B2B Buyer Personas: The 6 Types of B2B Buyers on the Internet (Part 2)

by | Aug 27, 2013

This is part two of a four-part blog series discussing the six “types” of B2B buyer personas that occupy the digital space. We also offer some practical tips on how to adapt your sales and marketing strategies to make it easier for your buyer to receive the correct messaging at the correct time.

Part one of this blog series talked about how buyers have changed dramatically with the increased capabilities and use of the internet and web-based technologies. We will now look at the six new buyer types or personas in the B2B space today.  

buyer-personas

Different Buyer Personas

The Window Shopper

The first type of buyer personas thrives in the freedom inherent to the internet. She is spontaneous, flexible, impulsive and easily distracted. Unlike her pre-internet predecessor who had to methodically preplan B2B purchases using limited resources, today’s B2B buyer can float in and out of the buying cycle as she chooses.

No longer inhibited by a temporally structured and linear buying cycle with a predetermined result, the window shopper can take herself through the buying cycle at her own pace. She may see something she cannot live without and buy almost immediately. Or, she may take her team through nearly the entire sales process and then get distracted by a more pressing business issue.

The flighty and spontaneous nature of the window shopper can be frustrating for B2B salesmen trying to build momentum toward a sale. The important thing to remember when selling to a window shopper is, even though she may not be following the normal timeline of your buying process, there are still certain stages she needs to move through (pain, discovery, evaluation of alternatives, purchase, repurchase). These stages can be mapped to many different buyer personas for effectiveness.

This is a situation where marketing automation can be of great value.  By creating digital content to match each stage of the buying process and then monitoring engagement with that content using marketing automation, you can intuitively understand where each prospect is in the buying cycle, despite the unpredictable timeline. Once you understand more about where each prospect is at, you can try to guide the window shopper’s impulses to the next stage by creating a sense of importance in your marketing content to accelerate the purchase.

b2b buyer personasThe Device Queen

The next type of buyer is the uber-connected technology addict.  She has a MacBook, a desktop, an iPhone, a Kindle and an iPad.  She has apps set up on all of them to give her instant updates on the things she’s interested in. She’s tweeted twice and read three blog posts since I started writing this paragraph.

In the digital space, you’ll find the device queen everywhere. She’ll be on a mobile app one moment and her desktop the next, going wherever her next whim takes her.  In order to sell to this person, you need to be everywhere she is. This means you need to be able to engage with her on her phone, computers and tablets.

The first step in doing this is making sure all of your marketing content is compatible with mobile devices.  While it may not make sense to invest in building your own mobile app, it is pretty simple to make sure your graphics, videos and text are in formats that can be easily viewed on all mobile devices. The second step in engaging with a device queen is to offer many different options for consuming the same content. Sometimes she will feel like watching a 30-minute webcast on her desktop, but other times she would rather have a quick, mobile summary in 140 characters or less. Offer her both, and then make sure she can find the information on search engines as easily as possible through intelligent SEO optimization.

For the next part of this blog series profiling the second two buyer personas, click here.

If you would like more educational content on how integrating insights about your buyers with marketing automation can affect your sales, click here. To learn more about the sales and marketing outsourcing services we offer (including marketing automation implementation, content development and lead nurturing), you can check out our services page.  If you are interested in a free review of your sales cycle, you can request one here.

B2B Buyer Personas: The 6 Types of B2B Buyers on the Internet (Part 1)

by | Aug 26, 2013

buyer-persona

If you’ve been reading blogs about B2B sales and marketing, you’ve likely heard that “the buyer now controls the sales process.” The statement is repeated often because it’s true, and a failure to incorporate this truth into your sales strategy will cause you to lose customers to your competitors.

The buyer’s new power is a result of the internet and internet-based technologies. Whereas going through a list of vendors from an industry magazine or browsing booths at a trade show used to be how your B2B buyer found you, the buyer now has many more resources available to help them make purchasing decisions, which often contributes to their buyer persona profile.

Buyers now get their information in the form of digital articles, blog posts, tweets, Facebook posts, YouTube videos, Instagram pictures, webcasts, etc. This increasing interaction with digital information on a mass level has not only affected the economic structure of business, but the sociological one as well.

As the buying process changed with the introduction of web-based technologies, buyers changed too.  Buyers adapted new traits and behaviors conducive to the new digital space they occupy. By understanding these new traits or characteristics and incorporating these insights into your sales strategies, you can make better connections, earn more trust and ultimately, close more deals.

We have a strong belief that more and more B2B products are “Bought” then “Sold”.  The habits of buyers are now proving that the buyer wants to feel like they are in control of their education and early stage buying process. Once they have short listed and “bought,”  they are much more open to being “sold” by your closer.  Because let’s face it, it’s much more fun to buy something than to be sold.

In this four part blog series (this is part 1),  we outline six “types” or buyer personas of B2B buyers that occupy the digital space and offer some practical tips on how to adapt your sales and marketing strategies to make it easier for your buyer.

As a quick summary of the types of buyer persona:

The first buyer persona is the Window Shopper, whose flighty tendencies disturb the normal B2B buying timeline. Next, we have the Device Queen who spends half of her time on her iPad. Then, we have the Mystery Man—this guy is as intriguing as he is annoying. Then there is the Eager Beaver who wants everything done, like yesterday. Next is the Worrywart, who needs a bit of hand-holding to be assured he is making the right choice. Last, we have the Know-it-All who forces you to be at the top of your game if you want to impress.

For the next part of this blog series profiling the first two buyer personas, click here.

If you would like more educational content on how integrating insights about your buyers with marketing automation can affect your sales, click here. To learn more about the sales and marketing outsourcing services we offer (including marketing automation implementation, content development and lead nurturing), you can check out our services page.  If you are interested in a free review of your sales cycle, you can request one here.

B2B Buyer Personas: The 6 Types of B2B Buyers on the Internet (Part 1)

by | Aug 26, 2013

If you’ve been reading blogs about B2B sales and marketing, you’ve likely heard that “the buyer now controls the sales process.” The statement is repeated often because it’s true, and a failure to incorporate this truth into your sales strategy will cause you to lose customers to your competitors.

The buyer’s new power is a result of the internet and internet-based technologies. Whereas going through a list of vendors from an industry magazine or browsing booths at a trade show used to be how your B2B buyer found you, the buyer now has many more resources available to help them make purchasing decisions.

Buyers now get their information in the form of digital articles, blog posts, tweets, Facebook posts, YouTube videos, Instagram pictures, webcasts, etc. This increasing interaction with digital information on a mass level has not only affected the economic structure of business, but the sociological one as well.

As the buying process changed with the introduction of web-based technologies, buyers changed too.  Buyers adapted new traits and behaviors conducive to the new digital space they occupy. By understanding these new traits or characteristics and incorporating these insights into your sales strategies, you can make better connections, earn more trust and ultimately, close more deals.

We have a strong belief that more and more B2B products are “Bought” then “Sold”.  The habits of buyers are now proving that the buyer wants to feel like they are in control of their education and early stage buying process. Once they have short listed and “bought,”  they are much more open to being “sold” by your closer.  Because let’s face it, it’s much more fun to buy something than to be sold.

In this four part blog series (this is part 1),  we outline six “types” or buyer personas of B2B buyers that occupy the digital space and offer some practical tips on how to adapt your sales and marketing strategies to make it easier for your buyer.

As a quick summary of the types:

The first buyer persona is the Window Shopper, whose flighty tendencies disturb the normal B2B buying timeline. Next, we have the Device Queen who spends half of her time on her iPad. Then, we have the Mystery Man—this guy is as intriguing as he is annoying. Then there is the Eager Beaver who wants everything done, like yesterday. Next is the Worrywart, who needs a bit of hand-holding to be assured he is making the right choice. Last, we have the Know-it-All who forces you to be at the top of your game if you want to impress.

For the next part of this blog series profiling the first two buyer personas, click here.

If you would like more educational content on how integrating insights about your buyers with marketing automation can affect your sales, click here. To learn more about the sales and marketing outsourcing services we offer (including marketing automation implementation, content development and lead nurturing), you can check out our services page.  If you are interested in a free review of your sales cycle, you can request one here.

Best Practices in Sales in 2013

by | Aug 23, 2013

best practices in salesIn 2013, the world of sales belongs to the customer. Buyers now have control of the many aspects of the sales process and want to educate themselves for a large portion of the buying cycle. Best practices in sales are now focused on getting your customer the information they need, however they want it.

Here are 3 best practices in sales in 2013:

  1. Give your buyer everything they need to take themselves through their own education.

Todays buyer’s are much more independent than in the past and want to learn about products and services on their own.  You therefore need to have everything buyers need to know about your product or service readily availably in an online format. Modern buyers love ease and transparency, so make it easy for them to find what they’re looking for. Use simple clear navigation on your homepage and make sure your value proposition is immediately clear.

2.  Selling is only for the close. Offer value until then.

We generally like people who help us solve the problems we face. We generally hate salesmen. Apply this to your sales process by offering your prospects value in the form of informative blog posts, educational white papers and well-produced videos. If you are the one who has helped your prospects through the early stages of the sales process—discovery and education—then there is a good chance they will come back when they are ready to buy.

3.  Get your customer to talk about you.

Recent industry reports are showing customer testimonials as one of the most effective marketing tactics today. You can get great feedback from customers by sending out short surveys or asking them personally. Showcase your positive feedback on your website and over social media. LinkedIn has an option on company pages to request recommendations from your customers.

For more best practices in sales in 2013 , click here. If you would like to know more about how the rules of selling and buying have changed and what to do to adapt, you can download our white paper called, “New Rules for Sales and Marketing in 2013”.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

Creating Marketing Automation Rules – Best Practices

by | Aug 22, 2013

Creating marketing automation rules flowchartOne of the key features of any marketing automation software is creating marketing automation rules based on a variety of factors including activities, events, scores, grades, dates, etc.

Keeping track of all your active automation rules is essential. A few scenarios to consider:

You have a form for a whitepaper download that triggers an autoresponder and then a 3-part follow-up email sequence. Overlapping that, you also have a drip program that triggers after a prospect has been in your database for 14 days. It’s essential to be aware of the details of these overlapping rules (and all others that are related) so that you don’t, for example, have 2 emails go to the same prospect the same day.

You are sending out case studies to a select group of prospects and want to suppress from delivery, people in companies where the case studies originated. Make sure you consider all the possible fields that could identify a prospect in a specific company including variations on domain names in email addresses, abbreviated vs. spelled out company names, or companies that are children of the parent company.

You need to update the Source record of a collection of prospects and want to make sure all prospects’ Source is accurately reflected. Things to consider include: reviewing existing “Source” assignment rules, analyzing prospect records to make sure you are correctly segmenting and updating records (e.g. updating blank records only), and previewing your rule results for accuracy before running the actual rule.

In the above examples, paying close attention to your data and respective automation rules will lead you to more accurate data for reporting and more successful targeted campaigns. Not paying attention will lead to, at minimum, explaining your mistake, and, at worst, losing a potential deal.