How to Interview Customers for a Buyer Persona
- Updated: 02/12/2024
- Published: 16/08/2024
- 4 minutes read
How to Interview Customers for a Buyer Persona
- Updated: 02/12/2024
- Published: 16/08/2024
- 4 minutes read
*This article belongs to our Buyer Personas series inspired by the book ‘Buyer Personas’ by Adele Revella and Jim Kraus.
Before making any big marketing decision or drafting a whole marketing strategy, it’s usually best to gauge customers’ reactions and understand what made them become your customers. Market research fits this process well, but developing a buyer persona is even better.
What’s interesting is that very few businesses actually develop their buyer persona. Ironically, you can really sense it when interacting with a brand.
In this article, we explore how to interview customers for a buyer persona, define what a buyer persona is and what it isn’t, and provide some tips on how to best approach this task.
What is a Buyer Persona?
The easiest way, as Adele Revella put it: “A buyer persona is an example of the people you need to influence through your marketing activities.” This brings us to the question: What must you know about this person? What information is crucial for you (and for them to buy), and what isn’t?
The best buyer persona data comes from people who chose to do business with you but either came from a competitor or decided not to buy anything at a certain point. Understanding the differentiating factor in their buying decision can help steer all your marketing and sales decisions toward that point. Because they may not be the only ones with the same thought process. And that’s what we’re trying to uncover.
What is NOT a Buyer Persona?
You can describe the buyer, their goals, and their pain points, but that’s the obvious stuff. For example, age, demographics, location—all this information is too obvious. What we’re interested in is the not-so-easily accessible information because this underlying information will help us understand why a person buys what they buy. What made them decide on a product? What other products did they consider?
A buyer persona shouldn’t be mixed with a buyer profile; it’s much more than that.
So, here is how we at Aeternus interview customers for a buyer persona.
Speak with the Customer
When we conduct interviews, we’re usually looking for the “a-ha” moments among customers—moments when it was not clear enough why a person would buy the product until that point. So, understanding the buyer persona means understanding what they care about, not necessarily what you care about.
Also, we don’t interview everyone; we specifically look for those who have made a buying decision recently, those who have considered the alternatives and really weighed their options.
So, the only question to ask in these conversations is the first question. As Adele Revella puts it, the question is: “Take me back to the day when you first decided to evaluate this kind of solution and tell me what happened that day.”
That’s it. That’s the only question that should be scripted. Everything else will unfold naturally as the customer recalls the details of the day when they decided to do business with you.
What you’re looking for are all the triggers, success factors, barriers, and criteria in their decision-making process. These insights help you develop a sound strategy.
However, there is a catch.
The Bias
Many companies regularly talk with their best customers and have customer panels and initiatives. But that’s not the ideal buyer persona because they don’t need any persuasion. What you need instead is someone who has been evaluating your product or service and comparing it to your competitors. They don’t love you, they don’t have a relationship with you (yet!), and they are very non-biased.
Tips
- 1. Don't have too many personas
- 2. Selling to everyone is selling to no one
- 3. Don’t rely on the sales teams to develop a buyer persona
- 4. People don’t disclose everything because they hate being sold to or manipulated.
- 5. Search for the business's uniqueness and how your buyer persona perceives it.
- 6. Don’t just linger on benefits, because everybody does that.
- 7. Don’t just describe the buyer; meet them