Critical Path To Purchase | Tony Zambito Founder of Buyer Personas and Buyer Insights Research

Critical Path to Purchase

Beyond Buyer Profiling To Buyer Personification

Segmentation has been a staple of business marketing and sales for several decades. The concept of breaking down a potential market or industry into smaller target segments is a standard technique taught in business schools and used by many organizations. Beginning in the 1980’s and 1990’s, we began to see a shift to individualism. The understanding of not only the segments and organizations that buys but also the individual that buys. We saw the influence of the Meyers-Briggs Testing philosophy extended into the business world. Whereby sales organizations, in particular, went through training on how to adapt to the personalities of…

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3 Ways CMOs Can Achieve Deeper Insights Into The Customer Journey

As CMOs look ahead, gaining greater clarity into how buying behaviors are changing is becoming one of their most important aims. Never more pressing as digital channels expand and become more immersed in the conduct of commerce. At the same time, the ability of marketing to influence and support the entire customer lifecycle continues to expand. Such pressing concerns have CMOs seeking better ways to understand the entire buying cycle, as opposed to marketing’s traditional concern with building awareness. The idea of understanding the customer journey or buyer’s journey has come into vogue during the past couple of years. Interestingly,…

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7 Big Questions For B2B Marketing Leaders in 2014

The New Year is underway. The first quarter is nearing an end. Some of the best-laid plans have already vaporized due to unexpected events. While some plans are either tracking on-target – or – will be missed. Each year, B2B business must meet the challenge of our time – keeping up with rapid new developments in digital technologies and changing buying behaviors. Along with this challenge each year, comes a new set of questions: 1. Should Content Marketing Be Our Number One Priority? According to nearly 2500 marketers surveyed by Adobe and eConsultancy, 36% believe so followed closely by social…

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Why Are 76% of Content Marketers Forgetting Sales Enablement?

24%. That is it. At the recent Hubspot Inbound Conference in August, this percentage was mentioned. It represents the percentage, from Hubspot’s recent State of inbound Marketing report, of marketers surveyed who do have agreements with sales on defining lead responsibilities. Very surprising and no wonder there have been increasing indications of content marketing ineffectiveness. Half The Story Statistics being statistics let us presume further validation would still be close with a plus or minus 5-percentage spread. It means it is quite possible nearly three-fourths of marketers are not in alignment with sales on an important issue. A read into…

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Lead Optimization Study: The Right Prospect, The Right Message, At The Right Time

Generating leads is a big deal. Acquiring new accounts and customers an even bigger deal. Getting both of these right is a very good deal. Getting them wrong – well – can be a very bad deal. Recently, I reviewed the interesting findings from the CSO Insights Lead Optimization Study. The study’s primary focus was to see how marketing is attempting to generate more demand and how well it supports the efforts of sales to generate revenue. Over 600 firms participated in a web-based survey. If I were to pick one word to sum it up, I would pick: struggle. The…

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The Gap. Can You Fill It? 3 Ways You Can.

How the world has changed. Yet, how things remain the same. One thing remaining the same is the gap. And, how the gap is filled. What Is The Gap? Customers and buyers, no matter the market or industry, are in constant motion to fill the gap. You see, they have a gap between what is currently happening and what they desire to happen. This happens on many levels. For consumers, the gap can be quite urgent. If your car broke down on a deserted highway, you will have an urgent need to fill the gap. A car engine running will…

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Is Your 2014 Sales Strategy Already Doomed By Lack of Information?

Right around the corner, the laborious and angst filled process of planning for 2014 begins. 2014 will be different. While economic growth will remain sluggish (according to the Congressional Budget Office), businesses are starting to release the chains put around growth spending. A lot has changed since the meltdown of 2008. In these short five years, what we know about buying and selling has been turned upside down. The Revolution Continues What we have learned is a buyer revolution is in full swing with buyers now holding the cards. We are in the midst of it and the revolution shows…

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Follow the Road to Content Marketing Effectiveness with Buyer Persona Story Mapping

(This is part three of a three part series on the use of Buyer Persona Stories™, Buyer Persona Scenarios™, and Buyer Persona Story Mapping™ to drive effective content marketing strategy.) Getting to see the big picture about customers and buyers today is not easy. It can be like sitting in an old stadium trying to peak around a su_column to see the field. When you cannot see the whole field, you are missing the action. With buying behavior changing rapidly each quarter, not having the big picture on the actions of buyers can set back an organizations significantly. In part…

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Does Your Organization Have What It Takes to Catch Up to Evolving Buyers?

Today’s buyers are afforded sources of information, systems, and tools, which help them to make the right purchase decisions. Depending on the complexity of challenges faced, buyers may be seeking simple answers or complex custom solutions. For B2B buyers, the nature of buying itself has changed. This puts pressure on B2B marketers and sellers to evolve and get in lock step with buyers. Many are behind the pace of buyers. Statistics Losing Meaning Over the past year or two, we have had many statistics proclaimed about the buyer’s journey. Stating buyers are from 50% to as much as 90% through…

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Is Content Marketing Ineffectiveness Changing Buying Behavior?

The pendulum has been around since 1602 when Galileo invented it. It was the world’s most accurate timekeeping device right up until around the 1930’s. The concept is one of our natural laws of the world. We may be experiencing the effects of the pendulum in sales and marketing. Despite the pronouncements of buyers not engaging sales until 50-70% into the buying cycle, this generalized view is and should be questioned. Paired with other studies indicating buyer dissatisfaction with content and information, something new may be afoot. At this stage, it should be treated as an early stage buyer insight…

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