Why B2B startups need to rethink about the Buyer Persona?

In the past, there was a common practice adopted by the Marketing and Sales departments to focus all their efforts to target the decision-makers with that organization, especially the VP and C-Level executives having the authority to make the purchasing decision. The approach does look logical. But what was effective in the past, doesn’t necessarily remain effective now.

Considering today’s competitive market, there has been a dramatic shift in the buying process. Today buying process involves multiple stakeholders within the organization from different departments and seniority level. Ignoring this shift can certainly result in missed opportunities.

I still see a lot of B2B startups stuck on targeting the decision makers. One reason maybe the focus on rapid growth, pressure to secure deals and drive revenue growth. But the most significant reason maybe the misunderstanding that, targeting non -executive professionals is a waste of time and resources. But in reality, these professionals (user advocates) play a very vital role in shaping the decision-making process.

We ourselves have worked under this profile as user advocates somewhere down our professional life and still do. To give an example my past company was looking to introduce a new sales management tool for our sales team. Though our VP of Sales was ultimately the decision maker, as user advocates we were the one’s who played a pivotal role of being a part of shaping that decision and communicating with the Vendor about our present challenges and expected changes.

To sum it up, by hanging on to past approaches, B2B startups may fall behind their competitors who understand the importance of adapting to the changing market dynamics. They should certainly reevaluate their existing buyer personas. Instead of solely targeting only decision makers they should broaden their scope and include other professionals like the user advocates too.

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