Understanding Buyer Profiles

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Understanding Buyer Profiles

First edition copyright 2012 Modern Media. All rights reserved.

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Contents

Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 3

About us .............................................................................................................................................. 3

Why understanding your buyers is crucial ......................... ............................ ....................... ................ 4Multiple profiles .................................................................................................................................. 4

Getting the message right .................................................................................................................... 5

Different profiles: company and buyer................................................................................................. 5

The company profile ............................................................................................................................ 6

Ideal company profile .......................................................................................................................... 7

Company Profile .................................................................................................................................. 7

The stakeholder profile ........................................................................................................................ 8

Ideal stakeholder profile .................................................................................................................... 10

Key Stakeholder Profile ...................................................................................................................... 10

Making the most of the profiles ......................................................................................................... 11

Further information ........................................................................................................................... 11


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Introduction

Welcome to our guide to understanding target companies and buyer profiles. This booklet is intended

to help you really understand who your target audience is and how they behave, so that you can

develop appropriate strategies as part of your marketing.

Creating target company and buyer profiles is a great way to:

develop a clear picture of the kind of companies you are targeting understand the types of people you will be targeting within those companies understand how to reach out to them understand what motivates your existing and potential buyers build a picture of buying cycles so you know when and what to communicate understand what content or products are relevant to your audience understand which offers and promotions are suitable for your audience assess potential leads quickly

As with all things related to business, the more you plan, the better the results. It therefore pays to the

take the time to think about who your audience is, what youre going to do and how you're going to do

it. Knowing and understanding who youre targeting and how to talk to them will make closing sales

much more effective. More importantly, it will be a success.

About us

Modern Media works with numerous B2B clients, large and small. We're experienced technology

marketers and specialise in digital communications, including content strategy. This guide has been

created to share some of our experiences with you. We'd welcome the opportunity to show you how

building up a clear picture of your target companies and buyers will help you meet your business

objectives.

Nicola Ray

Director and co-founderModern Media


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Why understanding your buyers is crucial

In business-to-business marketing, organisations now face a changing environment. Budgets are being

slashed, buying cycles are increasing and the types of buyers likely to purchase are diversifying. Its

getting harder and harder to identify well qualified prospects, making marketing and sales jobs harder.

Businesses need to recognise opportunities that they can quickly and easily close, rather than spend

time chasing prospects that dont quite fit the bill. One way to do this is to develop a thorough

understanding of the types of business that will use your product or service and then build up a profile

of the buyers within that business.

It only makes sense to target those that are the most attractive and easiest to win. Therefore being

armed with knowledge about your buyers is critical to effective selling. Its the job of marketing toidentify those prospects and develop the relationship, slowly moving them down the sales funnel. Its

then the job of sales to close the deal. Both sales and marketing need to have a thorough understanding

and insight into the different buyer groups in order to increase sales rates.

By creating an accurate picture of your target companies and buyers, it becomes easier to find them.

Youll have a better understanding of the media they consume and what social channels they engage

with. Youll therefore know what channels to exploit in your lead generation strategy.

Multiple profilesBy undertaking this exercise, its likely that youll have multiple company profiles because you offer

different products or services. Likewise, within those companies, you will have different stakeholders.

Therefore you are likely to find that you have multiple company and buyer profiles.

An example might be a company that produces hardware for the testing of web applications. They may

typically sell to universities as well as to industry. In this case, they would need to develop a company

profile for each type of business that they sell to and then buyer profiles for the individuals within those

companies/institutions. This is essential as a university professor will have very different motivations

and concerns than a software engineer working for a web application agency.

Start with your best customers as you want to attract more business like them. If youre a start-up or in

early life and developing your sales list or client base, then use the knowledge acquired during your

market research and proof of concept phases to flesh out the profiles.


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Getting the message right

Its important to know the factual information about your target companies and buyers such as size,

sector, location and infrastructure. This only tells you half the picture though. Within an organisation

there are many potential buyers and influencers, each playing their part in the buying process and each

having different motivations and concerns.

Depending on who youre targeting, your communication will be different. Whats compelling for one

group wont be of interest to the other. By creating a picture of the different buyers and influencers

within an organisation, you can target the message appropriately to the right individual which will lead

to faster conversions.

Different profiles: company and buyer

There are two main types of profile in business-to-business marketing. The first is the company profile,

where its important to build a thorough picture of the company and factors, both internal and external,

affecting it. Create a company profile for each type of company you sell you.

The second type of profile is the buyer profile. As weve suggested above, there are likely to be multiple

stakeholders within an organisation. Some are purchase decision makers, some are influencers and

some are end users. Create a buyer profile for each type of stakeholder.

In the following pages, you will find considerations for creating company and buyer profiles, along with a

form to capture the information you gather.


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The company profile

The company profile allows sales and marketing to capture the most important attributes about their

best customers. These profiles dont just look at demographic considerations but also look further into

how the organisation is run, its behaviour and its current situation. These are far more influential in

determining whether a particular organisation is likely to be a good prospect.

Earlier, we mentioned creating a different company profile for the different types of companies you sell

to. It is also likely that you will require a company profile for each of your product offerings as well. Not

all companies will buy the same products from you. Therefore its good practice to create a

comprehensive target company profile for each of your products, as well as the sectors you serve.

We recommend looking at the following factors when fleshing out your company profiles:

Structural Factors

Structural factors examine the way the prospects business is set up. Are they centralised or

decentralised? What life stage are they in? Are they growing, stable or shrinking? Are they a local,

national or international company? Are they heavily unionised or non-union? Do they have a history of

acquisitions or organic growth?

Environmental Factors

Environmental factors are external to the prospect and relate to the market in which they operate. Are

they leaders or niche players? Do they set trends or follow them? Is their market share growing? Are

they affected by legislation or regulation? How immune are they to market fluctuations?

Behavioural Factors

Behavioural factors look at the way an organisation makes decisions and their management style. Do

they have a top-down approach or collaborative management style? Are they early adopters of

technology? What other similar products/systems have they bought in the past? What approval

mechanisms do they have in place? Is there a procurement process, if so what type?

Situational Factors (Issues, Trends and Trigger Events)

Situational factors consider the timing of events. Looking at what has happened in an organisation will

show opportunities and threats. For example, has the organisation recently been bought out? Has

there been a change in management? Have they been downsizing? Have they announced a new

strategy or initiative? Have they recently posted good or bad financials? Have there been any suddenchanges in their market?


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Ideal company profile

Company Profile

Category Description

Demographics: Size (No.

employees, turnover, etc)

Demographics: Sector(Industries, verticals,

niches)

Demographics: Location

(Geography)

Life Stage and Growth

Plans

Key Structural Factors:

Internal issues

Key Environmental Factors

(External issues)

Key Behavioural Factors

(How they make decisions,

How do they need to

change)

Key Situational Factors

(Other issues not

mentioned elsewhere)


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The stakeholder profile

These profiles identify the key influencers and purchase decision makers within an organisation. By

anticipating their likely responsibilities, goals, motivations and concerns, a thorough picture can be

created. From there it is much easier to anticipate issues or concerns and address them at the

appropriate point within the decision making cycle.

Each type of stakeholder will have a distinct profile. There will be similarities between the different

stakeholders, but there will also be core differences. Knowing how to address those issues or concerns

will result in faster conversions.

Its worth noting that these profiles are an average profile of the stakeholder. Not everyone will

conform to the traits outlined. These are simply the most common.

Types of stakeholder

There are four types of stakeholders. These are as follows:

Operational Champion: the person that drives the project

Executive Sponsor: the person that is most likely to fund the project

Technical Gatekeeper: the person who has to approve your technology

Financial Gatekeeper: the person who approves financial and legal terms

The Operational Champion is the one who is most likely to gather information, evaluate and propose

your product. They are therefore, likely to be the most influential stakeholder.

The Executive Sponsor is the one who makes the final purchase decision and therefore your secondmost important stakeholder.

We would recommend that you start with these two stakeholders for your most important services or

products.


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When developing the profiles, we would recommend considering the following factors:

Typical Job Title(s)

What are the job titles of this stakeholder? This is essential information when compiling information for

marketing campaigns.

Reports To

Who is this person likely to report within the stakeholders organisation? What is the chain of

command?

Typical Responsibilities

What responsibilities does this stakeholder have? Which of these responsibilities will be affected by

your product or services solutions? What problems does the stakeholder have that your product or

service will address?

Typical Goals

What are the typical goals and objectives of the stakeholder within the organisation? What metrics are

associated with those goals?

Role in Buying Decision Process

What role does this type of stakeholder typically play with regard to the buying decision process for the

product or service youre selling?

Issues, Trends and Trigger Events

What are the key internal issues, external trends and specific trigger events that are likely to influence

their attitudes and/or behaviour? Consider this specifically in relation to their role within the buyingprocess and the types of problems that your offering is intended to address.

Typical Motivations

Consider the factors that would cause the stakeholder to move the buying decision process forwards.

What would motivate them?

Typical Concerns

Consider the factors that would cause the stakeholder to want to slow down or abandon the buying

decision process.

What Would Success Look Like?

When considering the problem youre trying to address with your products or services, what would be asuccessful outcome, or what would a successful outcome look like from the stakeholders perspective?


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Ideal stakeholder profile

Key Stakeholder Profile

Stakeholder Type(tick)

Operational

Champion

Executive

Sponsor

Technical

Gatekeeper

Financial

GatekeeperOther

Typical Job Title

Typically Reports To

Typical Responsibilities

Typical Goals (within

business)

Typical Role in Buying

Decision Process

Typical Issues, Trends

and Trigger Events

Typical Motivations

Typical Concerns

What would success

look like for them?

Media (News, Blogs,

Trade publications)

Social Media Channels

Notes


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Making the most of the profiles

By taking the time to develop your company and stakeholder profiles, youll gather valuable insights into

the best way to communicate at specific times during the decision making process. Marketing will be

able to identify prospects more effectively and move them gently down the sales funnel with considered

messages so that theyre ready for sales to convert. Sales will be more knowledgeable on the key

concerns during the later stages of the sales process and be able to close deals more effectively.

Overall, by completing these profiles youll be able to:

- inform marketing campaigns with accurate insights about target companies- identify which companies to target with communications- create a sales qualification criteria for companies- develop messages that resonant with the appropriate stakeholders- develop sales tools that satisfy the informational needs of key stakeholders- identify goals, concerns and motivations during the buying decision process for the key

stakeholders

- pull in the data to your CRM system to make it easy to capture and review these indicators

Further information

For further information about building up buyer profiles for companies or stakeholders, get in touch.


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Documents

Understanding Buyer Profiles