understanding buyer profiles
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Understanding Buyer Profiles
First edition copyright 2012 Modern Media. All rights reserved.
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Contents
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 3
About us .............................................................................................................................................. 3
Why understanding your buyers is crucial ......................... ............................ ....................... ................ 4Multiple profiles .................................................................................................................................. 4
Getting the message right .................................................................................................................... 5
Different profiles: company and buyer................................................................................................. 5
The company profile ............................................................................................................................ 6
Ideal company profile .......................................................................................................................... 7
Company Profile .................................................................................................................................. 7
The stakeholder profile ........................................................................................................................ 8
Ideal stakeholder profile .................................................................................................................... 10
Key Stakeholder Profile ...................................................................................................................... 10
Making the most of the profiles ......................................................................................................... 11
Further information ........................................................................................................................... 11
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Understanding Buyer Profiles
First edition copyright 2012 Modern Media. All rights reserved.
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Introduction
Welcome to our guide to understanding target companies and buyer profiles. This booklet is intended
to help you really understand who your target audience is and how they behave, so that you can
develop appropriate strategies as part of your marketing.
Creating target company and buyer profiles is a great way to:
develop a clear picture of the kind of companies you are targeting understand the types of people you will be targeting within those companies understand how to reach out to them understand what motivates your existing and potential buyers build a picture of buying cycles so you know when and what to communicate understand what content or products are relevant to your audience understand which offers and promotions are suitable for your audience assess potential leads quickly
As with all things related to business, the more you plan, the better the results. It therefore pays to the
take the time to think about who your audience is, what youre going to do and how you're going to do
it. Knowing and understanding who youre targeting and how to talk to them will make closing sales
much more effective. More importantly, it will be a success.
About us
Modern Media works with numerous B2B clients, large and small. We're experienced technology
marketers and specialise in digital communications, including content strategy. This guide has been
created to share some of our experiences with you. We'd welcome the opportunity to show you how
building up a clear picture of your target companies and buyers will help you meet your business
objectives.
Nicola Ray
Director and co-founderModern Media
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Understanding Buyer Profiles
First edition copyright 2012 Modern Media. All rights reserved.
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Why understanding your buyers is crucial
In business-to-business marketing, organisations now face a changing environment. Budgets are being
slashed, buying cycles are increasing and the types of buyers likely to purchase are diversifying. Its
getting harder and harder to identify well qualified prospects, making marketing and sales jobs harder.
Businesses need to recognise opportunities that they can quickly and easily close, rather than spend
time chasing prospects that dont quite fit the bill. One way to do this is to develop a thorough
understanding of the types of business that will use your product or service and then build up a profile
of the buyers within that business.
It only makes sense to target those that are the most attractive and easiest to win. Therefore being
armed with knowledge about your buyers is critical to effective selling. Its the job of marketing toidentify those prospects and develop the relationship, slowly moving them down the sales funnel. Its
then the job of sales to close the deal. Both sales and marketing need to have a thorough understanding
and insight into the different buyer groups in order to increase sales rates.
By creating an accurate picture of your target companies and buyers, it becomes easier to find them.
Youll have a better understanding of the media they consume and what social channels they engage
with. Youll therefore know what channels to exploit in your lead generation strategy.
Multiple profilesBy undertaking this exercise, its likely that youll have multiple company profiles because you offer
different products or services. Likewise, within those companies, you will have different stakeholders.
Therefore you are likely to find that you have multiple company and buyer profiles.
An example might be a company that produces hardware for the testing of web applications. They may
typically sell to universities as well as to industry. In this case, they would need to develop a company
profile for each type of business that they sell to and then buyer profiles for the individuals within those
companies/institutions. This is essential as a university professor will have very different motivations
and concerns than a software engineer working for a web application agency.
Start with your best customers as you want to attract more business like them. If youre a start-up or in
early life and developing your sales list or client base, then use the knowledge acquired during your
market research and proof of concept phases to flesh out the profiles.
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Getting the message right
Its important to know the factual information about your target companies and buyers such as size,
sector, location and infrastructure. This only tells you half the picture though. Within an organisation
there are many potential buyers and influencers, each playing their part in the buying process and each
having different motivations and concerns.
Depending on who youre targeting, your communication will be different. Whats compelling for one
group wont be of interest to the other. By creating a picture of the different buyers and influencers
within an organisation, you can target the message appropriately to the right individual which will lead
to faster conversions.
Different profiles: company and buyer
There are two main types of profile in business-to-business marketing. The first is the company profile,
where its important to build a thorough picture of the company and factors, both internal and external,
affecting it. Create a company profile for each type of company you sell you.
The second type of profile is the buyer profile. As weve suggested above, there are likely to be multiple
stakeholders within an organisation. Some are purchase decision makers, some are influencers and
some are end users. Create a buyer profile for each type of stakeholder.
In the following pages, you will find considerations for creating company and buyer profiles, along with a
form to capture the information you gather.
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Understanding Buyer Profiles
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The company profile
The company profile allows sales and marketing to capture the most important attributes about their
best customers. These profiles dont just look at demographic considerations but also look further into
how the organisation is run, its behaviour and its current situation. These are far more influential in
determining whether a particular organisation is likely to be a good prospect.
Earlier, we mentioned creating a different company profile for the different types of companies you sell
to. It is also likely that you will require a company profile for each of your product offerings as well. Not
all companies will buy the same products from you. Therefore its good practice to create a
comprehensive target company profile for each of your products, as well as the sectors you serve.
We recommend looking at the following factors when fleshing out your company profiles:
Structural Factors
Structural factors examine the way the prospects business is set up. Are they centralised or
decentralised? What life stage are they in? Are they growing, stable or shrinking? Are they a local,
national or international company? Are they heavily unionised or non-union? Do they have a history of
acquisitions or organic growth?
Environmental Factors
Environmental factors are external to the prospect and relate to the market in which they operate. Are
they leaders or niche players? Do they set trends or follow them? Is their market share growing? Are
they affected by legislation or regulation? How immune are they to market fluctuations?
Behavioural Factors
Behavioural factors look at the way an organisation makes decisions and their management style. Do
they have a top-down approach or collaborative management style? Are they early adopters of
technology? What other similar products/systems have they bought in the past? What approval
mechanisms do they have in place? Is there a procurement process, if so what type?
Situational Factors (Issues, Trends and Trigger Events)
Situational factors consider the timing of events. Looking at what has happened in an organisation will
show opportunities and threats. For example, has the organisation recently been bought out? Has
there been a change in management? Have they been downsizing? Have they announced a new
strategy or initiative? Have they recently posted good or bad financials? Have there been any suddenchanges in their market?
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Ideal company profile
Company Profile
Category Description
Demographics: Size (No.
employees, turnover, etc)
Demographics: Sector(Industries, verticals,
niches)
Demographics: Location
(Geography)
Life Stage and Growth
Plans
Key Structural Factors:
Internal issues
Key Environmental Factors
(External issues)
Key Behavioural Factors
(How they make decisions,
How do they need to
change)
Key Situational Factors
(Other issues not
mentioned elsewhere)
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The stakeholder profile
These profiles identify the key influencers and purchase decision makers within an organisation. By
anticipating their likely responsibilities, goals, motivations and concerns, a thorough picture can be
created. From there it is much easier to anticipate issues or concerns and address them at the
appropriate point within the decision making cycle.
Each type of stakeholder will have a distinct profile. There will be similarities between the different
stakeholders, but there will also be core differences. Knowing how to address those issues or concerns
will result in faster conversions.
Its worth noting that these profiles are an average profile of the stakeholder. Not everyone will
conform to the traits outlined. These are simply the most common.
Types of stakeholder
There are four types of stakeholders. These are as follows:
Operational Champion: the person that drives the project
Executive Sponsor: the person that is most likely to fund the project
Technical Gatekeeper: the person who has to approve your technology
Financial Gatekeeper: the person who approves financial and legal terms
The Operational Champion is the one who is most likely to gather information, evaluate and propose
your product. They are therefore, likely to be the most influential stakeholder.
The Executive Sponsor is the one who makes the final purchase decision and therefore your secondmost important stakeholder.
We would recommend that you start with these two stakeholders for your most important services or
products.
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First edition copyright 2012 Modern Media. All rights reserved.
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When developing the profiles, we would recommend considering the following factors:
Typical Job Title(s)
What are the job titles of this stakeholder? This is essential information when compiling information for
marketing campaigns.
Reports To
Who is this person likely to report within the stakeholders organisation? What is the chain of
command?
Typical Responsibilities
What responsibilities does this stakeholder have? Which of these responsibilities will be affected by
your product or services solutions? What problems does the stakeholder have that your product or
service will address?
Typical Goals
What are the typical goals and objectives of the stakeholder within the organisation? What metrics are
associated with those goals?
Role in Buying Decision Process
What role does this type of stakeholder typically play with regard to the buying decision process for the
product or service youre selling?
Issues, Trends and Trigger Events
What are the key internal issues, external trends and specific trigger events that are likely to influence
their attitudes and/or behaviour? Consider this specifically in relation to their role within the buyingprocess and the types of problems that your offering is intended to address.
Typical Motivations
Consider the factors that would cause the stakeholder to move the buying decision process forwards.
What would motivate them?
Typical Concerns
Consider the factors that would cause the stakeholder to want to slow down or abandon the buying
decision process.
What Would Success Look Like?
When considering the problem youre trying to address with your products or services, what would be asuccessful outcome, or what would a successful outcome look like from the stakeholders perspective?
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Understanding Buyer Profiles
First edition copyright 2012 Modern Media. All rights reserved.
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Ideal stakeholder profile
Key Stakeholder Profile
Stakeholder Type(tick)
Operational
Champion
Executive
Sponsor
Technical
Gatekeeper
Financial
GatekeeperOther
Typical Job Title
Typically Reports To
Typical Responsibilities
Typical Goals (within
business)
Typical Role in Buying
Decision Process
Typical Issues, Trends
and Trigger Events
Typical Motivations
Typical Concerns
What would success
look like for them?
Media (News, Blogs,
Trade publications)
Social Media Channels
Notes
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Understanding Buyer Profiles
First edition copyright 2012 Modern Media. All rights reserved.
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Making the most of the profiles
By taking the time to develop your company and stakeholder profiles, youll gather valuable insights into
the best way to communicate at specific times during the decision making process. Marketing will be
able to identify prospects more effectively and move them gently down the sales funnel with considered
messages so that theyre ready for sales to convert. Sales will be more knowledgeable on the key
concerns during the later stages of the sales process and be able to close deals more effectively.
Overall, by completing these profiles youll be able to:
- inform marketing campaigns with accurate insights about target companies- identify which companies to target with communications- create a sales qualification criteria for companies- develop messages that resonant with the appropriate stakeholders- develop sales tools that satisfy the informational needs of key stakeholders- identify goals, concerns and motivations during the buying decision process for the key
stakeholders
- pull in the data to your CRM system to make it easy to capture and review these indicators
Further information
For further information about building up buyer profiles for companies or stakeholders, get in touch.
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Understanding Buyer Profiles
First edition copyright 2012 Modern Media. All rights reserved.
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