The B2B Buyer Persona
CONTENTS
- Definition of buyer persona
- From the target group to the buyer persona
- The good-fit / bad-fit matrix
- The Buying Center
- The components of the buyer persona
- You should ask your buyer persona these questions
- Templates & tools for creating your buyer persona
- Buyer Persona Workshop - This is what it could look like
- Buyer personas ready? And now?
The term buyer persona is more than just another one of those marketing buzzwords. It's an important tool for understanding your customers better!
Your buyer persona provides you with a detailed profile of your customers' needs, preferences and behaviors by representing your fictitious ideal customer, including their name and biography.
This not only allows you to get to know the needs of your target group even more personally, but also to develop tailor-made marketing strategies.
From the target group to the buyer persona
A typical target group usually comprises a more or less large group of people with certain common characteristics. For example, the industry, regions, etc. However, the individual people have different behaviors, problems and needs that a target group definition does not explicitly address.
The aim of a buyer persona is to develop a deeper understanding of your ideal customer. It is about identifying this ideal customer precisely, knowing their tasks and goals and thus better understanding their demands and expectations of your company. What role does he play in the purchasing decision? What are their personal and corporate wishes and goals? What character traits influence their purchase intention?
A buyer persona therefore offers a much more personal insight into the purchasing behavior of your customers than is possible with a pure target group description.
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Step 1: The good-fit / bad-fit matrix
Before we start with the buyer persona, it is important to know your target company exactly. To do this, you should first think about the criteria you would use to define it. What makes an ideal customer for you? Examples could be
- Company size
- sector
- Software in use
- Age / situation of the company
- Are certain products already in use
- Company structure etc.
You should then evaluate these criteria. And it is best to do this as precisely as possible, in the form of two or three full sentences. In our experience, it is very helpful to first consider which companies do not suit you at all.
Here is an example:
Let's say we are a company that offers SaaS software to perform small business accounting. The good-fit / bad-fit matrix could end up looking like this:
Once you have basically defined your ideal customer, the next step is to look at the key decision-makers and influencers in the company. In B2B, you are often dealing with a so-called buying center, which includes all people who play an important role in the purchasing decision.
Step 2: The Buying Center
INITIATOR
Initiates the purchasing process. For example, the head of a specialist department who needs new software or the IT manager who is looking to change their IT landscape.
USER
They will work with the product later. If he is against it, this can determine the success of the entire project. So they definitely need to be won over.
PURCHASER
He obtains offers, negotiates them and takes care of contract processing. He needs a clear benefit argument and wants to buy as cheaply as possible.
INFLUENCERS
Typical for this role: the works council or the data protection officer, who are indirectly involved in the purchasing project and influence the decision-makers.
DECISION-MAKER
Usually someone from senior management who makes the final decision. They can also override other stakeholders.
GATEKEEPER
Often collects the information and passes it on - or sometimes holds back. He has an influence on which offers even reach the buying center. If, for example, he sees significant security flaws in a piece of software, it has no chance of being considered.
Now it gets exciting:
Who is behind the individual roles in the buying center? What motivates these people, what drives them, what prevents them from making a decision? With the help of a so-called empathy map, as developed by the American consulting firm innosight (we have adapted this somewhat based on several persona models and our own customer and project experiences), you can work out your ideal customers in the form of fictitious people. This step is perfect as a workshop basis.
The components of the buyer persona
Now that you know how to approach a buyer persona, the question arises as to what is included in one. There are countless tools and templates available online. But beware! Our experience shows: These templates alone are not enough to create a buyer persona! The components of an effective buyer persona include demographic information about the person, such as name, age, gender, place of residence, etc. In addition, there are the professional and personal goals of the fictitious person, as well as their interests, values and beliefs. The individual pain points and challenges that a product can help to overcome are also particularly interesting.
The components of an effective buyer persona include demographic information about the person, such as name, age, gender, place of residence, etc. In addition, there are the professional and personal goals of the fictitious person, as well as their interests, values and beliefs. The individual pain points and challenges that a product can help to overcome are also particularly interesting.
1. what is the buyer persona called? What does she look like?
2. what job does he or she have?
3. what does the buyer persona's company look like (industry, number of employees, income, etc.)?
4. what are their goals and wishes?
5. what are their biggest challenges and concerns?
6. what are they passionate about (what about your product/company appeals to them?)
7. what experience does she have (perhaps with similar products / services?)
8. how and where does she get her technical / professional information?
9. how does she communicate with suppliers (e-mail, telephone, social media, ...)?
10. what is the buyer persona like in private (lifestyle, interests, hobbies,...)?
Phew, quite extensive, isn't it? But don't worry! You don't have to copy & paste all this and create a checklist. Mark has already done the job for you! If you like: Simply download our personal empathy map and all the questions as an editable checklist as a worksheet!
(And if you get stuck: We know a pilot who will be happy to help you...)
Working with your buyer persona
- Keeping the buyer persona alive and anchoring it in the company.
- Develop a customer journey based on your buyer persona.
- Use the buyer persona as a basis for your strategic decisions.
- Develop your brand and your marketing strategy based on the buyer personas.
Buyer persona tools and templates
Buyer persona templates can be used to visualize your buyer persona insights. But be careful! The use of a template alone does not replace your preliminary work! Therefore, please do not see them as a tool for developing a buyer persona, but rather as a layout template. You can find out more about this in the blog post "Buyer persona tools and templates - helpful, but...".
Some buyer persona templates to download:
Marketing persona from marketo
Buyer persona template from filestage
Make My Persona from Hubspot
Buyer Persona Workshop: Better in-house or with an external partner?
So, by now you've read up quite a bit on the topic of buyer personas, stumbled across the Call2Action twice, perhaps downloaded our templates... What more do you need? This is certainly a good place to start.
Do you want to delve deeper into the topic and get to grips with creating your buyer persona effectively? Then read our blog posts on the topic or let us inform you about workshops and consulting services.
6 tips at the end
In times of content shock and often far too many interchangeable offers, it is all the more important that you know your customers well. However, it is not enough to fill out a nice empathy card and that's it. From our point of view, you should consider the following:
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Your target group is a matter for the boss - don't work in a quiet room, but involve as many colleagues as possible. Inside sales, account managers, support, product management or marketing. They all have their own view of your ideal customer.
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Store the personas in the CRM system - knowledge is power. The more transparently you deal with the topic, the more it will benefit you in the end. Ideally, you can assign new contacts to one of your defined buyer personas in the CRM system. Either through your inside sales, intelligent address enrichment or automatic processes in your CRM.
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Visualize your buyer personas - Give your buyer persona a face, hang it up in the office, perhaps even as a large poster.
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Develop a customer journey based on the personas - Buyer personas are the perfect basis for visualizing your customer journey. This is because they may look different for different target groups. This gives you a powerful tool to optimize the touchpoints with your company. Because you know: How they sell is why they win!
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Talk to your target group - live the topic! Every trade fair and every customer day offers the opportunity to exchange ideas with your target group and gather more information. Take advantage of it!
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Review regularly - Please, please, please, don't let your buyer personas languish in the bottom drawer of your desk, but revise them regularly.
