Customer Insights | Tony Zambito Founder of Buyer Personas and Buyer Insights Research

customer insights

Nov 2020

How B2B Leaders Can Navigate 2021 Uncertainties With Buyer Insight

One of the most fascinating figures in American business history was that of Lee Iacocca. Iacocca, who died at the age of 94 in 2019, was a visionary leader who was the only executive in modern times to lead two of the Big Three American automakers. Ford and Chrysler. At Ford, he was best known for his efforts in the creation of one of the most famous cars in auto history – the Mustang. Iacocca, in both situations, had to overcome much adversity and uncertainties to lead. Here is a quote from Iacocca on dealing with uncertainty: “So, what…

Article by Tony Zambito

Nov 2020

Why Enabling Buyers To Buy Is The Future Of B2B

Depending on the type of automobile you have, when you hit the gas pedal hard, there can be a slight hesitation. A hesitation that can be sometimes unsettling. Especially when trying to enter onto a highway. That moment of hesitation before the acceleration can feel like more than a mere second. We are in that moment of hesitation when it comes to the future of how B2B buyers will engage in buying. An unsettling time. There is certainly an acceleration about to happen. The coronavirus pandemic has become the fuel of the forthcoming future of the B2B buyer-seller dynamic. Various…

Article by Tony Zambito

Oct 2020

Accelerated Digital Commerce Is Disrupting B2B Sellers And Buyers

Especially since the beginning of the pandemic, digital commerce is growing at lightning speed. Putting pressure on B2B Executives to transform their businesses. No longer can they wait with a long view. Commerce models that have been relied on for the past twenty to thirty years are giving way to a new robust era of digital commerce. If B2B companies are not thinking about this, planning for this, and doing something about this – they will bound to be in big trouble. Before the turn of the new millennium in 2000, it was downright unthinkable in B2B that the model…

Article by Tony Zambito

Oct 2020

The Buyer’s Journey Will Transform Into The Buyer’s Quest

Funnels, stages, paths, journeys, and more labels that suggest some form of a linear line of thinking has dominated marketing and sales for decades. Whereby the notion of awareness, evaluation, consideration, and the purchase decision is built-in to these views. In reality, whatever labels have been applied, there are more similarities than differences. As forward-thinking marketing and sales leaders prepare for continuous digital disruption, it is time to alter this line of thinking. In vogue the last few years is the idea that the buyer’s journey is the best way to view how buyers get to a decision. Mapping such…

Article by Tony Zambito

Oct 2018

3 Deep Buyer Insights Must-Haves By The Year 2020

Being relevant today in a digital world filled with millions and billions of interactions per day is one of the greatest challenges facing organizations today. Both B2B and B2C (and hybrid) are investing in attempts to capture these interactions. In the form of data and analytics, organizations are hoping to glean informative insights into the purchase behaviors of their buyers and customers. With hopes that the new trend of Artificial Intelligence (AI) can serve up exactly what customers want at the right time. While what is happening today in Big Data and AI can be characterized as “listening”, it is…

Article by Tony Zambito

Oct 2018

6 Variables Making Buyer Insights Driven Sales Transformation Critical By 2020

For the past few decades, solution-based selling was the dominant theme in building sales organizations. Solution-selling methodologies and training proved to be a big business. B2B organizations reworked their sales organization and invested heavily to be more consultative with buyers. B2B entities are finding it hard to let go and prepare for sales transformation in the new digital era of commerce. In the last few years, we have heard plenty about insights-based selling. This should not be confused with the imperative to undergo insights-driven sales transformation. Insight-selling places emphasis on sales reps delivering helpful insights to potential buyers. Complementing existing…

Article by Tony Zambito

Sep 2018

Human-Centric Insights: A Matter Of Survival In 2020

As is most common in businesses today, there is enormous pressure to achieve short-term immediate results. Today’s hyper-focused mode of operating on the short leash can make it difficult for business leaders to step back, gather critical customer insights, and take a long-term view. Yet, the necessity to do just that has never been more pronounced as now. Chief Marketing Officers, Customer Success Officers, and Chief Sales Officers, in particular, can benefit from taking a long-term view. Investing in human-centric forms of insights gathering with aims of being ready to adapt to new buying behaviors and customer expectations in 2020.…

Article by Tony Zambito

Sep 2018

5 Reasons To Prepare Now For The Year 2020 With Buyer Insights

The year 2020 beckons on the horizon. A pivotal year for organizations as the rapid evolution of a customer-centric world calls for new approaches and new forms of interactions. While one eye will be on succeeding in 2019, forward-thinking leaders will have another eye towards preparing for a new decade in 2020. What are 5 reasons and key forces forward-thinking leaders will need to gain in-depth buyer insights on for the year 2020? Increasing Complexity In Decisions The simplicity of just a few decades ago, at least perceived, in how choices and decisions were made have given way to a…

Article by Tony Zambito

Feb 2018

3 Forces Shaping The Future Of B2B Marketing

(This was one of the most popular articles written in 2017. It is profoundly applicable to this year – 2018. Buyer insights into how buyers make choices and decisions remain critical.) Many executives, particularly Chief Marketing Officers, are in constant pursuit of understanding changing buyer behaviors and markets. Which, for the most part, remains an elusive and challenging endeavor. In the past ten plus years, we have seen a tumultuous upheaval in both the world of buyers and how marketing is adapting. As business leaders and marketing leaders look ahead to the future, the ever-expanding global digital economy will undoubtedly…

Article by Tony Zambito

Jan 2018

Are Companies Ignoring Their Best Source For Buyer Insights?

In the past few years, the data analytics revolution has continued unabated in the worlds of B2B and B2C. The rise of data analytics is resulting in increased budgets and staff to account for the volume of data that can now be computed and accessed. This growth in the volume of data has spawned numerous types of data analytics services provided for marketing and sales management to deal with the ever-increasing volume of data. Insular We Have Become While organizations may have decreed that the purpose for all this data crunching is for customer-centricity, something else may be happening unintentionally. …

Article by Tony Zambito