MarketSense

Appealing to Competitive Buyer Modalities

The competitive buyer modality (or rational temperament) is among the least prevalent in the general population. Competitives make up 5-10% of the general population.

Competitive buyers are problem solvers. They are pragmatic, logical, analytical, and skeptical. They are independent and strong willed. Competitives work towards their goals.

Competitives are your improvement experts. They are keen learners. They love complexity. They are drawn to challenges. They are good planners. They will look for methods to help them reach their goals. They will want to know what your product can do for them. They are logical and efficient. They will want to work quickly and will disregard authorities or procedures that get in their way.

Competitive buyers are goal-oriented. They will have a keen understanding of their problem. They will seek to understand your product to determine how best to apply it to improve their situation. They are logical and absorbed. Independent, they will take a skeptical attitude towards all ideas. Self-assured, they believe that they can overcome any obstacle.

Tips for marketing and selling to competitive buyers:

• Appeal: Drawn to superiority. Want to understand what makes your product the best.


• Website: Provide proof of your competitive advantages. Demonstrate your credibility.


• Information Needs: Answer questions on how your product is the better choice. Provide rational options. Share proof points.


• Understand: What makes your product the best solution. They will take an analytical, logical approach.


• Process: Will work through the process as efficiently as possible. They will disregard steps that waste time and resources. Let them drive. Don't get in their way.


• Time: They will work quickly with absorption. Because they hate inefficiency, quickly deliver what they need.


• Risk: Are willing to take risk. Confident in themselves to ultimately solve the problem.


• Decision: Want to know they have selected the best solution for the job. Will want to reach this decision quickly and efficiently.

Competitive introverts versus competitive extroverts

Like all of the other modalities, competitive buyers come in introverts and extroverts. Introverts have a low tolerance for verbal communications that don't move them forwards. They want to gather their information in the most efficient way. Competitive extroverts tend to be bigger picture thinkers, absorbing information from a wide variety of sources. In both cases, they will need to start with research, spend time analyzing, and quickly get to the bottom line. Sales interactions should focus on connecting them with the experts and making the process work quickly and efficiently.

Appealing to Humanistic Buyer Modalities

The humanistic buyer modality (or idealist temperament) is one of the two smaller minority types of buyers. Idealist buyers make up 15-20% of the general population.

Humanistic buyers are passionate about people. They are trusting and relational. They care about personal growth -- their own as well as that of others. They are enthusiastic, giving, intuitive, kindhearted and authentic. They strive for harmony while avoiding conflict and confrontation.

Humanistic buyers search for possibilities and understanding. This makes for a slow buying process. They are open-minded, looking for the solution that will improve their people, not just solve their problem. They will want to build a strong relationship with you and your company. This relationship building will take time. Humanistic buyers will want to know who has used your product to solve his/her problems. They will consider how your product will affect themselves and others. They will want to ensure that your product will be readily accepted.

Humanistic buyers care about the people impact of your product. They will take the big picture view of your solution. First, they will need to know that your product can solve their problem. Then they will want to envision how your solution will affect others. Thus they will look for details about how your customers selected, decided, implemented, used, and embraced your product. Humanistic buyers value the quality of the relationship. Strongly intuitive, they will need you to be as authentic with them as they are with you.

Tips for marketing and selling to humanistic buyers:

• Appeal: Drawn to authentic relationships.


• Website: Present your product from the human perspective. Tell stories about how others selected, implemented, used, and solved their problems with your product.


• Information Needs: Answer questions on who you are and who has used your product to solve his/her problems. Will want to explore the possibilities your product presents with you.


• Understand: The big picture - how choosing you will affect their relationships. They will want the best people solution.


• Process: They will want to explore the possibilities, understand the big picture, evaluate the human aspect of your product. The most important part of their process is the relationship.


• Time: They will be relatively slow paced. You will have to spend more time than usual building and nurturing the relationship.


• Risk: They are willing to take leaps of faith based on their intuition. Yet, they will steer away from decisions that create conflict and confrontation.


• Decision: Will want the emotional confirmation that this is the right choice for the people.

Humanistic introverts versus humanistic extroverts

Both humanistic introverts and extroverts are out-going and people-oriented. Humanistic introverts tend to be nurturers. As good listeners, they seriously engage in improving the welfare of individuals. Extroverts are strong communicators. They inspire others with their emotional concern and caring connection. Both humanistic types prefer getting their information through their relationships. These relationships support their "sixth sense" which guides them in the decision-making process. Sales interactions should be on creating authentic relationships, meaning what you say, and doing what you promise.

Appealing to Spontaneous Buyer Modalities

The spontaneous buyer modality (or artisan temperament) is the second most prevalent type of buyer. Spontaneous buyers make up 30-35% of the general population.

Spontaneous buyers are optimistic individuals focused on the here and now. They are fun loving, creative, impulsive and charming. They want to get to where they want to go as quickly as possible. They are flexible and adaptable. They resist being tied down or obligated.

Spontaneous buyers are poised to take immediate action. They want to quickly get to the bottom line. They will want to know why your product is the best one to solve their problem right now. They care about the buying experience. They will make a rapid evaluation and be quick to move on if your product is not perceived as meeting their current needs.

Spontaneous buyers don't like traditional details. They want their inputs boiled down. They want comparisons already spelled out to them. They love the comparative summary charts like those Consumer Reports creates. They care about timely relevancy.

Tips for marketing and selling to spontaneous buyers:

• Appeal: Drawn to top-rated items that are immediately available.


• Website: Present summary information in easy-to-read charts. Leverage expert opinions and reviews.


• Information Needs: Answer questions on why your product is the best solution for their immediate problem.


• Understand: Why they should choose you. They want to know you are the best they can get at this time.


• Process: They want to get to the end point quickly. By presenting the executive summary of the information they need to know, you can bypass buying process stages.


• Time: They are poised to act quickly. Don't burden them with unnecessary details.


• Risk: They are not confined by convention. They may suggest creative solutions to help achieve their goals.


• Decision: Need you be ready to act as soon as they make their decision. If you aren't ready, you can lose them.

Spontaneous introverts versus spontaneous extroverts

Spontaneous introverts work and act in their own little world. They tend to communicate better using non-verbal means of expression. They are may choose unconventional sources to obtain the information they need. Once they have that information, their deliberation and decision-making will be done privately. Spontaneous extroverts, on the other hand, are extremely visible in everything they do. When they come on the scene, things start to happen. Playing to an audience, spontaneous extroverts may be difficult to read. In both cases, spontaneous buyers are people of action and can be expected to buck convention. Sales interactions should focus on quickly providing critical information, anticipating the next steps, and being responsible for the conventional closure of the deal.

Appealing to Methodical Buyer Modalities

The methodical buyer modality (or guardian temperament) is among the most prevalent in the general population. Methodicals make up 40-45% of the general population.

Methodicals buyers are down-to-earth individuals. They are hard-working, detailed, organized and cautious. They are responsible and stabilizing. Methodicals work within the rules.

Methodicals are your information consumers. They are going to research in detail the characteristics of your product. They will want to know what your product does and how it works. They are comparers. This means that they will evaluate the information they receive by comparing it with other information and with an ideal they have formulated. They are careful and will take their time gathering and evaluating information.

Methodical buyers need to have all of their questions answered, and those answers must be in specifics. Claims, concepts, and ideas must be understood by them. They must make sense. In seeking stability, they will make a decision that delivers measured risk.

Tips for marketing and selling to methodical buyers:

• Appeal: Drawn to proof that your product can solve their problem


• Website: Provide lots of detailed information that they can easily explore. They want deeper levels of factual information.


• Information Needs: Answer questions on what your product does and how it does it


• Understand: How your product can solve their problem. They will think and deliberate logically.


• Process: Will pace themselves and work through their buying process in an orderly manner. Don't try to jump process steps.


• Time: Will need time to research, evaluate, and come to a decision. Don't rush them.


• Risk: Everything is a trade-off. Allow them to define their risk boundaries.


• Decision: Must make a responsible decision, having weighed the consequences.

Methodical introverts versus methodical extroverts

Like all of the other modalities, methodical buyers come in introverts and extroverts. Introverts will use non-interactional methods for gathering and evaluating their information. Methodical extroverts will balance written information with interpersonal connections. In both cases, they will spend most of their buying process in information gathering and evaluation mode. Sales interactions should focus on helping them obtain the information they need to move forward.

How Buyers Behave - Buyer Modalities

I am finding that one of the most engaging areas of persuasive momentum that of buyer modality. I think this is because as we learn about it, we can instantly understand it from our own perspective as buyers.

Buyer modality is the application of behavioral patterns to identify buying behaviors. Its value lies in its basis on behaviors (what people do) not simply character traits. In marketing and sales, we care a lot about how people behave.

A great overview of buyer modalities can be found in Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg's book Waiting for your Cat to Bark? The Eisenbergs based their buyer-oriented modalities on psychologist Dr. David Keirsey's work linking human behavioral patterns to temperaments and character types.

Eisenberg Buyer Modality	Keirsey Temperament
Methodical	Guardian
Spontaneous	Artisan
Humanistic	Idealist
Competitive	Rational

What I like about Keirsey's work is that he helps us understand the distribution of the temperament types in the general population.

What I like about the Eisenbergs' work is that they take the information about each of the temperaments and boil it down to the implications of these behaviors in buyers.

This area of buyer modalities has stimulated some interesting discussions with my clients. In an effort to better understand the modalities, the first question that came to mind in a team of sales people was, "Which buyer modality am I?" One of the sales persons thought that he was a "spontaneous" buyer. Some of the others in the room questioned this. But as I asked questions about his buying habits, it became clear that he was really a "competitive" buyer.

As we talked through each modality, the discussion took an interesting turn. The question on the table was, "If I am a methodical buyer, what type of temperament do I want in my sales person?" This led to the question, "What type of temperaments do the majority of sales people have? Are they centered around one or two temperaments?"

Then the stories came out. We discussed the frustrations of having a sales person with a different temperament try to sell to us. The implication was that we would prefer a sales person with a temperament just like us because implicitly they would better understand what we wanted.

But the whole point in buyer modalities is that within each modality, we have insight into how the buyer will approach and likely behave during their buying process. If buyers stay pretty true to these modalities, we should be able to fairly easily identify a prospect's buyer modality. Once we understand his/her buying modality, we can customize our marketing and sales approach to better connect with them.

Now you are either going to love this or hate this. One the one hand, buyer modalities may help you boil down the seemingly endless variation of buyers into four different types. Simpler is better. But then you need to overlay the buyer modality with the buying process to really understand how to reach the buyer where they are. With an 8 step deliberated buying process, that means a lot more detail.

So, why would we go to the trouble to work through all of this buyer modality - buying process detail? For better results.

For marketing, that means significantly improved campaign results which generate more highly qualified leads. For sales, that means easier and shorter sales cycles. For the buyer, that means the creation of a valued relationship that satisfies their needs. Satisfied customers mean increased business revenues.

In upcoming blog entries, we will look at each of the four buyer modalities in more detail.

Why We do Business with Bad Customers

In my last blog entry, I talked about buyer personas that are bad for our business. Often we can see them coming from miles away, but we still choose to do business with them. I was curious about this, so I asked some of my clients about this phenomena. Their responses fell into two categories.

Reason #1: We need to work with bad customers

The idea here is that bad customers bring with them some pretty hefty revenues. In some cases, bad customers were responsible for repeat business that was very lucrative to the company. In other cases, the bad customers were important filler. They took up the business slack. Most clients felt that it was better to do business with a bad customer than not to have that business at all.

This last statement points to the underlying fear that there aren't enough good customers to keep our business fat and happy. If there was ample supply of good customers, why would anyone ever deal with a bad customer?

Reason #2: The projects look interesting and challenging

I can personally relate to this idea. For those who like a good challenge, a bad customer is an open invitation to a stimulating engagement. We go in with eyes wide open and hopes high. Perhaps, this will be the situation we can turn around. We don't mind the hard work, the difficult interpersonal communications, or the daily inconveniences.

Yet, when the sale is done and the project completed, we realize that along the way it sucked the energy right out of us. We may have had little triumphs along the way, but we never realized our hopes.

If we objectively evaluate these sales, we realize that we would have better spent our efforts on customers who appreciate us, value our work, and have a big stake in a successful outcome.

Rethinking Bad Customers

I believe that doing business with bad customers makes bad sense. In our Googled, viral marketed, word-of-mouth, Internet age, there is no reason why we shouldn't have a steady stream of good customers knocking at our door. (If there truly is a dearth of available good customers, then perhaps we should be rethinking our business.)

If we see a bad customer coming, we should just say no. For every bad customer we take on, there is an opportunity cost. By taking on a bad customer, we lose an opportunity to take on a good customer. We burn out valuable resources which lowers the energy, creativity and value we can offer to our good customers. We take on additional business risk in an age where bad word-of-mouth spreads like wildfire on the Internet.

Why would we do this?

There is one reason. It is because we currently aren't being inundated with good customers. And why aren't we being inundated with good customers? Because we don't know how to effectively reach them, attract them, meet their needs, and persuade them to buy from us. It is because we haven't created the persuasive momentum that rewards the good customers and weeds out the bad ones.

Buyer Personas that are Bad for our Business

Recently, at the beginning of a buyer persona workshop, a sales representative mentioned, “I really can’t see a way of narrowing down the characteristics for a type of buyer. Our buyers are a highly diverse group with all different personality types.”

In essence, his company is choosing to sell to anyone who knocks on their door: the difficult and demanding buyers as well as the delightful and realistic ones.

I asked, “Today, you may indeed work with a wide variety of personality types, but it may not be good for your business. Have you ever wished you could walk away from a difficult customer?”

He replied, “No.”

Around the table, the people who had to work directly with the difficult and demanding customers were shaking their heads in the affirmative.

The truth is that we all sell to buyers (and customers) who may not be good for our business. Often, during a buyer’s time in our sales process, their behaviors and actions clearly indicate that they will be the type of customer we will want to fire. But we sell to them anyways.

I like to illustrate my point with a story from my days at IBM and Sun. At both companies, I had the opportunity to work with the same customer (same buyer, same users). This customer was a very high profile company and the sales team had worked extra long and hard to jump through the buyer's hoops to land the sale. To be honest, the sale wasn’t very large monetarily, but we expected the prestige of landing this customer to help us attract other buyers in the same industry.

Because this was a high profile customer, they were given carte blanche access to our developers and support engineers. High level executives met with them regularly and promised them new features and adjusted the delivery to the customer’s timeframe. Everyone hoped that they would turn into a great reference for us.

But in the back hallways, this customer was driving everyone crazy. They were mean, demanding, and relentless. They constantly used the threat of escalating whatever little problem they were having to the CEO as a way to ensure they got immediate satisfaction. They required features that other customers wouldn’t use. They disrupted work days, weekend days, and product schedules. They burnt out developers, customer service reps, and line managers. They were never happy. And this went on month after month, year after year.

This one customer cost both companies much more than they ever paid in license and support fees. But neither company ever realized this. The customer never served as a reference. Even after everyone jumped through their hoops, they were never satisfied. As for the influence their corporate name would bring, I never saw that realized as a contributing factor in other sales in that industry.

Not all customers are good for us. And we can usually tell who they are as we are selling to them. The traits are evident – disrespectful, demeaning, demanding, insincerity, dishonesty, etc. As you work out your buyer personas, don’t forget to use the opportunity and evaluate which buyer personas you should be doing business with.

How Buyers Find You

In the marketing of my youth, the traditional marketing goal was brand awareness. Building a brand identity and promoting it everywhere a potential buyer might be were the law. Television. Magazines and Newspapers. Bill boards. Mailers. Placement on store shelves. Marketers worked hard to create that optimal number of impressions that brought brand recognition and consideration.

Herald the arrival of the Internet and the advances in Internet search. In a 2007 Digital Consumer Behavior Study by Avenue A | Razorfish,

• A whopping 54% of connected consumers would use a general search engine to begin their search for a product to "see what comes up".
• Another 15% would visit a specific eCommerce site that specializes in the type of product and search there.

Talk about leveling the playing field.

This is not to say that brand identity and awareness play no role in today's buyer's processes. But the sheer volume of money thrown at search list placement would argue that simply being found is perhaps more critical. The importance of being remembered (branding) versus being found (placement) is changing.

Given the growing use of Internet search in being found, the interesting question for marketers becomes what terms do buyers use as they begin their buying process. Marketers need to make sure that their company and products place well in buyer searches.

The challenge is that at the earliest stage of the buying process - awareness of a need - many buyers aren't going to start by searching for your brand name. When buyers first become aware of a need, desire or problem, they often don't have the fine-tuned vocabulary of the marketer who is trying to create blue ocean space for their product.

Instead, early stage buyers search for things like "big screen tv", "birthday cards", and "learn french". Being the leader in "LCD tvs", "on-line greeting cards", or "language learning software" won't help them find you when your products don't appear on their search results list.

It is important to note, that as the buyer works his/her way through their buying process, the terms he/she uses in their searches become more specific. So, don't breathe a sigh of relief just yet. If that big screen tv buyer decides that they really want a plasma tv, you are not going to be considered if you sell LCD tvs.

Rule #1: You must place well in the category searches to avoid being eliminated from buyer consideration at the earliest stage of the buying process.

Rule #2: You must continue to place well in specialty searches to remain in consideration during the rest of the stages in the buying process.

Avinash Kaushik provides an interesting discussion on this issue of being found in his posts on The Long Tail.

Avinash suggests that marketers use SEO for the short head and ad word buys for the long tail search terms.

But before you start buying, you must understand your buyer (think buyer persona) and methodically go through the buying process stages to identify relevant search terms.

How the Sales Team Creates Persuasive Momentum

If your products are in any part sold by people (versus entirely on-line or via catalog sales), you see your sales team as the primary creator of persuasive momentum for your buyer. But because persuasive momentum is designed, a sales rep needs a solid foundation of supporting “tools”. There are three key requirements for these tools:

1. The tools must help the sales rep better understand the buyer


2. The tools must align the sales process with the prospect’s buying process


3. The tools must support and satisfy the prospect’s needs at each stage of their buying process

Buyer personas are the tools that help a sales rep better understand the buyer. Buyer personas profile a type of buyer. They are not simply a demographic description of the buyer. They go deeper to understand the personality, motivations, and behavior of a type of buyer. The breadth and complexity of a business’ products will influence the number of buyer personas the sales team needs.

For each buyer persona, a detailed buying process map is needed. The buying process map defines the stages the prospect goes through in their buying process. For each stage, it identifies the key sources, resources, questions, and concerns that need to be satisfied before the buyer will move onto the next stage.

With the buying process maps established, the buying process needs to be aligned with the sales process. This alignment is critical in ensuring all of the buyer’s process stages are supported in the corporate sales process. It enables the sales person to anticipate the needs of the buyer and be prepared to meet those needs. This sales preparation creates buyer incentive and acts as an emotional support throughout the buying process.

Finally, in order for the sales rep to create that forward momentum with the buyer, they must have the information the buyer needs instantly at hand. This means that appropriate mechanisms – demos, presentations, evaluation criteria, etc. must be prepared in advance to support the needs of the prospect. Each buying stage has its own requirements. Each buyer modality has its own interests.

Preparation is a critical underpinning of persuasive momentum. Time is an important factor in building momentum. If the sales rep takes too long in responding to a buyer’s need (framed as a request, question or concern), a momentum gap is created. This creates an opening for the buyer to seek more immediate satisfaction elsewhere. “Elsewhere” can mean other channels (on-line), other sources (outside experts), and other products (competitor’s offerings).

If it hasn’t become evident yet, a sales rep is often the conductor of persuasive momentum. But it really takes a cross-functional team to support it. Product marketing, marketing communications, customer service, sales engineers, and sales management all play equally critical roles in ensuring persuasive momentum.

Building Ready Buyers

In marketing we talk about “conversions” and “leads”. In sales we talk about “leads” and “opportunities”. These seem like abstract terms for the people we are really trying to persuade - our buyers.

Underlying our terminology is a disconnect between marketing and sales and the buyer. When I was a product marketing manager at Sun Microsystems, I took a course on building a market-focused organization. The premise behind this course was to completely understand a day in the life of our buyer. Once we understood our buyer, we could better relate what we had to offer to the buyer’s needs, wants, and language. This work was probably the precursor to today’s buyer personas.

I don’t see many marketing and sales teams that are equipped with profiles of their buyer personas. I haven’t found many organizations that understand their buyers. It is no wonder we have trouble achieving high conversion rates and high percentages of closed opportunities. In fact, it is often despite ourselves that we win deals.

It is easy for our sales and marketing efforts to focus on our company and our product. After all, that is what we are selling. But the result for the buyer is like a conversation with a self-absorbed person. Every discourse turns away from the buyer. The buyer has to work hard to focus the seller on their needs, their interests, their concerns, and their process. We see this played out in a myriad of different ways. Buyers are asked to talk with a sales person before they are ready. Buyers are frustrated because they can’t get the information they need. Buyers are hijacked into a sales process that doesn’t look anything like their buying process. The result is a relationship that does not inspire buying confidence.

The truth is that selling is all about the buyer. To effectively sell, we must know our buyer intimately. We must satisfy the buyer’s needs as the prospect works through their buying process. Our interactions must build buyer confidence and create positive emotions. And we must do this step by step, need by need, question by question, concern by concern. This is the essence of persuasive momentum.

Persuasive momentum is the increasing tendency of a buyer to remain engaged with you as you support them through the stages of their buying process.

Without persuasive momentum, you will not be able to close a sale. What prospect will buy from you if they lack confidence in your ability to meet their needs? Persuasive momentum builds buyer confidence. Persuasive momentum builds buyer readiness.

We all inherently know what persuasive momentum looks like. We have experienced it in our own lives in our own purchases. We say that “the planets aligned” to make our purchase happen. Everything came together and fit perfectly. The timing was right. We wanted to buy this product from this company. Yet, how often do we feel this way about a purchase? Probably not often enough.

The reason we don’t feel persuasive momentum in many of our own purchases (or create it for our buyers) is that it doesn’t happen by chance.

Persuasive momentum is designed. And it is designed around our buyer, not around us. I’ll be talking more about this topic in upcoming blog entries.

Join me, April 15th at 6:30 pm at the Silicon Valley Business Meetup in Cupertino, CA where I will be leading a discussion on persuasive momentum. Please register to attend in advance.