Buyer Persona – How to better understand your customer

How many times have you had your vendors come to your office, ready to put on their “Dog and Pony” show for the hottest new product hitting the market? They create an amazing presentation, point out all the great new features, and tell you this will sell like a bestseller. Energized, he quickly put together a marketing mix of materials to spread the word about this new product, using the postcards, e-newsletters, and point-of-purchase displays provided by the vendor. His message is clear to his customers: this is the next must-have product. If you don’t buy now, someone else will beat you. Then, after launching his marketing campaign, he calls his supplier again and asks why he thinks no one has bought the new product from him. The problem? He was so busy putting together a strong message that he would sell the benefits of the new product that he forgot to determine who would really benefit: who cares? He forgot to assess and target the buyer person from him.

If you look at the recent presidential election, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin worked hard to get hockey moms to the polls. She was looking for a buyer persona: a detailed description of a profile that represents the real audience she was trying to attract. In previous years, the shopper persona of “soccer mom” morphed into “security mom” as violence and terrorism became big issues in the political arena. Understanding her clients’ buyer personas allows her to create goals, programs, and strategies around her clients’ decision-making process. Do you always expect a sale? Do some of your customers buy in bulk instead of single items? How is the economy affecting your budget? What types of marketing materials do they respond best to? postcards? Electronic newsletters? Personal phone calls? All of this information is critical to understanding who your customer is and what motivates them. If you really understand your buyer, or in this case your customer, then you can put together a specific plan based on qualified likes and dislikes. It doesn’t matter if you have a great product. If your message is not directed at the customer’s needs, you will be ignored.

Here are some ways to create a buyer’s image for your current and potential customers:

– Listen. British Army officer and founder of the Boy Scouts, Sir Robert Baden-Powell, once said, “If you listen and watch your occupation, you will earn much more than you can talk about.” Proactively reach out to your customers and ask them what matters to them in today’s economy. What do they need for support? What types of products and services do your consumers need and want? Then listen to the answers. If you get involved in selling your products to sell, your message will fall on deaf ears. Listening is the first step to understanding your customers.

– Data processing. If you are not already doing so, you should constantly search your database for “similarities”. After you’ve listened well, match up those customers with similar needs and ideas and create a persona for that group. Do you have multiple clients that are located in the same geographic location? That could be another target group. Look for similarities within your customer database and you’ll be able to develop different categories to specifically target.

– Ask for the reference. “You can’t get what you don’t ask for” certainly applies here. If you’re having a great experience with a particular client, ask for a referral. Chances are, a particular customer has “friends” with a similar buyer personality. You can add them to your growing database and target them with messages tailored to their needs.

– Use the return on investment. As with anything else you spend time and financial resources on, building a buyer’s image should ultimately provide you with some kind of return on investment. If you create a persona and market to them, but don’t see any results, how are you going to measure what worked and what didn’t? What steps will you take to go back and modify that person profile until it works correctly for you?

Let’s be honest. If you are creating a message for no one in particular, you will fall short. It cannot be marketed to the masses (although some do try). Especially in today’s economy, you need to know your customers inside and out and take the time to get to know them better. You need to get to the heart of what customers want and then build your messages and programs around that. Not everyone wants the same thing. Making that wrong assumption will cost you!