Buyer Roles, Buying Stages, and Perception Challenges

We looked earlier at the evaluation of existing content assets that can be done at each stage of the buying process, and for each buyer role involved.

A similar exercise needs to be done to assess where the need for content is greatest. For each stage in the buying process, and for each role, a list of the perception challenges we face in the market can be created. From here, we will know the ideal messages for buyers to absorb.

These "messages" can be facts that are actively or passively sought by buyers. Actively sought examples are messages that are searched for, such as the specifications for integrating with a specific third party system. Messages that need to be delivered passively, however, are not actively searched for - such as corrections to misconceptions such as the idea that your solution is not appropriate for larger organizations.

Evaluating Messages

To begin, much like the evaluation of current content assets, a matrix can be created that has buyer roles along the y-axis, and buyer stages along the x-axis. In each box, the messages, information, and perceptions that need to flow out to the market can be listed, along with an assessment (red/yellow/green) of whether you are currently being successful in getting those messages out to the market. The value of this exercise is in its ability to shine a light on areas where you may have a significant messaging gap.

Successful marketers are able to inject these messages, perceptions, and criteria throughout the overall education process of a buyer, slowly altering perceptions, guiding the way in which solutions are evaluated, and ensuring that needed information is discovered.

The need to get this broad variety of messages out to buyers, now that buyers are in control of their own buying processes, is what has led to the growth in nurture marketing, as well as the business use of social media as a publishing platform. At each stage, a failure to successfully get these messages out to prospective buyers can quickly lead to buyers failing to progress in their buying process - the three types of leaks in the funnel covered in an earlier post.

Passive Discovery vs Active Discovery

In looking at the messaging architecture you put together for each buyer role and how they progress through their buying process, it’s important to think through how the message you need to get to the buyers will be discovered. Some will be "actively discovered", and some will be "passively discovered". It is crucial to understand the difference as it guides what strategy we need to take as marketers.

Active Discovery

Many of the marketing messages you want to be found by buyers will be found by the buyer explicitly taking an action (ie a Google Search) to seek out the information. This is the metaphor we think of for clearly defined information, such as feature capabilities, that are looked for specifically by name.

Here, the challenge is quite clearly defined; a buyer is actively seeking a piece of information, usually with search, although perhaps in community discussions or on social bookmarking sites. As a marketer, you need to ensure that your message is present, and in a way that makes it easy for the buyer to find it on a search engine. Although the art and science of search marketing is sufficiently challenging to warrant the creation of an entire industry, the problem being solved is quite clearly defined.

Passive Discovery

This is not the case, however, for more passive messages that need to find their way to potential buyers. Passive messages are messages that would not be actively sought by potential buyer, such as messages that alter pre-conceived notions of reliability, applicability of a solution to a certain industry, and perceptions of product usability, service quality, or price-point.

These messages, as they are not actively sought, must be built into other stories that can be discovered, or carefully presented by an "Information Concierge". for example, a pre-conceived notion of the applicability of a solution to a certain industry can be shifted by seeing that solution mentioned as a key part of a client success story. A sense that prices are higher than they actually are can be adjusted by sharing stories that relate to smaller or cost-conscious businesses. A perception of user challenges can be changed by stories that mention a large, vibrant, and happy user community.

Story-Telling and Passive Discovery

The use of the idea of stories is deliberate. There is no more effective way of conveying a passive message, such as a change in perceptions, than through a story that is shared by one peer to another. Word of mouth messaging is the most effective way of changing perceptions because it comes from trusted peers, and cannot effectively be bought or biased by marketing budgets.

However, marketers looking to change perceptions, introduce ideas, and challenge pre-conceived notions, must introduce stories that are easily told. These are not the dry, ROI-driven, case studies that celebrate and trumpet our showcase clients, but are stories that entertain, inspire, or challenge their audiences. There is no reason that we must avoid the idea of having fun with B2B marketing campaigns.

Marketers, especially B2B marketers, who are effective at finding and packaging the truly interesting stories that tend to get shared via word of mouth have an opportunity to subtly focus on certain messages or perceptions that they need to change in the market.

Mapping the Buying Process - A Framework

One of the recurring themes in this discussion has been the concept of thinking in terms of a buying process not a selling process. Many times when I speak about this topic publicly, there is general agreement in the audience, but the question of how to map a buying process often comes up. In some industries, it is significantly easier than in others, but some common techniques can be used across all industries to best understand how buyers ultimately arrive at a buying decision.

Mapping this process is more art than science in most cases, but the following question framework can help analyze how your buyers buy and if there are opportunities for better facilitating their buying processes. In each main stage of the buying process, one set of questions (below) looks at understanding whether there is a problem at all in this stage of the buying process, a second set looks at understanding how current buyers make it through that stage, and a third set looks at how your overall marketing performance could be improved in that stage.


Awareness and Education

Is there a problem: Are prospective buyers generally aware of your solution category and what it can do for their business?
- Ask industry analysts their opinion on the general knowledge of the market among likely buyers
- Survey your sales team on their experiences with initial calls
- Perform some first-hand survey research with likely buyers

What currently happens: How do existing prospects become educated about your category?
- Survey existing customers and prospects on where they read about topics in the general area of business you are in
- Analyze the traffic sources to any of your educational or thought leadership content
- Become an avid reader of industry newsletters and sites to understand their content topics and whether messages about your solution area are included

What are the options: How would prospects become aware of your category if they were not already aware?
- Look at the search results that are returned for searches on some of the terms related to pains that you solve (not terms that describe your category)
- Survey your marketing team on what events, tradeshows, and publications are well attended/read by key buyers in your industry
- Discover which industry sites discuss you and/or your competitors frequently
- Analyze which sites are referring web traffic to your site



Vendor Discovery

Is there a problem: If prospective buyers are going to find vendors to look into more deeply, are you on their list?
- Review competitor wins to understand whether you had been in consideration
- Look at the percentage of search phrases driving traffic to your site that already contain your brand or product names
- Poll your sales team on the frequency with which they were added as a last minute option, based on a cold call or chance encounter
- Analyze the percentage of leads that are originally sourced by marketing or arrived as inbound leads vs being generated by a cold call

What currently happens: How have prospects typically found you?
- Analyze the non-branded search terms that drive traffic to your website
- Poll your inside sales team on how their inbound leads heard of you
- Report on the breakdown of inquiries by source to understand what is driving early-stage inquiries
- Understand the percentage of leads in your marketing database that have been nurtured prior to becoming a qualified lead

What are the options: How would prospective buyers likely build their list of potential vendors?
- Determine whether the key industry comparison charts and analysts list your company
- Search for terms related to your category to see if your content is featured in the results
- Listen to webcasts, videos, or talks from key industry influencers to see if you are mentioned
- Act as a potential buyer and do your own "research" into solutions for the problems you solve to see if you are findable


Solution Validation

Is there a problem: When a buyer evaluates your solution, do they select you?
- Look at win/loss ratios for deals over the past few months or quarters
- Compare growth rates of your business vs competitors
- Build a discipline of analyzing losses with the sales team to understand buyer reasons
- Determine if you are ranked poorly in industry comparison charts

What happens now: How are buyers currently making their selection of a vendor?
- Analyze competitors positioning of your organization and your solutions
- Conduct third party win/loss surveys to obtain deeper information on buyer decision criteria
- Scan search phrases that include your brand or product names to look for objections or decision criteria
- Look at the marketing resources (whitepapers, case studies, free trials) currently being actively used by buyers to understand their current experience

What are the options: How can buyers’ decision process and decision criteria be better influenced?
- Identify key analysts and influencers who guide the market on how to think about key decision factors
- Map buyer objections to changes in buying criteria or positioning that can be inserted into nurture marketing efforts
- Audit common objections against current marketing assets to determine if gaps exists that would be better filled with a different marketing asset such as a free trial


This is, of course, just a framework for thinking about the problem. Every organization, and every industry, deals with a slightly different set of buying challenges. However, this framework can be quite useful for identifying gaps, challenges, or opportunities in the way your audience currently buys.

SaaS, Social Media, and the Economics of Smart Buyers

There are a few trends in the industry that are worth commenting on in that they relate in a very interesting way.

Economics Shifts towards Renewal/Retention: Software-as-a-Service and subscription-based revenue models in other industries have shifted the economic weight away from the upfront sale and towards the renewal in those businesses

Information Access becomes Free: The information resources available on the Internet have put buyer education in the hands of buyers, allowing them to educate themselves more easily than ever before.

Brand Reputation Control Shifts to the Audience: Social media has taken brand reputation out of the control of marketers and into the control of the audience, both in terms of good reputations and bad reputations

So, what is interesting about this? If we look at this from a purely theoretical standpoint it begins to become clear why it is the right strategy to begin to freely provide education, insight, guidance, and help to the audience at large through social media.

Looked at simply, the social media investment we make in providing guidance, best practices, pitfalls to avoid, etc, is an investment in buyer education. It is not a direct cash investment, in the same way that we historically would have made large cash investments in marketing campaigns. However, as anyone involved in social media knows, it is a significant investment in time and energy. Many times this investment of time and energy comes from key folks within your organization.

Buyer education can be a double-edged sword. More knowledgeable, sophisticated buyers know what they are looking for, they can easily determine what is right for their business, and what capabilities they do and do not need. They are more able to look beyond flashy demos and slick brochures and dig into less sexy things that will really matter; service levels, community depth, ability to map to their precise business process. This can wreak havoc on businesses that focus heavily on selling at all costs, as it allows customers to only purchase what is truly going to fit their business, and avoid surprises after the sale. However, customer satisfaction among educated buyers is generally much higher as they avoided these post-sale surprises and bought solutions that were well fit to their needs.

Customer satisfaction makes more sense the more your business is dependent on retention. If your business model is based on a one-time sell, with a single up-front payment, you are much less tied to customer satisfaction than if your business model is based on a long-term, recurring revenue stream. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), and many recurring revenue model businesses are well aware of this. Whereas in the historical, on premise, model of software sales, post-sale surprises were the norm, with SaaS, they have a much higher economic cost to the vendor.

Social media acts as a magnifier on this effect as it puts control of brand reputation squarely in control of the audience. Products that do not deliver on their brand promise are quickly discovered and communicated, whether through structured reviews, such as in the travel industry, or one-off efforts, such as the United Breaks Guitars song-writing crusade.

An investment then, in the product itself, becomes the best marketing effort that many organizations can make. With this, I am referring to the whole product experience, including the service elements around the product and after the sale. We’ve seen many examples of this, with Frank Eliason at ComcastCares and Tony Hsieh at Zappos being among the more prominent examples.

Looked at from a high level, there are two very distinct cycles. In today’s businesses, with a reputation is easily shared through social media, and many with revenue models that are recurring, it makes the most economic sense to invest in educating buyers and in the product experience itself. This way, although you may end up with slightly fewer new customers, due to educating some in a direction that does not indicate that they have a need, you will end up with more satisfied customers over all. Contrast this with a historical model, that was dependent on a flashy demo, and great marketing, but not satisfied customers, the investments would be in significant marketing promotions and demo-friendly features.

In today’s market, especially in SaaS and subscription-based businesses, the recipe for success has changed, and it has done so based on the underlying economic drivers as much as anything. It is a change that is for the best as it aligns the interests of software vendors and software purchasers more tightly than they ever have been aligned before.

LA Fire Department has lessons for B2B marketers

I was in a conference session the other day and a case study on the Los Angeles Fire Department’s use of social media. I mentioned it on Twitter and was quickly thanked by the good folks behind @LAFDTalk, their Twitter handle for general community engagement.

The conversation got me thinking about the parallels with B2B marketing. I think there are many.

The first parallel is that at first glance, it’s not obvious what either should be doing in the social media realm. Although there are examples of fires being reported on Twitter, in general people still report fires using 911. Similarly in B2B marketing, when the deal is finalized, it is usually with a direct sales person in the field, not over Twitter or any form of social media.

However, when looked at more deeply, both are able to take advantage of the tools of social media extremely well. The difference is in how broadly you view your mission. I had the opportunity to ask Ron Myers at LA Fire Department his thoughts, and he expressed their mission in a very broad way:

A short answer to how broadly we view our mission lies in the LAFD Labs projects currently deployed or in beta production. With over 80 Web 2.0 projects in our sand box, we are able to assist in life saving efforts not only here at home, but, around the world. By using social media tools, we are able to provide real-time life safety information to those in harms way. Evacuations, fire information, recovery, and other real-time information saves lives.

By translating our safety messages into nine different languages, we have the awesome privilege of helping others around the globe while providing safety messages locally. LAFD Everywhere focuses on sharing our City’s experience and expertise with those who don’t have the resources to produce the information on their own.

Over the past 4 years, we have embarked on an aggressive campaign known as the “LAFD Everywhere Initiative”. Without a funding stream and with no staff, we have been able to utilize a wide variety of open source, social media tools to deliver the Department’s message and prepare for disaster management.

This is clearly far beyond fighting fires, and even beyond Los Angeles. The overall emphasis is on changing mindsets, awareness, and precautions in order to maximize the safety of the public in general. A quick glance on the LAFD blogs shows a broad array of articles talking about fire safety, traffic safety, and home safety as well as the stories of recent fire incidents. LAFD, through their social media efforts, including a great blog on all things fire and safety related in LA, has truly engaged their overall mission to educate the public on safety issues and keep us all safe.

In the same way, as marketers, if we think of our mission as purely generating leads for sales, we are focusing far too narrowly. As marketers, our goal must be to guide the market’s buying decisions to ensure they take into account the key factors that affect how purchase decisions are made. I talked with Ron about where he felt their social media efforts were most effective, and he had this to say:

This is an interesting question, one that we struggle with when deciding which projects take priority when developing new tools. Our primary focus is to protect lives. We have been able to take advantage of Twitter, Google Groups, Yahoo Groups, and other social media tools to provide real-time information for evacuations, floods, fires, and other life changing events.

We use blogs extensively to distribute preparedness message, recovery information, evacuation maps, and other messages almost daily. The old adage of an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure is true. Nothing haunts Firefighters and Paramedics more than the needless loss of life. Preparedness, Prevention, Mitigation, and Recovery all play a roll in our Emergency Public Information delivery system.

Similarly, as B2B marketers, if we focus on education throughout the buying process, as early as the education and awareness phase, we can alter perceptions and behaviors that will guide buyers to consider buying factors in a new light. By challenging ourselves as to how broadly we think of our mission as marketers, we are able to think of social media in a new strategic light. We spoke earlier about the three types of challenges that B2B marketers face, and each of these challenges can be thought of as an education challenge. Through addressing those education challenges, one potential buyer at a time, we are able to leverage social media to improve our organization’s overall brand perception.


Ron Myers, Brian Humphrey and their team are working to make the Los Angeles population safer through their use of social media as an education tool. Similarly, as marketers, we can begin to guide buyer decision making through our use of social media as an education tool in a similar manner.