Tweet

5 Tips for Developing Strong Buyer Personas

Guest post by: Jeff Ogden

Article Overview: Buyer Personas are the foundation of great B2B marketing. Without personas, you simply cannot be great at demand generation.

5 Tips for Developing Strong Buyer Personas

B2B Lead Generation | 5 Tips for Developing Strong Buyer Personas Personas are needed to tell you where to launch your campaigns, what topics to cover, what content you need, etc.

To understand why personas are so important and to see a sample, refer to my earlier blog post,Personas are Critical, Mr/Mrs CEO.

But I ask business leaders for "personas" in my day to day dealings with them, they almost always give me titles and industries, such as "We sell to heads of Human Resources, Chief Financial Officers and CIO's."

Those are NOT personas. Those are just people identifiers. They lack the depth of information to build great content.

To help you create personas in your business, let me share 5 tips for great personas.

1. Start with ideal customer profiles

To start developing personas, start with the ideal buyers of the products and services your company sells. We're looking for the type of businesses. Who's the best customer for you? Think of what problems you solve. What outcomes do these businesses get?

2. Identify titles and industries

Now that you know what companies to target, think about the titles that buy your products and services. Is it a VP of Manufacturing or Human Resources?What about IT? Who else is involved?

Your salespeople will know. Go ask them.

3. Ask all the questions (Thanks to Ten Ton Marketing for these questions.)

• What's this person’s role in the buying process?Decision maker, champion, or influencer?
• What work issues keep this person up at night?
• What motivates this person to take action?
• How familiar is s/he with the solution you offer?
• What sources does this person turn to for information and daily news?
• How does the prospect go about making business decisions?
• What types of organizations does this person belong to and what events does he or she attend?
• Does this person seek advice from colleagues, industry peers, and/or unbiased third parties? If so, where?
• How is he or she dealing with the problem today?
• What phrases does the prospect use to describe the issues he or she is facing?
• Does this person prefer high-level details or a deep dive into a topic?
• What prevents this type of buyer from choosing us?

4. Leverage all contact points

To get answers to these questions, get information from all the places you can. Talk to people who deal with customers, like support and sales. Ask questions on Linkedin and Twitter. Create a survey in a tool like SurveyMonkey and have inside sales call to complete it. Participate in blogs and online communities.Ask questions and keep asking -- till you get a 360 degree view.

5. Revise it every few months

Don't think one and done. Personas are an endless quest for perfection. You'll continually learn more and more. So periodically revisit your personas and make them better and better. Set bi-monthly meetings to review.

What do you think? We love comments and people who share our content. Click on Comments at the top of the article.

What do you think? We love comments and people who share.

Jeff Ogden is President ofFindNew Customers “Lead Generation Made Simple” Find New Customers helps companies rapidly grow revenue by transforming how they attract, engage and win new customers. Contact Find New Customers by calling (516) 495-9350 or sending an email to sales at findnewcustomers.com

Find New Customers helps companies (with 150 to 5,000 employees and complex products) deliverlow cost lead generation developing and implementingmarketing leadgeneration programs to improve the way you find andacquire high qualitysales leads using best practices inb2b lead generation.

Related Articles
  Buyer Personas are the Foundation upon which Demand Generation is Built
  Using Buyer Personas in B2B Marketing
  7 Tips for Developing a Brand Personality and Brand Personas for Your Business or Website
  Marketing to Your Buyer Personas
  The crazy, complex world of B2B marketing today
  David Meerman Scott talks about thought leadership
  What is Lead Nurturing?
  Lead Nurturing Overview
  2011 in Review for Mad Marketing TV
  5 tips to use when selling your business
  60% of the Sales Cycle is Over – BEFORE a buyer talks to your Salesperson
  The 7 Keys to B2B Marketing Success
  Marketing Strategies for Building Customer Relations
  Buy software is easy. Fixing lead generation is hard.
  Mad Marketing TV
  Developing Personas to Help You with Targeting
  Inside the Mind of the B2B Buyer - New Paths to Purchase
  5 tips to engage new customers
  Giving Personality to Your Personas
  The business process that no longer works

Article Tags: b2b demand generation, b2b lead generation, btob demand generation, btob lead generation, demand gen, demand generation, demand generation companies, demand generation company, find new customers, lead gen, lead generation, lead generation companies, lead generation company, sales lead generation



Related Forum Posts
Business Tips - How about: Tips for managers to handle employees more effectively? Tips on how to deal with difficult customers? Tips on how to deal more effectively with suppliers? The only three I have in mind right now, but will try to come up with something else. Chris
Re: Buy An Established Affiliate Marketing Website - Hi David and GT, thanks for posting this here. My site is going for way below value and will be a great deal for someone. The links provided are a great resource for anyone looking to buy and sell websites. The Internet is all about information and you can know what you are getting before you buy. It's a little better than days past where it was "Buyer Beware". Steve
Re: This ones a winner - Dear Sboggs Congratulations on your networking idea. The guys that want $20K might be trying to bleed you or perhaps their approach is just to complex and expensive. I'm a hardware guy so I can't help with your issue. Have you studied networking and programming? You might be able to make your idea fly with some training. You can buy a website and have it online in 20 minutes. Developing a web site that generates traffic requires some work.
Re: Anyone Uses Elance.com? Guru.com? Rentacoder.com? - I've had quite a bit of success on oDesk.com. I've never used Elance so I can't compare. I like oDesk.com 'cos I get to sort thru people (e.g. within a certain bid range) with a single click. I find their help response very quick and I like the oDesk Team software that "providers" must install. This gives me the Buyer more insight as to what I am paying for. The Team software takes screenshots of the Providers screen on 10 min increments so I can see that the person is infact doing work for me.
How do you set a value on a business? - Hello there! I have a friend that's looking to sell their business. I would like to know how a business gets valued. Can someone help me here? Here's some fairlyaccurate numbers: Gross sales: $153,000 (3 year avg) Income: $75,000 (3 year avg) I've heard that there's a ratio that can determine the value. Does anybody know what it is? The buyer wants to see P&L's. Is their some type of disclosure agreement that protects the seller... How is this typically done? After all, the buyer is a competitor... Buyer has suggested deposit, then pmt plans. I'm under the impression that this is common practice in the sale of a business. If so, what's the best way to approach this proposition as a seller? Thanks in advance for your feedback!


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Starting A Set of Books

Download a template or see a lawyer?

The new marketing question. Will they follow?

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.