Creating Your Customer Avatar Part 3

Leave a Comment / /

In part 3 we’re going to cover:

  • Types of Buyers and Why it Matters
  • Multiple purchasers in a buying process
  • Examples

Types of Buyers and Why it Matters

If you’ve been in business for a while you may have realized that not everyone signs up for things the same way. While some take longer and ask for detailed information others will purchase in the spur of the moment. Some price shop and others negotiate hard. Some want to have a relationship and others are more interested in getting the price and moving on.

Understanding that people are different is vital in understanding this final part of the process. If you google the different types of buyers there are lists of 2,3,4,5,6,7 or even more categories of people.

I’ve broken it down into the 4 that I’ve seen the most often and that I find useful. Note that sometimes someone can have multiple characteristics across the spectrum below.

  1. Analytical Buyer

The analytical buyer is the picture you get when you think of a bookkeeper, an accountant, a banker, or someone like that. Someone who is very detail-oriented, wants to cross their t’s dot their i’s and they want to see the research behind what you’re stating.

For this type of buyer having the information to hand is important. Having the research that proves your value is important.

Having 3rd party resources will be important for this type of buyer.

For this buyer if you have these details and it all works out they’ll give their approval for purchase. They may not be the final decision maker always however having them on board often gives confidence to the impulse buyer (see below).

  1. Friendly Buyer

The friendly buyer is someone who is interested in relationships and where the relationship with the person matters more than the details about the product. 

This is where you building a relationship with the buyer, taking the time to find out about them personally, checking in on them, will all be very important and valuable to this type of buyer.

  1. Impulse Buyer

This is the kind of buyer who decides they have to have something and they purchase it with the first vendor that provides that product or service. 

While it’s nice to be that vendor from a sales perspective, they are also the most likely to have buyers regret and bring back the product, request a refund or leave a bad review.

For this type of buyer truly understanding the person, what problem they are trying to solve and making sure that your product is the right fit for them is going to be very important.

  1. Pro Buyer

This is the type of buyer that knows what they want, has done the research and will ask the hard questions. 

They are also the easiest to sell because if you know your stuff and they see that, then they can make a decision quickly.

For these types of buyers, be prepared to defend your position, hold your space and even go on the counter-offensive as needed as they will respect you more.

You will have to know how to say “no” when they request something outrageous or just let them know “of course we can, it’ll just cost X” or “definitely, that’s part of our XYZ package”.

Look, all of the above could be complete BS. The important thing is that people are different.

No one individual (even your perfect customer) buys exactly the same way. 

I want you to be open to realizing that when you’re making a big sale or even a little sale that you’ll want to be open and aware that different people will have different styles of buying and that this becomes even more important when they all influence the same sale.

Multiple Purchasers for Major Purchases

As mentioned above when you sell a major product you’ll often find that there are buying committees involved. Sometimes someone will tell you they are the decision-maker but that then you find out that others will also have to approve the decision.

Sometimes you’re selling to an influencer within a company who will then have to sell it to others within the company but that is the standard process for that company.

This is often the case in B2B sales.

You’ll often believe that the CEO or Owner is the only key decision-maker that you’ll need to close in order to close a deal. However, oftentimes there will be influencers such as controllers, CFOs, CMO/COO, etc that can either greatly contribute to or hinder your sale.

Here’s a list of potential influencers and other decision-makers for you to consider:

Financial:

 CFO

 Controller

C-Suite

 CMO

 COO

 CEO

 CIO

 CFO

Board Members  

End Users

 Operations Team

 Sales Team

 Any group of employees can at times be an influencer on a sale

Others

 Consultants

 Advisors

 Spouse

 Mastermind Groups

As you look at the above list this should give you an idea of how many different people could have an impact on purchasing from you. This may fill you with fear, however, realize that you now have many more opportunities to influence the sale (including generating more referrals) than you did before you thought or were aware of all of the different potential decision points.

Examples

Let’s say you’re selling a technology solution to a 100 Million dollar business. You’ll likely have multiple business units that you’ll need to sell to as well as getting buy-in from not only the operations team but the finance and leadership team as they’ll each have their own priorities as well.

If you’re selling a product to a business that’s grossing over 1 million you’ll likely have influencers if you’re selling a major product (likely over 5k). If the business is doing over 10 Million and you’re selling something for more than 25k you’ll now likely run into multiple decision-makers.

If you’re selling a massive product you’ll want to make sure that you develop an understanding as above of each individual person that will influence the sale. This is an advanced step and if you’re interested in working with someone to help you hammer this all out let me know at jeremy@b2bbusinessexperts.com.