Tony Zambito

APRIL 26, 2021

Working from home, for many buyers, is either proving to be chaotic and unfocused or fraught with unending pressure. On one hand, I like working from home and not worrying about driving to the office. On the other hand, the company thinks work from home means you are available 24/7.

Buyer Personas 153

Buyer Personas Outreach Buy Studies 153

Tony Zambito

JUNE 8, 2020

In talking and sampling with decision-makers, questions are surfacing such as: When and how should we resume marketing and selling? How have buyers adapted to working from home? Introducing Buyer Outlook Insights Study Marketers and sellers have faced an enormous upheaval in how to reach and engage buyers.

Studies 162

Studies Buyer Personas Paid Search Agency Sample 162

Tony Zambito

JANUARY 11, 2021

An area we have explored before has led some to question how practical seller-free experiences may arise. Practicality will work itself out. What may have caused buyers in the past to take such with a “grain of salt” may lead to outright elimination. Desire For Seller-Free Experiences Grow.

Trends 209

Trends B2B Sales B2B Marketing Spending 209

Tony Zambito

MAY 4, 2020

The Way Work and Commerce Gets Done. The way work and commerce get done will need to be reinvented and reimagined. Thousands of workers are working from home. New behaviors and protocols will emerge as the digitization of work and commerce materialize over time. Competence, Performance, Expertise.

Marketing AI 173

Marketing AI Buyer Personas Advertising Agencies Conference 173

Tony Zambito

APRIL 27, 2020

How we work, travel, communicate, relate, and aspire towards goals will all look and feel different. For many businesses across the globe whether in business-to-business or business-to-consumer, pressing questions are top of mind. A cataclysmic global pandemic will alter many facets of life as we know it.

Buy 182

Buy Buyer Personas Ideal Customer Profiles Amazon 182

Tony Zambito

SEPTEMBER 29, 2018

Without question, as we fast approach a new decade, we will need deeper insights into why people are making the decisions they are. How We Work. Plain and simple, how we work today has changed drastically in the last decade. One way to get to “why” is by understanding the context surrounding why decisions are made.

CMO 176

CMO Analytics Network Marketing Planning 176

Tony Zambito

JUNE 26, 2016

Fraught with confusion surrounding questions such as: exactly what constitutes an audience and is there really a difference between buyers and audiences? Questions I often receive when working with CMOs specific to B2B. And, invariably asking the – “which water hole” do you prefer question.

Buyer Personas 104

Buyer Personas Research B2B Fulfillment 104

Tony Zambito

OCTOBER 23, 2018

A question which businesses undergoing such efforts should answer, however, is: Will our transformation help us to align with customers and buyers? Workforce : How people work and communicate are changing drastically. 2020 Looms Ahead. The focus on transforming marketing, sales, customer experience, and etc. is the right thing to do.

Digital Transformation 184

Digital Transformation Buyer Personas Work Management Marketing Management 184

Tony Zambito

OCTOBER 13, 2011

  One place to start is for executives to ask a bold question: are we still selling like it’s 1999?    An especially valid question for companies that have traditionally been sales driven and the dominance of a sales culture has reigned for several decades.  Technology. Talent and Hiring Criteria.

Cross-Selling 100

Cross-Selling Training Paid Search Agency Inbound Marketing 100

Tony Zambito

OCTOBER 23, 2016

These four behavioral areas are being impacted, as well as, converging: (Market) Organizational Behaviors : How people work and interact in work environments today is significantly changing. Making it harder for businesses to assess markets and get a read on market environments.

Enterprise Management 100

Enterprise Management Marketing Strategy Marketing & Strategy Work Management 100

Tony Zambito

DECEMBER 20, 2015

In my work with leading organizations in the last fifteen years, the most successful buyer persona endeavors were those addressing overall customer strategy and not relegated to just finding effective tactics related to messaging and demand generation. Some with recommendations, which include a lengthy list of questions.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Research Studies Demand Generation Agencies 100

Tony Zambito

JANUARY 25, 2012

Behaviorally oriented Market and Business Buyergraphics provide insight into and answers for several crucial questions: How do we understand buyer segments based on purchasing behaviors? Or, as many would say: at least a working chance when the ability to peer around the corner is getting harder and harder to do.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas B2B Allocation Peer-to-peer 100

Tony Zambito

JULY 17, 2016

People and professionals in organizations can have different intentions while working towards the accomplishment of organizational, as well as, individual goals. Well beyond the basic line of win/loss or profiling oriented type of rote questioning. Transformation by Yu Luck. Transform Marketing.

Intent 100

Intent Buyer Personas CMO Work Management 100

Tony Zambito

APRIL 24, 2010

  These types of questions are yet to be answered. In light of these evolving and emerging trends, I along with Angela Quail and those associated with Goal Centric will be examining the Digital Buyer Persona in our work going forward.    Is "social" just "social noise" at the moment? 

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Eloqua Social Media Lead Ranking 100

Tony Zambito

JANUARY 5, 2010

  The term and concept has grown through actual work on the part of leading edge organizations and some terrific writing as well as teaching on the topic of buyer personas.   Being a student of Peter Drucker, I asked the important question Mr. .   It resides with one man and one man only – Alan Cooper.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Work Management Forrester Marketing Management 100

Tony Zambito

NOVEMBER 28, 2010

  Without question, social media has dominated the business news in terms of conventional media channels as well as digital media channels.     Perhaps sounding eerily similar to that recent conversation you’ve had with your teenage son or daughter who answers your “why” question with “because everyone is doing it.” 

Social Media 100

Social Media Peer-to-peer Buy Media 100

Tony Zambito

JUNE 13, 2011

  Either they worked or didn’t work.    And, when they didn’t work they are shelved.    Those they did work sometimes run its course and then are neglected to move onto the next “big” thing.    Organic. Marketing and sales plans have a tendency to be concrete and finite plans. 

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Peer-to-peer Planning Viral Marketing 100

Tony Zambito

DECEMBER 16, 2008

  It takes some hard work and they usually cannot be created by conventional means such as culling data from sales forces.   This means sales will no longer have to rely on just one reference point for asking questions but have multiple paths of questioning that are more relevant and accurate.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Paid Search Agency Marketing Buy 100

Tony Zambito

MARCH 23, 2011

  Everyone working on their portion of the sales pitch to be sure they are in tune and in the right key – just like an American Idol contest.  Networking : it is weird to put this word here because it conjures up the old image of networking – as in working the room.    It is getting more expansive than this. . 

Peer-to-peer 100

Peer-to-peer Network Marketing Buy Education 100

Tony Zambito

APRIL 14, 2010

  My partner Angela Quail and I worked with courageous companies who were early adopters of buyer personas after Goal Centric launched the buyer persona methodology in 2002.    It doesn’t work that way.    Here is the first: Rule 1: You can't just make up a buyer persona.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Rules Ideal Customer Profiles Social Media 100

Tony Zambito

AUGUST 2, 2011

.  Getting at how and why buyers buy is an anthropological inspired behavioral and cultural research effort and not a market or sales research question.    For example, you can have two senior IT executives working in different corporations and environments. 

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Viral Marketing Ideal Customer Profiles B2B Sales 100

Tony Zambito

APRIL 21, 2010

  A question that often leads to this transformation is: How could a buyer persona development initiative with a sample size of 40 to 50 possibly offer the same validity of performing surveys on a sample size of 1,000? .    A cognitive dissonance occurs over sampling sizes in quantitative areas such as market research. 

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Rules Sample Validation 100

Tony Zambito

FEBRUARY 15, 2010

.    Target selling and customer profiling called for asking the same level of questions that have been suggested for creating buyer personas, such as: · What are your target’s goals and issues? · And a host more of similar questions……. How does your target go about making decisions? Who do they support?

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Ideal Customer Profiles Profiling Lead Ranking 100

Tony Zambito

MARCH 16, 2010

.   I have made reference to these playbooks in recent posts as well as our work with Hewlett-Packard.   My colleague Angela Quail and I have taken quite a journey of innovation with respect to the playbooks.   The press release can be found at: [link].

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Marketing & Strategy Enterprise Management Buying Cycle 100

Tony Zambito

MARCH 30, 2012

Buyers today – with SMB buyers a significant part of this picture – are creating new ways of working and conducting business. I got a call from the company; his name was Steve, first acknowledging that I had downloaded the papers and then asking if I had questions. Wasn’t pushy or anything like that.”.

SMB 100

SMB Advertising Channels Enterprise Management Work Management 100

Tony Zambito

MARCH 13, 2011

Joseph Pine II and James Gilmore published The Experience Economy : Work is Theatre and Every Business is a Stage.    While quality content is important, the larger strategic question for CEO’s to think about is what new forms of media are relevant to their buyers? In 1999, B.

B2B Sales 100

B2B Sales Paid Search Agency Barriers Work Management 100

Tony Zambito

DECEMBER 12, 2010

  This question undoubtedly will be pondered for quite some time.  Subject Matter Expertise : As buyers work on initiatives or respond to triggers , offering subject matter expertise by way of content is critical to engaging buyers early in the buyer experience journey. 

B2B Sales 100

B2B Sales Buyer Personas Multi-Channel B2B 100

Tony Zambito

MAY 5, 2011

  Today, a more intelligent and social approach means buyers and sellers working through issues simultaneously to map directly to the goals of the buying organization.   They can begin to ponder the question of how to turn the overall buying experience into a more social experience. 

Buy 100

Buy Buyer Personas B2B Lock-In 100

Tony Zambito

DECEMBER 8, 2011

  The leaders of today will need to work in concert to put into place efforts that not only focus on creating value but places a premium on keeping a pulse on the changing values on the part of buyers.  What Must CEO’s, CMO’s, and CSO’s Do?   Do you know your buyer’s values and can you help them to articulate more clearly?

Trends 100

Trends Fulfillment Work Management Marketing Management 100

Tony Zambito

AUGUST 21, 2011

The real question is why consumers or business buyers will not buy into not only HP’s Touchpad but all the other Apple iPad imitators including Blackberry’s Playbook and the Android Tablets?  .  But there is more to this story.   So what gives?

Distribution 100

Distribution Buy Marketing & Strategy Marketing 100

Tony Zambito

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

  This rethinking raises questions as well as the dialogue today on the effectiveness of the traditional functions of sales, marketing, support, and customer service.     Viewing what each function is capable of in isolation and missing the harmonizing around the buyer experience. 

Top of Funnel 100

Top of Funnel Buyer Personas Buyer's Journey Digital Marketing Funnels 100

Tony Zambito

NOVEMBER 15, 2010

  Calling into question how we have conventionally thought about buyer retention and buyer loyalty.    It is very possible we may be having the wrong debate. .    The challenge lies in how to move the conversation forward to a new level.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Paid Search Agency Buying Cycle Lead Ranking 100

Tony Zambito

DECEMBER 20, 2020

Retrenched to working from home, there is unfiltered liberty to turn the content spewing spigot off. I pushed back on one buyer, who I instinctively felt gave me a polite response to a question related to content. Buyers are ignoring and ghosting. B2B marketing and sales have a real issue on their hands. A realization has to be met.

Account Based Marketing 273

Account Based Marketing Buyer Personas B2B Content 273

Tony Zambito

DECEMBER 16, 2020

For business leaders, it raises a significant two-part question: Has the COVID-19 pandemic made it more difficult to do business with us, and are we addressing the inefficiencies? . Business leaders, wishing to stay close to their buyers, will need to work hard at it. Buyer Desire For Seller-Free Interaction Grows.

Allocation 285

Allocation Buyer Personas Marketing & Strategy Interactive Marketing 285

Tony Zambito

NOVEMBER 11, 2020

A few years ago, we engaged in groundbreaking work with HP whereby we looked deeply at the buying processes of their Information Services clients. For instance, in our work with IBM on gaining insights into EMS and population health management, we found that while the larger goals of implementation were clear, many of the sub-goals were not.

B2B Sales 226

B2B Sales B2B Loyalty Buy 226

Tony Zambito

MAY 2, 2012

This is a powerful question today. For some organizations, it may feel like reality dealt a blow to the midsection when they truthfully answer the question. Finding out how to be likeable and, in effect, make the laws of attraction work for your organization is a complex issue today.

Organization 100

Organization Lead Ranking Buyer Personas Lead Nurturing 100

Tony Zambito

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

  Most sales and marketing teams are working from lists of market segmentation data that is focused on markets, roles, company names, products, employees, and the list can go on and on – and on. The question of how many buyer personas is often asked in our client engagements.   How Many Is Too Many. .

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Segmentation Ideal Customer Profiles Buying Cycle 100