, published the following article written by .

Buyer personas are often viewed as a fictional profile of the ideal customer created through market and audience research.

But did you know that developing buyer personas using insights from real customers is not just a more powerful and accurate approach, but also one that empowers you with a deeper understanding of your audience?

By exploring the world of buyer personas built from the words of real and recent buyers, you can avoid speculation and gain access to a wealth of real, applicable information that can enhance your brand positioning and strategy.

In this article, you will not only learn what a modern buyer persona is and the five rings of buying insight, but also how to build a buyer persona based on real customer鈥檚 insights. You will also discover how to practically apply this information for your brand positioning strategy.

The post The Branding Journal Features BPI Article on How to Define Accurate 色花堂s for Strategic Branding appeared first on 色花堂 Institute.

Listening is an essential part of any first meeting with a prospective customer. It鈥檚 how professionals learn about their customers鈥� needs, concerns, and expectations and THE essential ingredient in developing effective buyer personas. Buyer persona development starts with understanding your customers deeply.

鈥淗i, how may I help you?鈥� is a question asked hundreds of times a day in doctors鈥� offices, repair shops, banks, law firms, and other types of customer-facing establishments. Listening to the customer鈥檚 story and asking probing questions to understand their needs and motivations is the only way to present them with a relevant solution and talk about them in a way that鈥檚 clear and meaningful.

This seems logical, yet in many organizations this one-on-one communication between marketing professionals and prospective customers is infrequent 鈥� if it happens at all. The result is marketing strategies and messaging based on assumptions or best guesses rather than unbiased insights that can only come from interviewing actual buyers.

What is a 色花堂 in Plain English?

In the simplest of terms, buyer personas are examples or archetypes of real buyers that allow marketers to craft strategies that promote products and services to the people that might buy them. Developed from the authentic voice of real-life buyers, , including what you need to communicate to prospective buyers (messaging), who you should communicate it to (targeting), and how (buyer鈥檚 journey). As one marketing executive confessed to us recently:

鈥淭his is almost like cheating; like getting the exam paper weeks before the final. Instead of trying to guess what matters, I now know not only what the customers wants 鈥� I realize how they go about it.鈥�

Here are the three main characteristics of an actionable buyer persona:

First, they reveal insights about your BUYERS鈥� DECISIONS 鈥� in particular:

• Pain points that trigger a buyer to look for a particular solution that you offer (Priority Initiatives)
• Outcomes a buyer expects from their investment in that solution (Success Factors)
• Concerns a buyer has about making the investment, or making it with you (Perceived Barriers)
• Questions buyers have about your solution and capabilities (Decision Criteria)
• Steps taken, resources trusted, and people involved in the buying decision (Buyers Journey)

We call these the 5 Rings of Buying Insight because by understanding them, you can connect with buyers in a way that will be difficult for your competitors to match.

Second, they are developed from in-depth interviews with recent buyers. Buyer personas are built around a story of your customers鈥� buying decision. To obtain that, you need to talk to them. There are no shortcuts. And, when you talk to them, you need to give them time to tell their complete, unfiltered story to identify all the critical 鈥渕oments of truth鈥� in their buying journey.

The art and science of asking probing questions and carefully listening your customers鈥� responses lie at the core of the buyer persona concept. It鈥檚 the key to discovering their mindset and the motivation that prompts them to purchase a solution like yours. We鈥檒l discuss this even more in future issues of the newsletter.

Third, they are particularly useful for higher stakes buying decisions where earning a customer鈥檚 trust is critical. These are business or personal buying decisions that usually:

• Include multiple decision influencers and take a longer time to make
• Are made infrequently (or for the first time)
• Involve multiple solution options that buyers struggle to make direct comparisons
• Have higher switching costs

Examples of personal buying decisions like this include purchasing a home or selecting a college for your child. Business examples could include buying a technology solution for your company or choosing a consulting firm to help with a particular business challenge.

What is a 色花堂? 听

We wrote an in depth article on this topic and why it matters

What a 色花堂 is NOT

By comparison, a buyer persona is NOT:

• A profile of an individual or role (a.k.a., a 鈥渂uyer profile鈥�). Profiling people that influence a particular buying decision (e.g., their age, education, role, priorities, etc.) is fine, but it鈥檚 not an actionable buyer persona until you understand the 5 Rings of Buying Insight. By focusing on the buying decision, you will have fewer personas and clear guidance on what you need to do to educate and gain the trust of buyers.
• A profile of your ideal customer. Your own customers have inherent biases, particularly your 鈥渋deal鈥� ones. If you鈥檙e trying to influence new, prospective customers, then your personas MUST represent an unbiased view of a market full of buyers, including those that choose a competitor. Another marketing executive recently told us:

鈥淲e knew about the current customers we had through our salespeople. But I know it was skewed. I was looking for an independent, objective assessment of the buyer鈥檚 journey. I wanted to understand the whole spectrum of buyer needs from those that should have been in our sales pipeline but weren鈥檛.鈥�

• Based on assumptions or educated guesses. It may seem easier to try to infer what buyers are thinking based on your own knowledge or intuition. In fact, before we had buyer personas, that鈥檚 exactly how marketers made decisions. The purpose of a buyer persona is to give you a better understanding of a buyer鈥檚 actual needs, so you can align with the things that they want and expect most. Interviewing buyers eliminates the guesswork so the foundation of all your marketing decisions is fact-based and relevant.

How to Develop and Use 色花堂s More Effectively

Fortunately, there is knowledge and tools that can help. We have made it our mission to create content that focuses on these key elements:

1. Providing Clarity: We offer insights about what a buyer persona is and what it is not. The term 鈥渂uyer persona鈥� has become popular, but it has led to confusion about creation, usage, and effectiveness. We aim to break through the clutter.
2. Guidance and Tools: Learn how to develop buyer personas effectively, avoiding common pitfalls. We guide you on conducting buyer interviews that reveal essential insights for creating impactful marketing strategies.
3. Activating Insights: Discover methods to activate buyer persona insights, developing value propositions and messaging that resonate with buyers while aligning with your company鈥檚 capabilities.
4. Buyer Insights: Gain valuable insights from thousands of in-depth buyer interviews conducted by the 色花堂 Institute. These insights can inform and enhance your own marketing efforts.

Need Help Building Your 色花堂s? Let鈥檚 Talk!

The post Listen First: Master 色花堂 Development for Effective Marketing appeared first on 色花堂 Institute.

, an online publication dedicated to providing marketing professionals with information on marketing strategies, tactics, and techniques for consumer and business-to-business brands, published the following article written by .

How to Elevate B2B 色花堂s Through Strategic Survey Insights

Demystifying 色花堂s

Before we discuss how surveys can enhance buyer personas, it鈥檚 critical to debunk common misconceptions about what they are and what they are not:

色花堂:听A detailed blueprint providing deep insights into specific buying decisions, including purchase triggers, desired outcomes, concerns, key decision criteria and the buyer鈥檚 journey.

Buyer Profile:听Often mistaken for a persona, a buyer profile merely describes characteristics of individuals or roles involved in the buying decision with little to no insight into what actually influences it.

Buyer personas that include insights about the buying decision provide precise guidelines for crafting transformative marketing strategies. In contrast, buyer profiles, which lack this depth, often require you to rely on conjecture to fill significant informational gaps.

From One-On-One Interviews to Strategic Surveys

Marketers who use one-on-one interviews with prospective buyers to develop buyer personas gain deep insights into their potential customers鈥� needs and preferences. These qualitative discussions reveal critical decision-making factors and the entire buying decision journey from the buyer鈥檚 perspective, uncovering detailed motivations that drive purchases.

Incorporating survey research adds breadth and further validation. Surveys engage a broader segment of the target market, enhancing the statistical reliability of the insights and providing a more comprehensive view that supports strategic marketing decisions. This approach ensures a robust understanding of buyer behavior, crucial for crafting effective marketing and sales strategies.

Now let鈥檚 dive into the key ways that surveys can enhance your buyer personas:

Confirming and Validating Insights:

Broadening the research through surveys helps confirm the initial insights are accurate and representative of a larger market. This step increases confidence in the buyer persona鈥檚 validity, which is crucial for creating organizational buy-in and developing effective marketing strategies.

Determining the Relative Importance of Buyer Expectations:

Surveys are particularly effective in recognizing which buyer expectations are most and least crucial. Doing so helps marketers prioritize features or messages that will influence the buying decision the most.

Testing Marketing Messages and Value Propositions:

Surveys provide an excellent platform to test and refine marketing messages before they are rolled out. By presenting various messaging concepts to the target audience, companies can determine which messages resonate best. This testing can be structured to assess messages based on clarity, relevance, uniqueness and persuasiveness.

Understanding Buyer Segments:

Surveys can help uncover significant differences in preferences and priorities across different market segments, such as variances by company size, industry or geographical location. These insights are critical for customizing marketing strategies that are more precisely aligned with the needs of specific buyer groups.

The post Chief Marketer Features BPI Article on Elevating 色花堂s Through Survey Insights appeared first on 色花堂 Institute.