The buyer journey
Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2024 4:10 am
Internal versus external
You can use external expertise in buyer journeys and personas in a kind of outsourcing model. That is not wrong in itself, but it can be a dangerous evolution. I believe that understanding the market and buyers should be an intrinsic part of every marketing organization. You cannot and should not outsource this in the long term. I believe that a uniform view of the market (certainly in the long term) is the basis for the alignment of sales and marketing and further development of the business.
What exactly is a buyer journey and buyer persona?
There are multiple definitions, models and schemes that you can use to map journeys and personas. I certainly do not preach having the golden model. In fact, it is very likely that 'mine' is not the perfect model for your company. The reason I put it this way is my belief that a model or scheme should never be leading. A model should facilitate mapping, but certainly not dictate it. That is the model version of having blinkers on. So be prepared to deviate from your models if that works better. I do that very regularly. In order to provide a framework, I will discuss a frequently used model (as a starting point) for both the buyer journey and the buyer personas below.
The buyer journey takes place until the moment of purchase. After that, there is still a whole part of the customer journey , which is mainly about retaining customers and building relationships. I will not discuss that in this article.
The model I often use was originally developed by SiriusDecisions . The model consists of 3 main phases: Education , Solution and Selection . Within each phase there are 2 subphases. I will discuss these phases in more detail below.
Phase 1: Education
The first phase is about possibly changing a situation. guatemala phone number lookup For example, you have a problem and you want to solve it or you want to see if an improvement is possible. An outcome of this phase can therefore also be the decision that you do not change anything. Within the Education phase we see 2 subphases: ' Loosening the status quo ' and ' Committing to change '.
Subphase: Loosening the status quo
Before you can work towards a change or improvement, it is important to first create awareness of the need for it. In many cases, multiple people are involved (hence multiple personas in a journey). These do not all have to be decision makers, but they can be people who can influence a decision.
'Loosening the status quo' is about creating support, if necessary. Sometimes a problem is so clear that a change MUST take place. For example: other protective clothing must be purchased, because there are simply too many accidents due to fraudulent clothing in the workplace. In that case, this step is omitted. This also immediately shows proof of my earlier point that a model must be flexible. In a similar journey (for purchasing protective clothing), it may also be the case that the items are safe and affordable, but not comfortable. This can affect the satisfaction of the users. This is also a valid reason to consider a change, but a less powerful one than preventing accidents. In this case, you will have to substantiate better why a change must take place in the first place.
You can use external expertise in buyer journeys and personas in a kind of outsourcing model. That is not wrong in itself, but it can be a dangerous evolution. I believe that understanding the market and buyers should be an intrinsic part of every marketing organization. You cannot and should not outsource this in the long term. I believe that a uniform view of the market (certainly in the long term) is the basis for the alignment of sales and marketing and further development of the business.
What exactly is a buyer journey and buyer persona?
There are multiple definitions, models and schemes that you can use to map journeys and personas. I certainly do not preach having the golden model. In fact, it is very likely that 'mine' is not the perfect model for your company. The reason I put it this way is my belief that a model or scheme should never be leading. A model should facilitate mapping, but certainly not dictate it. That is the model version of having blinkers on. So be prepared to deviate from your models if that works better. I do that very regularly. In order to provide a framework, I will discuss a frequently used model (as a starting point) for both the buyer journey and the buyer personas below.
The buyer journey takes place until the moment of purchase. After that, there is still a whole part of the customer journey , which is mainly about retaining customers and building relationships. I will not discuss that in this article.
The model I often use was originally developed by SiriusDecisions . The model consists of 3 main phases: Education , Solution and Selection . Within each phase there are 2 subphases. I will discuss these phases in more detail below.
Phase 1: Education
The first phase is about possibly changing a situation. guatemala phone number lookup For example, you have a problem and you want to solve it or you want to see if an improvement is possible. An outcome of this phase can therefore also be the decision that you do not change anything. Within the Education phase we see 2 subphases: ' Loosening the status quo ' and ' Committing to change '.
Subphase: Loosening the status quo
Before you can work towards a change or improvement, it is important to first create awareness of the need for it. In many cases, multiple people are involved (hence multiple personas in a journey). These do not all have to be decision makers, but they can be people who can influence a decision.
'Loosening the status quo' is about creating support, if necessary. Sometimes a problem is so clear that a change MUST take place. For example: other protective clothing must be purchased, because there are simply too many accidents due to fraudulent clothing in the workplace. In that case, this step is omitted. This also immediately shows proof of my earlier point that a model must be flexible. In a similar journey (for purchasing protective clothing), it may also be the case that the items are safe and affordable, but not comfortable. This can affect the satisfaction of the users. This is also a valid reason to consider a change, but a less powerful one than preventing accidents. In this case, you will have to substantiate better why a change must take place in the first place.