Researching Buyers and How They Buy

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www.akoonu.com Researching Buyers and How They Buy Decision Maker Gate Keeper End User Influencer Advocate Approver Influencer Supporter

Transcript of Researching Buyers and How They Buy

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Researching Buyers and How They Buy

Decision Maker Gate Keeper

End User Influencer

Advocate Approver

Influencer Supporter

www.akoonu.com

Content

»Buyer  Personas  and  Journey  Maps

»Organizing  your  audience

»Building  your  personas  and  maps

»Best  practices  for  your  research  

»Buyer-­‐centric  marketing  toolkit  

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Buyer  PersonasAggregate  representations  of  the  actual  buyers  influencing  or  making  decisions  about  your  solutions  and  are  based  on real people,  insights,  and  experiences.

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! "Journey  Maps

Descriptions  of  the  steps  – from  your  buyers’  point  of  view  – they  execute  from initial  consideration  of  a  solution  to  purchase  decision  and  finally  to  implementing  and  using  the  product  or  service.

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Why Personas and Journey Maps?

Who What Why Where When How

Personas

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Who  is  involved   in  purchase  process

What  they  care  about  as  people   and  professionals

What are  the  buyers’  

motivations

Where  they  seek

information

How  they  prefer to  be  interacted  

with

JourneyMaps

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The  roles  people   play  in  the  purchase

process

What  are  the  needs  each  step  of  the  

way

When  is  best  time  to  

engage  with  each  person

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They provide in-depth understanding of buyers and how they buy.

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ORGANIZING YOUR PERSONAS AND JOURNEYS

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Lines of Business

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Sets of one or more highly related products or services which fulfill a particular customer business need.

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Products

Services

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Market Segments

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Groupings of prospective companies based on shared characteristics that have the same needs and behave in the same way through a buying process.

Line  of  Business

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Market Segmentation – B2C

Demographics Psychographics Geographic Behavioral

Based  on  personalattributes  of  consumer.

Based on  motivations   of  the  consumer.

Based  on  definedgeographic  boundaries.

Based  on  actual  consumer  behavior.

• Age• Gender• Nationality• Income• Occupation• Family Status• Education• …

• Personality  traits• Values• Attitudes• Interests• Lifestyles• Beliefs• …

• Region• Country• Climate• Population• …

• Loyalty• Benefits• Usage• Occasion• Readiness  to  buy• …

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Market Segmentation – B2B

Firmographics Needs Geographic Behavioral

Based  on  attributes  of  target  business.

Based on  motivations   of  the  consumer.

Based  on  definedgeographic  boundaries.

Based  on  actual  consumer  behavior.

• Revenue• Size  in  Employees• Industry  (SIC)• …

• Business Challenge• Application• Requirements• …

• Region• Country• …

• Loyalty• Benefits• Usage• Readiness  to  buy• …

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BUILDING PERSONAS AND BUYERS JOURNEYS

Di scov e r i ng L e a r ni ng Choosi ng Pur cha si ng I m pl e m e nti ng

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Process Overview

Use  a  Framework

Initial  Hypothesis

Internal  Interviews

Customer  Interviews

Aggregate  and  

Synthesis

Personas  and  

Journey  Maps

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Persona Framework

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Demographics

Goals  &  Initiatives

Solution   Fit  &  Criteria

Buying  Process

Interaction  &  Content  Preferences

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Journey Maps Framework: Stages

Stage Stage  Type Description

Discovering MarketingThe  buyer  has  reached  a  tipping  point,  realizing  they  have  a  pain  point  they  need  to  learn  more  about.  The  buyer  conducts  educational  research  to  better  understand  the  pain  point  they’re  experiencing.  

Learning Marketing The  buyer  researches  possible  solutions  to  solving  their  defined  problem  and  begin  to  identify  specific  providers.  

Choosing Sales The  buyer  needs  to  prove   to  internal  stakeholders  that  a  solution  is  worth  employing  to  address  their  problem.  

Purchasing Sales The  buyer  is  actually  procuring   the  solution  and  preparing  for  owning,  maintaining,  and  deploying  the  solution.

Implementing Product The  buyer  is  deploying  the  solution,  setting  up  users,  receiving  training,  etc.  

Proving Product The  buyer  is  now  using  the  solution  and  evaluating  its  qualities,  benefits,  and  ROI  or  soon   to  be  ROI.

Owning Product The  buyer  is  using  the  solution,  maintaining  it,  receiving  updates  on  new  capabilities,  realizing  its  ROI,  and  expanding  their  usage  of  the  solution.

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Journey Maps Framework: Dimensions

Dimension Description

Participation Levels How each  persona  participates  in  a  stage  of  the  journey

Needs What  the  buyer   requires  in  order   to  go  through   their  buying  process  at  each  stage.  This  includes  informational,  process  requirements,  internal  milestones,  political  alignment, etc.

Activities   What  the  buyer   is  actually  doing  at  this  stage  to  fulfill  their  needs.  These  may  be  group  or  individual activities,  and  both   internal  and  external  actions.

Preferences How the  buyer  prefers  to  engaged  with  and  communicated  too   through  content  and  other  interactions.

Barriers A  concern,  an  obstacle,  a  perception,  or  a  requirement  that  must  be  sufficiently  addressed  in  order  to  move  onto   the  next  stage.

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Journey Maps Framework: Levels of Participation

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Buying Roles and Participation Levels both capture aspects of the team dynamics of the Buying committee

Buying  RolesDeciderInfluencerAdvisorUserProcurerSpecifier

Process  Participation  Level# Driver! Participant% Gate  Keeper○ Not  Involved

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Journey Maps Framework

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Together the Journey Stages, Journey Dimensions, Participation Levels and Personas provide a detailed framework to understand how buyers buy.

Barriers  PreferencesActivities

Buyer  Needs

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RESEARCH BEST PRACTICES

QUANTITATIVE  AND  QUALITATIVE(NOT  MAGICAL,  DIVINED  OR  INTUITED)

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Leverage your Sales and Marketing Data

» Analysis  of  data  is  an  important  first  step  in  understanding  the  buying  audience

» Key  Sources:» CRM  Platform

» Marketing  Automation  Platforms

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Conducting Surveys and Interviews

Who  to  Survey

• Internal  stakeholders• People  with  direct, daily  contact  with  audience

Who  to  Interview

• Recently  acquired  customers

• 5-­‐7  interviews  per  Persona

What  to  ask

• Professionally  relevant  attributes  and  goals

• Purchase  process  • Participants  involved• Sources  and  types  of  information

• Concerns  at  each  stage• Barriers  to  overcome

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Typical Interview Questions

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What  are  your  current  business  challenges?

What's  the  primary  need  you  want  solutions   like  ours  to  help  you  address?

What  concerns   or  major  questions   do  you  have  about  these  types  of  solutions?

What's  the  last  online   resource  you  remember  sharing?  Whom  did  you  share  it  with?

What  was  your  role  in  the  buying  process  (decider,  influencer,   etc.)?

Can  you  walk  me  through  what  your  buying  process  from  beginning  to  end?

Which   colleagues  did  you  collaborate  with  along  the  way?

Which   colleagues  did  you  need  approval  or  buy-­‐in   from  for  our  solution?   How  did  they  evaluate  our  solution?

Persona  Interview Journey  Map  Interview

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Interviewing Customers

Demographics

Roles  and  Responsibilities

Goals  and  Initiatives

Buying  Criteria

Buying  Activities

Content  Preferences

Internal    Barriers&

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Tips

1. Interview  Recent  Customers  Who  Align  Well  to  Your  Current  Buyer  Personas

2. Call  Potential  Customer  Interviewees  and  Follow-­‐Up  with  an  Email

3. Provide  Your  Questions  to  Customers  Beforehand

4. Practice  the  Interview  Beforehand

5. Have  Just  1  or  2  People  from  the  Marketing  Team  Join  the  Call

6. Ask  the  Customer  If  You  May  Record  the  Call

7. Thank  the  Customer  for  Taking  Time  to  Speak  with  You

8. Avoid  a  Narrow  View

9. Don’t  be  Afraid  to  Ad  Lib

10. Let  the  Customer  Talk

11. Clarify  Questions  with  Sample  Responses

12. Record  Direct  Quotes

13. Introduce  Your  Next  Round  of  Questions

14. Overlap  is  Fine

15. Repeat  Lists

16. Provide  a  Thank  You  Gift

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Synthesizing the Interview Data

» You  learn  things  from  the  very  first  interview

» After  2-­‐3  interviews  you  start  to  hear  some  of  the  same  things

» After  5-­‐6  interviews  you  can  identify  what  are  the  true  commonalities  vs.  “the  noise”

»With  more  that  7-­‐8  interviews,  you  will  just  be  hearing  more  of  the  same…best  to  wait

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Amount of Work to Build a Persona

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Time  (hours)Framework/Process

Internal Surveys/Int.

Initial  SME  Session

Customer  Interviews

Synthesis  Workshop

50%

100%

Internal  Persona

ConceptPersona

Complete  Persona

TacticalWork

Strategic  Work

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More Tips and Resources

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www.akoonu.com/toolkit

Download  our  practical  toolkit:

Examples  of  in-­‐depth  personas  and  journey  maps

Frameworks  and  detailed  guides  for  building  personas  and  journey  maps

Best  practice  processes  and  tips  for  organizational  collaboration  on  buyer  insights

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350 Townsend Street, Suite 220San Francisco, CA 94107

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