The document discusses research methods for developing buyer personas and journey maps. It provides frameworks for constructing personas, journey maps, and market segmentation. The key aspects covered include interviewing internal and customer stakeholders to understand goals, needs, and the buying process. Personas should represent actual buyers while journey maps describe the purchase process from the buyer's perspective. Conducting both quantitative and qualitative research through surveys, interviews, and data analysis helps develop an in-depth understanding of buyers and how they buy.

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Researching
Buyers and
How They
Buy
Decision Maker GateKeeper
EndUser Influencer
Advocate Approver
Influencer Supporter

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Content
»Buyer
Personas
and
Journey
Maps
»Organizing
your
audience
»Building
your
personas
and
maps
»Best
practices
for
your
research
»Buyer-­‐centric
marketing
toolkit
2

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Buyer
Personas
Aggregate
representations
of
the
actual
buyers
influencing
or
making
decisions
about
your
solutions
and
are
based
on real people,
insights,
and
experiences.
3
! "
Journey
Maps
Descriptions
of
the
steps
– from
your
buyers’
point
of
view
– they
execute
from initial
consideration
of
a
solution
to
purchase
decision
and
finally
to
implementing
and
using
the
product
or
service.

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Why Personas and Journey Maps?
Who What Why Where When How
Personas
!
Who
is
involved
in
purchase
process
What
they
care
about
as
people
and
professionals
What are
the
buyers’
motivations
Where
they
seek
information
How
they
prefer to
be
interacted
with
Journey
Maps
"
The
roles
people
play
in
the
purchase
process
What
are
the
needs
each
step
of
the
way
When
is
best
time
to
engage
with
each
person
4
They provide in-depth understandingof buyers and how they buy.

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ORGANIZING YOUR
PERSONAS AND JOURNEYS
Decision Maker GateKeeperAdvocate Approver Influencer Supporter

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Lines of Business
6
Sets of one or more highly related productsor services which fulfill a particular
customer business need.
$
Products
Services

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Market Segments
7
Groupings of prospective companiesbased on shared characteristicsthat have
the same needs and behave in the same way through a buying process.
Line
of
Business

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Market Segmentation – B2C
Demographics Psychographics Geographic Behavioral
Based
on
personal
attributes
of
consumer.
Based on
motivations
of
the
consumer.
Based
on
defined
geographic
boundaries.
Based
on
actual
consumer
behavior.
• Age
• Gender
• Nationality
• Income
• Occupation
• Family Status
• Education
• …
• Personality
traits
• Values
• Attitudes
• Interests
• Lifestyles
• Beliefs
• …
• Region
• Country
• Climate
• Population
• …
• Loyalty
• Benefits
• Usage
• Occasion
• Readiness
to
buy
• …
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Market Segmentation – B2B
Firmographics Needs Geographic Behavioral
Based
on
attributes
of
target
business.
Based on
motivations
of
the
consumer.
Based
on
defined
geographic
boundaries.
Based
on
actual
consumer
behavior.
• Revenue
• Size
in
Employees
• Industry
(SIC)
• …
• Business Challenge
• Application
• Requirements
• …
• Region
• Country
• …
• Loyalty
• Benefits
• Usage
• Readiness
to
buy
• …
9

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BUILDING PERSONAS AND
BUYERS JOURNEYS
Di scov e r i ng L e a r ni ng Choosi ng Pur cha si ng Im pl e m e nti ng
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%
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!
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%
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%
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○%

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Process Overview
Use
a
Framework
Initial
Hypothesis
Internal
Interviews
Customer
Interviews
Aggregate
and
Synthesis
Personas
and
Journey
Maps
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Persona Framework
12
Demographics
Goals
&
Initiatives
Solution
Fit
&
Criteria
Buying
Process
Interaction
&
Content
Preferences

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Journey Maps Framework: Stages
Stage Stage
Type Description
Discovering Marketing
The
buyer
has
reached
a
tipping
point,
realizing
they
have
a
pain
point
they
need
to
learn
more
about.
The
buyer
conducts
educational
research
to
better
understand
the
pain
point
they’re
experiencing.
Learning Marketing
The
buyer
researches
possible
solutions
to
solving
their
defined
problem
and
begin
to
identify
specific
providers.
Choosing Sales
The
buyer
needs
to
prove
to
internal
stakeholders
that
a
solution
is
worth
employing
to
address
their
problem.
Purchasing Sales
The
buyer
is
actually
procuring
the
solution
and
preparing
for
owning,
maintaining,
and
deploying
the
solution.
Implementing Product The
buyer
is
deploying
the
solution,
setting
up
users,
receiving
training,
etc.
Proving Product
The
buyer
is
now
using
the
solution
and
evaluating
its
qualities,
benefits,
and
ROI
or
soon
to
be
ROI.
Owning Product
The
buyer
is
using
the
solution,
maintaining
it,
receiving
updates
on
new
capabilities,
realizing
its
ROI,
and
expanding
their
usage
of
the
solution.
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Journey Maps Framework: Dimensions
Dimension Description
Participation Levels How each
persona
participates
in
a
stage
of
the
journey
Needs
What
the
buyer
requires
in
order
to
go
through
their
buying
process
at
each
stage.
This
includes
informational,
process
requirements,
internal
milestones,
political
alignment, etc.
Activities
What
the
buyer
is
actually
doing
at
this
stage
to
fulfill
their
needs.
These
may
be
group
or
individual activities,
and
both
internal
and
external
actions.
Preferences
How the
buyer
prefers
to
engaged
with
and
communicated
too
through
content
and
other
interactions.
Barriers
A
concern,
an
obstacle,
a
perception,
or
a
requirement
that
must
be
sufficiently
addressed
in
order
to
move
onto
the
next
stage.
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Journey Maps Framework: Levels of Participation
15
Buying Roles and Participation Levels both capture aspects of the team dynamics
of the Buying committee
Buying
Roles
Decider
Influencer
Advisor
User
Procurer
Specifier
Process
Participation
Level
# Driver
! Participant
% Gate
Keeper
○ Not
Involved
D iscov erin g Learn in g
#
○
!
#
%
#

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Journey Maps Framework
16
Together the Journey Stages, Journey Dimensions, Participation Levelsand
Personasprovide a detailed framework to understand how buyers buy.
Barriers
Preferences
Activities
Buyer
Needs

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RESEARCH BEST PRACTICES
QUANTITATIVE
AND
QUALITATIVE
(NOT
MAGICAL,
DIVINED
OR
INTUITED)

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Leverage your Sales and Marketing Data
» Analysis
of
data
is
an
important
first
step
in
understanding
the
buying
audience
» Key
Sources:
» CRM
Platform
» Marketing
Automation
Platforms
18

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Conducting Surveys and Interviews
Who
to
Survey
• Internal
stakeholders
• People
with
direct, daily
contact
with
audience
Who
to
Interview
• Recently
acquired
customers
• 5-­‐7
interviews
per
Persona
What
to
ask
• Professionally
relevant
attributes
and
goals
• Purchase
process
• Participants
involved
• Sources
and
types
of
information
• Concerns
at
each
stage
• Barriers
to
overcome
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Typical Interview Questions
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What
are
your
current
business
challenges?
What's
the
primary
need
you
want
solutions
like
ours
to
help
you
address?
What
concerns
or
major
questions
do
you
have
about
these
types
of
solutions?
What's
the
last
online
resource
you
remember
sharing?
Whom
did
you
share
it
with?
What
was
your
role
in
the
buying
process
(decider,
influencer,
etc.)?
Can
you
walk
me
through
what
your
buying
process
from
beginning
to
end?
Which
colleagues
did
you
collaborate
with
along
the
way?
Which
colleagues
did
you
need
approval
or
buy-­‐in
from
for
our
solution?
How
did
they
evaluate
our
solution?
Persona
Interview Journey
Map
Interview

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Interviewing Customers
Demographics
Roles
and
Responsibilities
Goals
and
Initiatives
Buying
Criteria
Buying
Activities
Content
Preferences
Internal
Barriers
&
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Tips
1. Interview
Recent
Customers
Who
Align
Well
to
Your
Current
Buyer
Personas
2. Call
Potential
Customer
Interviewees
and
Follow-­‐Up
with
an
Email
3. Provide
Your
Questions
to
Customers
Beforehand
4. Practice
the
Interview
Beforehand
5. Have
Just
1
or
2
People
from
the
Marketing
Team
Join
the
Call
6. Ask
the
Customer
If
You
May
Record
the
Call
7. Thank
the
Customer
for
Taking
Time
to
Speak
with
You
8. Avoid
a
Narrow
View
9. Don’t
be
Afraid
to
Ad
Lib
10. Let
the
Customer
Talk
11. Clarify
Questions
with
Sample
Responses
12. Record
Direct
Quotes
13. Introduce
Your
Next
Round
of
Questions
14. Overlap
is
Fine
15. Repeat
Lists
16. Provide
a
Thank
You
Gift
22
'

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Synthesizing the Interview Data
» You
learn
things
from
the
very
first
interview
» After
2-­‐3
interviews
you
start
to
hear
some
of
the
same
things
» After
5-­‐6
interviews
you
can
identify
what
are
the
true
commonalities
vs.
“the
noise”
» With
more
that
7-­‐8
interviews,
you
will
just
be
hearing
more
of
the
same…best
to
wait
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Amount of Work to Build a Persona
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Time
(hours)
Framework/Process
Internal Surveys/Int.
Initial
SME
Session
Customer
Interviews
Synthesis
Workshop
50%
100%
Internal
Persona
Concept
Persona
Complete
Persona
Tactical
Work
Strategic
Work
#
#
#

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More Tips and Resources
25
www.akoonu.com/toolkit
Download
our
practical
toolkit:
Examples
of
in-­‐depth
personas
and
journey
maps
Frameworks
and
detailed
guides
for
building
personas
and
journey
maps
Best
practice
processes
and
tips
for
organizational
collaboration
on
buyer
insights
!
"
'

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