The Buyer Persona Blog
- January 13, 2022
The State of Buyer Personas 2022 Survey is Now Open For Your Input
The 20th Anniversary of Buyer Personas Survey To Help Determine Usefulness The year 2021 marked the 20th Anniversary of the concept of Buyer Persona being founded. It is hard to believe. The world is a completely different one than existed in 2001 when buyer personas were first introduced. Like all things in life, many things do remain the same. And many things have either faded away or have undergone a radical transformation. I can still remember the first-ever engagement for buyer personas. We had convinced Reed Elsevier and its subdivision of Harcourt to be a partner in the experiment. …
- January 12, 2022
Understanding a Divergent World of Buyer Mindsets and Decisions
Regional one size fits all approach can hinder global growth with buyers The ability to implement and execute global growth strategies has become one of the most important jobs of leaders. A common approach is to apply strategies to different geographic regions of the world. Slightly modifying based on assumed cultural aspects of how buyers and customers engage. You know the regions well – Europe, LATM, Asia-Pacific, etc. Are leaders though living in a world of assumptions? A world of stereotypes about different regions in the world? I come down on the side of saying yes to these two…
- January 11, 2022
The Value of Buyer Personas in Times of Uncertainty
Buyer insights and buyer personas act as a compass for business leaders in uncertain times. We are living in times of tumultuous upheaval. A world turned upside down and rife with uncertainty. It seems just when we may have a clearer picture of how six months to a year may go, unpredicted events make that picture fade away. For businesses, this means understanding their buyers and customers is more critical than ever. Requiring robust insights and forward-looking buyer personas to inform just how to navigate uncertainty. In what seems like eons ago, buyer personas originated at another time of…
- January 10, 2022
The Problem With Not Knowing Your Buyers
Lack of insights about buyers creates an inability to solve problems Over the last twenty years, since founding the concept of buyer personas, I have worked with many leaders. Leaders that are responsible for their overall business, marketing, or sales functions. What I often hear is the need to get more insights about their buyers and customers. Especially when something is not going according to plan. Something simply is not working. That something can be related to: Growth plans have fallen short Competitors have made significant inroad Marketing plans miss the mark Sales have fallen way short of the…
- January 9, 2022
The Virus Has Changed. So Have Buyers.
Business Must Adapt To New Realities In Changing Buyer Behaviors The Omicron variant of Covid-19 has produced the most dramatic surge in the pandemic since the initial onset of the pandemic. Despite early indications the virus causes milder forms of illness, the degree of disruption is substantial. Although impossible to measure, the impact on the current American psyche is undoubtedly a negative one. Increasing all forms of anxiety, frustrations, fear, and other psychological response. Contributing to the evolving mental health crisis the pandemic has spurred on. We are two years into the Covid-19 pandemic. A few things about it…
- January 7, 2022
Earn The Right To Gain Buyer Empathy
The word and the premise of empathy have become quite the buzzword in business and marketing. Especially so since the advent of and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. There is widespread consensus that having empathy is a good thing. A must-have to connect with buyers and customers. A place to start for most organizations and individuals is by having a common definition of empathy. Empathy is at its most basic level the ability for one to walk in another’s shoes. To experience their world from another’s point of view. Essentially, to have a deeper understanding of what another is experiencing….
- January 6, 2022
If You Cannot Answer Why Buyers Buy – You Cannot Lead
Important to leadership yesterday, today, and in the future is the ability to answer important “Why” questions. A significant trait that is necessary to lead organizations. Be they B2B or B2C entities. Perhaps no “Why” question is more important to B2B or B2C leadership than this: Why do our buyers and customers buy? In my 20 years since founding the concept of buyer personas, I have seen leaders struggle to answer what seems to be, on the surface, a simple basic question. Simple it is not. It is a profound question loaded with assumptions, ambiguities, debate, and a lack…
- January 5, 2022
Overpromised and Underdelivered Exasperate Buyers
Buyers, consumers, audiences, investors, and voters have all faced, at one time or another, hyperbole. Where something is hyped, and an overpromised outcome is touted. That something, underdelivered, can be a product, service, performance, technology, or program. The tolerance level for accepting underdelivered outcomes has been getting lower. In buyer insights research interviews during the pandemic, I have seen this tolerance level become more stated. Often with exasperation and frustration. The landmark case against Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos, represents a significant shift. A shift that echoes the sentiment against hyperbole, overpromising, and underdelivering. Buyers and consumers collectively…
- January 4, 2022
The Great Buyer Resignation
One of the big stories of the year 2021 and the Covid-19 pandemic has been the “Great Resignation” of workers in many consumer and business sectors. There are a variety of reasons cited. Including lack of adequate childcare, health, industries severely impacted by the pandemic, acting upon personal interests, and early retirement. To name a few. A component of this overarching story and one often missed is that of the “Great Buyer Resignation.” B2B buyers and consumers alike are shifting away from traditional seller-buyer interactions in a dramatic fashion. This has been predominantly noted in business markets and media…
- January 3, 2022
2022: The Year of Infrastructure
In 2014, then-President Barack Obama gave a speech on the importance of building infrastructure for future virus-borne pandemics. His predecessor, President George W. Bush, delivered similar speeches as they related to HIV and SARS viruses. The following two successive administrations each were and are plagued with the inability to get infrastructure planning right. As a result, infrastructure has been an ongoing challenge in mitigating the most disastrous outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic. The fast-spreading Omicron variant will lay bare naked infrastructure gaps for all to see. We will see infrastructure gaps affecting such systems as: City and county government…