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I help B2B SaaS startups know who their buyers are with Jobs-to-be-Done buyer personas. AMA!

Hey IH,
I'm Adrienne the founder of Best Buyer Persona. I create JTBD buyer personas that identify your best buyers, the "job" they've hired your product to do for them, the 4 R's, their keywords and much more. I'd love to answer any questions you have about user research, jobs-to-be-done, and creating a persona that will actually be used across your organization.

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    Hey Adrienne! What is the best way to get clients to engage? I have a SaaS and usually get crickets when I reach out

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      Hi Steve!
      Thanks for asking. Getting clients to engage can definitely be a challenge.
      I have a few questions for you:

      1. Do your customers hear from you other than you asking for a call? -like a newsletter, or on social, or in a community/VIP customer group?
      2. Are you asking for 30 minutes? - I find that asking for more time than that can be daunting.
      3. Do you provide an incentive that aligns with your customers value? It can be challenging to get CEO's on a call with a $20 gift card. I've found that a charity donation in their name works wonders.

      I actually wrote about this in my last newsletter.

      You want to communicate with your customers often and in other ways besides sales, product info, or customer support.

      Also, here's the exact email template I use to get customers on a call. I have an 80% response rate to this one, so I hope it's helpful.

      Hi {Customer Name}

      We’re looking to learn more about “our product’s” customers and community and ?>would love to hear from you.
      Could we have 30 mins to chat about your experience with “our product? We >promise no selling, only listening!
      If you’d like to share your thoughts and experiences please find a good time on our ?calendar. Adrienne from Best Buyer Persona will be in touch shortly.

      Find a good time for you here.

      Thanks

      When you're asking for a call the email needs to be

      1. transparent- why do you want to talk to them
      2. Short and concise
      3. Ensure you aren't going to sell to them (and then actually don't sell to them on the call)
      4. Provide a way for them to schedule time with you.
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    This is an interesting business, based on your pricing are you targeting enterprise specifically and do you find most of your clients are inbound?

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      Hi @MichaelKi,
      I've helped everyone from bootstrapped early startups to enterprise. I have a few different levels of engagement that can usually meet anyone's budget.
      All of my clients are inbound or referral.

  3. 2

    As a builder, often we've got in mind a buyer who sometimes ends up being different the actual person who would write the check for the product - specifically in enterprise sales.

    Whats your typical process for creating a buyer persona and how often does the envisioned persona match the actual?

    thanks!

    1. 1

      Hey @rmondo,
      There's definitely a difference between the user who uses the product, and the buyer who has the authority to buy the product. In these instances, it's important to understand both the buyer and the user. They have different pain points, different concerns, and different objectives.

      I begin with speaking directly to both buyers and users. I use a jobs to be done interview style, where I'm trying to understand what their core pain point is around the product.

      For instance you can ask questions like:

      1. Tell me about your role in your company?- This tells informs the: company hierarchy, the roles, responsibilities, relationships, and routines.

      2. Can you walk me through the last time you "used the product."- this informs project workflow, pain points, tech stack, competitors

      3. What do you like about "the product"? This gets them sharing their delights and what this product is helping them accomplish or their JTBD

      Questions like that inform our buyer personas.

      When we create a buyer persona, we use a 4-pronged approach to research.

      1. Interviews
      2. social listening
      3. Digital Intelligence
      4. Surveys

      And a Nielsen did a study and found that 20 interviews can equate to 90%-95% of the entire customer base's needs and attributes, so the personas we create end up being exactly who the buyers and users are in real life.

      A side note: we don't create Mary Marketer or Dave the Developer personas. These are more user/buyer reports- not a marketing tactic that checks a box, so once we're done, they are very useful to the entire organization.

      Thanks for asking!

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    Hey Adrienne, love what you have been doing with Best Buyer Personas. Would love to hear your thoughts on the timing of customer discovery interviews? i.e. is there an optimal timeframe for certain questions to be relevant or can timing be masked in how a question is asked?

    1. 1

      Hi @PradipCloud,
      First, thanks for asking. I always appreciate seeing a friend. :)

      Timing is everything. And it all depends on product maturity and buyer maturity.

      For customer discovery specifically, I've found that there are layers to uncover to have the best understanding of your audience.

      And when you're starting very early- say before a solid product has been built, you make some assumptions about who your audience is before you can uncover who they actually are, their JTBD, and the pain points around that job.

      When doing early customer interviews you're trying to learn as much as you can about their experience around the pain you are trying to solve. It's not beneficial, at this point, to show demos and try to ask, "does that interest you!?" or worse "what do you think?!"

      But it is beneficial to ask "what do you when X happens?" or "Tell me about the last time "insert problem you solve" happened?

      Those kinds of questions help to validate a product and features.

      Then you uncover the next layer and try to understand more about the details of their KPI's, and other persona info.

      If the product is mature and you're doing customer discovery, then the timing of the interview needs to relate to what you need to learn.

      For example: if you want to learn about a customer's onboarding process then you should survey them or speak with them right after onboarding- it's harder to recall the subtle annoyances months later.

      There were a few ways I interpreted your question, so I hope I provided an answer that helps. If not, let me know, and if this is something you're struggling with, I'm always happy to hop on a call and walk you through it. Just shoot me an email. :)

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        This is fantastic. Thank you for taking the time to write this response. Once I've thought more about what I am looking to accomplish I'll reach out 🙏

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