A few articles have appeared recently touting the death of Buyer Personas, which prompted me to ask Jim Ninivaggi, Sales Enablement service lead from SiriusDecisions about whether this was really true. According to Jim, applying B2C persona concepts, where you name each buyer - Mike, Zoe, Geoff, and then describe key aspects about their life – their marital status, how many kids they have, the house they own, cars they drive, - this is less than applicable to your B2B sales and marketing efforts. For example, take a typical phone / communications solution purchase. decoy? MORE >>

Great insights presented last week by Genius and DemandGen Report , in the webinar  Inside the Mind of B2B Buyers: New Paths to Purchase. Reality : 7 out of 10 buyers say they start their buying process at vendor sites, not Google. Reality : Over 9 out of 10 buyers consumed content on their way to purchase — especially white papers, eBooks, webinars, podcasts, and more and more, video clips. Content personalized to them — their industry, their title, their stage of the buying process, their consumption device (iPhone, Blackberry, laptop, etc.) Kaput. MORE >>

Brian Massey’s section of The Quintessential Marketing Automation Guidebook , Conversion Stack: Marketing Automation for Performance Marketers , introduced a hierarchical approach to developing an optimal marketing process. By implementing marketing automation in support of this process, marketers can develop measurements that help them to optimize the overall velocity of their marketing programs. BM: The entire stack is designed to align the way a visitor “buys” – either by purchasing products with money or by purchasing information with contact information. MORE >>

However, many marketers become enamored with the latest technology and jump into marketing automation without considering the human investment and business processes needed to make their efforts successful. Whether you’re considering marketing automation or have already begun the process, you must understand exactly what you can – and can’t – achieve with the software. key to marketing automation is reframing your thinking to focus on your customers’ buying process rather than your selling process. Define buyer personas. Identify the right leads for sales. MORE >>

Too often we confuse business purchases with what is truly required to generate business results, especially quality sales leads for salespeople. Let me share some truisms about the kinds of purchases business executives make: Buying golf clubs does not make you a great golfer. When used primarily as an email engine, adoption is “probably more than 50% (DemandGen Report, October 5, 2010). Buyer personas – interview your customers and prospects. ” Map the Buying Process – Document exactly how your customers buy. I do too. Where they start? MORE >>