From PDFs to Action: Reinventing Your B2B Personas

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FWD:B2B 2015Godfrey & BMA PhillySlides from 11/5/2015

Katie MartellCo-Founder, CMO @ [email protected]@KatieMartell

From PDFs to Action: Reinventing Your B2B Personas

From PDFs to Action: Reinventing your B2B Personas

Katie MartellCo-Founder, CMO @ Cintell@KatieMartell

About me:

I market to B2B marketersIm from BostonI co-founded Cintell

My desk

Agenda:

Lets talk about youThe state of buyer personasWhy personas failWhat to do about itQ&A

@KatieMartell #FWDB2B

The B2B marketer in 2015:

More technology (2,000 vendors)More budget(up 4% in 2015)More of the purchasejourney (50-90%)More buyers(5-7 average)More content across morechannels@KatieMartell #MPB2B Cintell


Being so laser-focused on the B-2-B marketing space across the last few years has given me immense perspective into how quickly its changed, especially in the last decade.

Weve got more technology than ever (nearly 2000 vendors), more budget (rose 4% in 2015 Forrester) and with it more top-line responsibility. More of the purchase journey is in our hands to manage as buyers do their own research (anywhere from 50-90% depending on who you ask.) more buyers involved in one single purchase (7 average), and to keep up, we are creating and pushing more content across more channels than ever before.

- Dramatic to say its the worst of times but its certainly not easy Buyers more distracted, and all of this technology helps to automate what we do as marketers, but sometimes it automates bad behavior. More content has been created making it harder for us to cut through to our buyers.

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Its easy to lose sight of who this is all for in the first place.


Along with an increase in responsibility, visibility, and marketing technology, its never been more important to remember who its all for in the first place.

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Most companies are the center of their own universe.


The truth is, most companies are the center of their own universe. Content, websites, sales messaging, is all rotating around product-oriented messaging. Were brought into a company to push product. Its what were hired for. My goal, not only in the next 30 minutes but in life, with Cintell, is to help companies like yours become more customer-centric.

Truly effective marketing begins with a deep understanding of our buyers and requires us to learn who they are beyond a job title.

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Weve forgotten why were here in the first place.


The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.- Peter Drucker

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of B2B companies admit they do not understand their buyers.60%-SiriusDecisionsNOPEYEP@KatieMartell #MPB2B Cintell


60% of b-to-b organizations admit they do not understand their buyers SiriusDecisions

Put into context, thats like saying half this room is paid to promote products or services to an audience they know nothing about.

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Isnt that a littleCRAZY?

This strategy is crazy. 11

Content output in past 5 years:78%-TrackMavenContent engagement:60%



Content output in the past 5 years has increased by 78%, but content engagement has decreased by 60% (according to TrackMaven)12

Our employees are like hostages suffering from Stockholm Syndrome They take on the worldview of their employer and forget what its like to be a regular person.- Adam Richardson, Financial Engines

But the state of the matter is quire the opposite for many organizations.

I love this quote from Adam Richardson of Financial Engines, who says.

This internal bias is common, but its dangerous. Customer-centricity is something that empowers our employees. We take for granted the fact that many of them dont have the opportunity to speak to a real customer. Personas, and customer insights can serve as that proxy.

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The role of marketing is changing to becomethe customer advocate within a company.

The rise of the marketer: Driving engagement, experience and revenueEconomist Intelligence Unit report, sponsored by Marketo

@KatieMartell #MPB2B Cintell


The role of marketing is changing. To become the customer advocate within your organizatio. Tha tmeans taking the viewpoint of your customer and using that insight to champion whats best for them internally. Increasingly marketers are being turned to as the resident EXPERTS on customers in organizations. So youd better know them inside and out 14

Your #1 job responsibility in 2016:Study: B2B Marketers WorldwideITSMA The New Architecture of Marketing Talent, Dec 9, 2014

Understanding buyersMarketing technology toolsMarket/competitor analysisThought leadershipLead generation85%76%75%74%73%


Marketers worldwide expect that understanding buyers will be their #1 responsibility in two years (85%).

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The company that understands their buyers best, wins.

TWEET THIS


Ill put it simply..

In an increasingly competitive market, your advantage may just be how well you understand your buyers.

The marketer that understands their buyers best, wins.

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To winin the age of the customer, B2B marketers need to drive customer intelligence into all areas of the business. Laura Ramos Forrester


This is not just about marketing knowing our buyers. We have an opportunity to champion this understanding throughout the business. 17

Personas are a vehicle for customer-centricity.

My car (JK)

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This is about empathy.


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Personas: a history

1990sPersona created to humanize software development byAlan Cooper

1990s 2000sBuyer personas become popular among marketing consultants and agencies

65 MYADinosaurs roamthe Earth2000s todayIndustry standard best practice used bybest-in-class B2B organizations


Alan Cooper

The Inmates Are Running the Asylum:

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Evolution and innovation in marketing tech$32.4B in marketing software spend by 2018# of technology vendors


4. State of personas- SO while the world of marketing tech has evolved at a dizzying pace21

Evolution of the buyer persona:


. show chart. the world of bUYER PRSONAS HAS EVOLVED TO.. a PDF? A Ppt template? REALLY!? - Thats what were trying to fix at Cintell. Were here today, building technology, and we think theres a better way to put persona insights to use than in a static, hard to find, rarely updated PDF. And we work with a lot of companies who WANT to get more from these insights. I want to share some of what weve learned today.

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Of B2B companies arent using buyer personas effectively.

-ITSMA85%


Have personas and confident in themHave personas but they need workDont have personas but want toNo personas no plans to right now

POLL@KatieMartell #MPB2B Cintell


Of B2B companies have personas or a related initiative in place.

-ITSMA73%


Why do personas fail?


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Copyright 2015 Cintell LLC CONFIDENTIALReason #1: PDF PURGATORY

Reason #1: Theyre too shallow.IT DIRECTORS


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1. Our definition of a buyer persona may actually be the root cause for their failure.

There is a sharp difference between demographic segmentation (CIOs and companies with over 5,000 employees in the manufacturing industry) and in-depth buyer personas that represent a comprehensive view of the characteristics, attributes, motivations, and interests of these segments.

Buyer personas should seek to understand our targets as humans how they make decisions, what drives their actions, how they behave.

Personas fail when they turn out to be a rehash of previously established sales intelligence, and offer little guidance on how to humanize a brand, as well as content. 27

Copyright 2015 Cintell LLC CONFIDENTIAL

Reason #2: PDF PURGATORY


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2. Kept in the dark: siloed --- B2B firms typically split up customer interactions across the buying process. Marketing may lead the top of funnel activity like, promoting the brand, attracting the lead, nurturing it to a sales-ready lead.. Then sales takes it and closes the deal.. Handing it right off to customer service or success to see that the buyer is satisfied. The more complex the sales process, the more complex the hand-offs and the issues within. No SINGLE department is responsible for owning customer intelligence and keeping it consistent across the business.

Its 10am. Do you know where your personas are?

At the recent Content2Conversion conference, Erin Provey of SiriusDecisions described the current format of buyer personas, Ive literally seen binders on desks with pages of persona insights, qualitative and quantitative insights that cost thousands of dollars to produce.

Buyer personas, in theory, are highly useful strategy documents. Why then are they so hard to find, trapped in PDFs and Powerpoints at the bottom of a desk drawer, or at best, maybe on the company intranet?

Personas should be made available throughout the business, referenced quickly and easily to guide the direction of marketing, sales, and product decisions.28

Copyright 2015 Cintell LLC CONFIDENTIALReason #3: Theyre out-of-dateCh-ch-changesRegulatory (new laws)Economic (hard times)Demographic (new/retiring buyers)Environmental (new tech, influencers)


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The million-dollar question for many marketers is, when was the last time you updated your buyer personas?

Unfortunately the response often comes back in the form of years.

Personas are often not refreshed until a new regime change comes in. But if this is the case, you may miss the inevitable changes in that occur within fast-moving industries, whether regulatory (new compliance laws) economic (hard times in specific industries), or demographic (new or retiring buyers).

Whats worse, without refreshing personas on an ongoing basis, you may miss critical new influencers that emerge in the buying process. This information can be found in your CRM, happening in real-time in your marketing automation system, understood anecdotally in your sales pit, or revealed in primary persona interviews.

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Copyright 2015 Cintell LLC CONFIDENTIAL

Reason #4: Created with internal opinion ONLY


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The process of creating strong personas involves three things that may terrify you:

Interviews with real buyers (gasp!)Collaboration with other departments (say it aint so!)Challenges to your beliefs or deep-rooted assumptions (Nooo!)

I know. Take a deep breath. It will be okay.

There is no silver bullet for buyer personas. To get it right involves time-consuming interviews with real people, and an examination of the results with an open mind. This takes up bandwidth, may shift and pivot strategy, and yes calls for collaboration with other teams in the company.

A surefire way to create personas that dont work is to do so in a conference room, doors shut, without involving other departments or speaking with real buyers.

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Build trustShow them the WIIFMStart with your sales BFFRemind them of your common goalSales wont let us near their customers.


One common challenges faced by many marketers seeking to gain access to customers for the purpose of customer intelligence gathering is that sales doesnt want to relinquish control. They feel as if they own customers and dont want to allo wmarketers to talk to them.

I recently read a GREAT piece of advice from the ITSMA- they recommend some strategies for tackling this.

To win over sales youll need to do two things: build their trust that you wont mess up any of their deals through the conversations youll have. And #2.. Show them the WIIFM whats in it for me? Show them that this initiative will directly benefit them, mainly by improving value propositions and making their own conversations with buyers more effective.

Start with your sales BFF. The friendlies on your sales team who are open to some new thinking and giving this a try.

Explain that the objective of your research is to get a better understanding buying process in order to do a better job of identifying good prospects and to make the sales process easier. The goal is to get better at identifying potential buyers and building strong value propositions that will persuade the buyer to choose youboth activities designed to make the sales job easier.

Theres not really a right or wrong way to do it, as long as you get sales involved in the long-term process.

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Copyright 2015 Cintell LLC CONFIDENTIALReason #5: Created without collaboration / buy-in


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On the flip side, creating personas WITHOUT collaboration from internal stakeholders is a surefire way to get them ignored.

You each have pieces of the puzzle.

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Copyright 2015 Cintell LLC CONFIDENTIALReason #6: They dont account for the committee.

At least 7 influencers in B2B tech buying decisions- IDC


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On the flip side, creating personas WITHOUT collaboration from internal stakeholders is a surefire way to get them ignored.

You each have pieces of the puzzle.

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Copyright 2015 Cintell LLC CONFIDENTIALReason #7: They contain irrelevant B2B information.


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There are many schools of thoughts on what to include in a buyer persona. 34

Copyright 2015 Cintell LLC CONFIDENTIALWhat Goes Into a Great Persona? Ardath AlbeeTony ZambitoAdele RevellaSiriusDecisionsA Day in the Life

Objectives / Problems

Orientation

Obstacles

Questions

Preferences

Keywords & Phrases

Engagement ScenariosWho buyers are

What theyre trying to accomplish

What goals drive their behavior

How they think

How they buy

Why they makebuying decisions

Where they buy

When they buy 5 Rings of Buying Insight

Priority Initiatives

Success Factors

Perceived Barriers

Buyers Journey

Decision CriteriaFunctional AttributesJob RoleCommon TitlesPosition on Org ChartBuying CenterFirmagraphicsEmotive AttributesInitiatives ChallengesBuyer NeedLexiconDecision Process AttributesBuyer RoleLevel of EngagementDecision DriversBehavioral AttributesContent Asset TypesInteraction TypesWatering Holes


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There are many schools of thoughts on what to include in a buyer persona. 35

Copyright 2015 Cintell LLC CONFIDENTIALReason #8: They dont translate to tactics.Can you:

Map contact records to persona? Organize / tag content by persona? Use personas to inspire content (your muse)? Understand account coverage by personas?

Perceived value of personasPractical applicationof personas

You (ouch)


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We need to bridge this gap between the perceived value of personas and their application.

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Get the marketing team in lock stepExpand into sales enablement, serviceSegment by personaBuild a centralized repository w/ assetsOpen the lines of communication5 Ways to Operationalize Buyer Insights


How?

The word operationalize literally means changing operational systems and processes.

To get your organization truly going on a buyer-centric go-to-market strategy, first youre looking to deploy insights throughout the marketing organization to influence decisions in content marketing, demand generation, and PR. Get your team moving in lock step. Then expandSales enablement in some orgs is owned by marketing if so, this is your route into the sales team. Buyer insights should be available for sales, available contextually in their CRM, or in sales trainings. Ardath Albee is a big proponent of issuing a cheat sheet with every piece of content that gives the salesperson a breakdown of who its for, what their pain points are, and other insights that help them know WHEN to use a particular piece of content. I thought that was very smart. Are the contacts in your CRM or marketing automation database matched to a persona? This is a great way to not only enable persona-based sales and marketing. It can help you identify areas where you dont have enough of a particular persona, or identify potentail NEW personas that have snuck into your funnel or email list. This third one may seem a bit self-serving, so for that I apologize, but SiriusDecisions recommends building a centralized repository for buyer insights wher emembers across the organization can access strategic customer insights. Not only should information like buying motivations, preferences, etc be available, but ideally related assets as well sales playbooks, related content, etc. Open the lines of communication not only with your buyers, but also internally. Gathering feedback from buyers is only part of the story, your customer insights should also allow for feedback from your internal team.

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@KatieMartell #FWDB2B Example

@KatieMartell #FWDB2B Problems with HCSS personas:Our perception of them and in our wordsToo many, too complicatedNo differentiation betweenBuyersUsersCustomersBuried in Google DriveStagnantNot using them to segment 41,000 contacts

And look I know the hardest part of doing personas right is getting started. So I wanted to bring someone who is in the process of revitalizing their personas RIGHT now. In the midst of it all.

One of Cintells customers Dan Briscoe VP of Marketing from HCSS - 39

@KatieMartell #FWDB2B Steps to revitalize personas:Got some helpWorked with sales to narrow to 5 buyersQualitative and quantitative surveys (email and phone)Form optimization *Segmented contacts in marketing database

And look I know the hardest part of doing personas right is getting started. So I wanted to bring someone who is in the process of revitalizing their personas RIGHT now. In the midst of it all.

One of Cintells customers Dan Briscoe VP of Marketing from HCSS - 40

Leads self-identifyand segment by persona

4. Form optimization

Whats your biggest business problem?


Initial Results





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3 TakeawaysPrimary research is powerful.

Its not about us.

Make your customer the hero.


[email protected]

Try Cintell, the worlds first persona management platform

app.cintell.net/signup

From PDFs to Action: Reinventing Your B2B Personas

Marketing

Transcript of From PDFs to Action: Reinventing Your B2B Personas