Week 6: personas with a difference

Personas

The line between IT and business leaders is blurring when it comes to the procurement process. The buyer may still manage the budget, but stakeholders across the company or division may hold immense clout and without their buy-in, they will kill the deal.

Traditional influencers, like analysts and thought leaders, have been external, but stakeholders inside are gaining influence. Getting influencer attention is more crucial than ever to successful sales.

Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the technology arena, especially in the cloud, SaaS, and DevOps world where cross-collaboration is vital.

This talk discusses the growing importance of the influencer in the B2B buying process and examines whether the traditional buyer persona is becoming less relevant and what is replacing it. We will examine what to do as product marketers to reach influencers in the business and how to influence them.

These key stakeholders affect not only product marketing, but also the entire marketing function. As such, you, the product marketer, can be the change agent to drive this transformation across marketing. We will discuss a real-life example, a case study, and best practices to understand how to manage a complex buying process, juggling the unique needs of each stakeholder.

The time has come for product marketers to shift their approach and ask: "How can I influence the influencers?"