Identify Your Buyer Persona

Customer is king, as always. But what if you fail to understand your right customer or simply miss it? It is not too exaggerating to say that many of us fail to study our target customer behaviour in the excitement of launching our product or service. As a result what we have is a wrongly positioned product where no marketing strategy is going to work. In today’s complex world where buyer has too many options to buy from and with many influences in buying process, it is imperative to figure out your buyer persona. Creating a buyer persona not only validates your marketing mix, but it acts as a guide to your entire organization for a common understanding of the customer.

Shared below is a template to crystallize two aspects of the buyer persona, namely; characteristics and role in the decision making process.

Few attributes to detail for the persona of your buyer characteristics:

Personal (Age, Gender, Location, Marital Status, Family, Income) Professional (Education, Job Title, Industry) Online Behaviour (Access point, Favourite websites) Product / Service Specific (Need, Expectations, Justified Price) Core (Challenges, Aspiratios, Trusted sources, Values, Attitude)

Chart below will help you disect the roles played in the entire decision making process:

Example

Leather Products Manufacturer sells his merchandize to major Hotel Chains (Project : New Year Gifts to elite customers)

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Role DescriptionLevel of

Influence

Initiator Who requests/initiates the need Low / Medium / High

Influencer Who are consulted for the buying decision Low / Medium / High

Decision-maker Who finalizes the buying decision Low / Medium / High

Buyer Who actually places the order Low / Medium / High

User Actual user of the product Low / Medium / High

Gatekeeper Who have the power to route information from reaching key sources

Low / Medium / High

Approver Who approves the proposed buy Low / Medium / High

NOTES

Roles can be overlapping. E.g. Same person can be a decision maker as well as BuyerNot every sale cycle necessary has all the roles mentionedThere could be multiple people performing the same role

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