1. Foundational Marketing: Buyer Personas and Cloning Your Best Clients

2. Foundational Marketing Topics
Buyer personas & best clients
The buyer’s journey
Competitive differentiators
Value propositions and elevator pitches
How to tell your story
Content marketing
Advocacy
Build your marketing plan

3. Write down your answers to these questions
Who do you sell to?
Who are your best clients?
What makes you different than your competitors?
Why do your clients buy from you?

4. What makes a client a best client?
Biggest is not always best
Process
Get your staff involved
Define 3 – 5 best client characteristics that matter to you
Identify 5 – 10 clients that rate highly in those items
Search for prospects that match these best clients

5. Characteristics of best clients
Best client criteria 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

6. Identify your best clients
Clients that rate highly on “Best client” criteria 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
10.

7. Segment your database into logical groups
Look for prospects with similar characteristics
Segment your database into groups:
Clients vs. prospects
Business vs. technical decision makers
Influencers vs. decision makers
Vertical market or company size

8. What is a persona? Fictional composite representation of your clients
Used to create targeted content and messaging focused on their business challenges and goals

9. An SMB partner has developed a cloud based Human Resources (HR) management solution
Let’s help define SMB’s buyers’ persona

10. Information about SMB’s buyers
SMB’s cloud based solution streamlines HR management functions
It acts as an intelligent assistant, handling reporting requirements and reminding HR personnel of critical deadlines.
SMB’s market is small and medium businesses
HR is often handled by an administrative or HR professional, usually females aged mid 20’s to mid 30’s
Weekly HR reporting requirements have strict deadlines, are time consuming and complicated
This solution reduces the time required for reporting, typically saving 15 to 20 workdays per year
Buyers love this time savings and are thrilled that they don’t have to worry about missing deadlines!
Their website allows prospects to try a free no-obligation 30-day trial

11. Name: HR Hannah
Criteria
Attributes
Who
Job function
HR management
Demographics
Typically female,
Admin: 20s – 30s, Professional: 30s – 50s
Goals
Frictionless HR functions, Streamlined reporting, Employee access
Challenges
Disconnected sources of information, Overwhelming reporting requirements, Manual processes require too much time
Why
Why would they buy?
Save time, Never miss important deadlines, Provide employee self-service access
Why would they buy from SMB?
No-obligation free trial makes it easy to try the product
About
them
What do they do for fun?
Spend time with family, outdoor recreation
What keeps them awake?
Deadlines, reporting, compliance issues

12. Example: Inventory products and services
SharePoint
Azure
SharePoint On-line
Office 365
Change Management Services
Docket Manager

13. Example: Analyze, looking for commonalities
Products & Services
Recent clients
Buyer Name
Title
What Was Their Goal?
Industry / Segment
Company Size
Location
SharePoint
XYZ Oil
Mary Smith
VP Finance
Providing easy access to team data
Oil & Gas
Giant
Houston, Texas
Azure
Disaster Recovery
SharePoint On-line
Southern Air
Bob Parker
CIO
Transport / Airline
Large
Miami Florida
Office 365
Sally Sells
VP sales
Enable mobile workforce
Change Management Services
Smooth adoption of Office 365
The Barry Law Firm
Alice Barry
Director of Litigation
Reduce IT spending
Legal
Medium
ABC Law Firm
Dot Perry
Managing Partner
Small
Docket Manager

14. Let’s compare
Look at what you wrote down to questions of: Who do you sell to and Who are your best clients?
How do they differ from the persona you identified and who you now think are best clients?

15. Review Define characteristics of best clients
Segment your database and lists
Search for prospects that match those characteristics
Define your personas - fictional composites of clients
Begin by analyzing recent sales
Keep refining your personas over time with staff
Look at resources section in workbook