UNDERSTANDYOUR BUYERS. STRUCTURING YOUR BUYER PERSONA INTERVIEW.

To close the gaps between marketing and sales: marketing staff needs tobe the buyer expert, not just theproduct expert. They need to focuson buyer personas.

It’s not about posters or pretty slides. It’s about having deep and factual clarity about how markets full of buyers think about doing business with the company.

How exactly do we interviewbuyers to develop buyer personaprofi les?

Persona interviews are best conductedby marketing because they learn much by having conversations with real buyers.You want candid feedback about what worked and what didn’t when the buyers evaluated their options – buyers won’t open up when the salesperson is present.

Record the interview or have acolleague take notes. You want yourundivided attention focused on the conversation and you want verbatim quotes for the fi nal document.

I suggest only the first interview question is scripted, and after that it’s completely unscripted. —Adele Revella FOUNDER AND CEO OF BUYER PERSONA INSTITUTE

Example: “Take me back to the day when you first decided to evaluate [category of solution] and tell me what happened.”

Buyers will give an obvious answerabout the pain point they wantedto solve.

Ask followup questions!

Example:“You probably alwayswanted to achieve [benefit] oreliminate [problem]. What actually happened to make you decidethat this was the right time toinvest in a solution?”

Next, go structured but unscripted. Walk buyers through every step in thebuying decision, from the fi rst day allthe way to the point when they madetheir decision.

Keep asking followup questions!

When marketers have deep and factual clarity about how markets full of buyers think about doing business with thecompany, that’s when marketing is ready to deliver tremendous value to the salesprocess.

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