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When the compass was invented by the Chinese during the Qin dynasty (221-206 B.C), it radically changed civilizations and ushered in many years later the Age of Exploration in the 15th century. Just as the invention of the printing press created the advent of knowledge and information being made available to the masses, the compass meant civilizations were given the tool to explore. The compass allowed travelers and explorers to know what direction they were headed with a good degree of certainty. This simple tool spurred on civilizations coming in contact with each other, trade, and the introduction of goods never before seen. In the modern world, GPS Technology is now becoming so commonplace that we not only know in what direction to go, we also know where others are.
The buyer persona development process has an important rule related to the compass:
Rule 9: The Purpose of the Buyer Persona Development Process is to Inform on Goal Centered Customer Strategies
For senior executives today, there is a vast wilderness of the digital and social world yet to be explored fully. Buyer behaviors and buyer goals are changing rapidly with many changes happening around the globe by the time you finish reading this sentence. The buyer persona development process is meant to be informing and exploratory. The process of buyer persona development provides insights and direction for senior planners to create strategies for customer engagement that meet buyer’s goals and also meet buyers where they are located in the digital world.
A few years ago we were working with an organization that was perplexed by a drop in revenues from a specific segment of their customer base. What we now know as being a part of buyer behavior in the modern world, we saw a glimpse of back then. That is, those buyers wanted available resources to do research on a product/service to meet specific goals before the intervention of sales. The company implemented a unique content and subject matter expertise strategy that met buyer’s need for information and resources available at their fingertips. This early adoption of content marketing turned the tide and they saw revenues regained and grow. The buyer persona development process gave them insightful information on where buyers were headed, how it was impacting their business, and what strategies they could incorporate to meet buyer’s goals.
The buyer persona development process holds the promise of being a senior executive’s compass for shaping future strategies for customer engagement, digital marketing, and for growing top line revenues.
