How to personalize the buyer experience effectively?
That today’s buyers are more demanding than ever is old news by now. According to Salesforce, as much as 80% of customers now considers the experience a company provides to be as important as its products and services. Most companies are already exploiting behavioral data to fulfil consumers’ expectations of hyper-personalization – but how to translate all this data effectively into a personalized buyer experience that gives consumers what they want, when they want it? In this article we provide 5 tips on how to personalize the buyer experience effectively.
1. Provide buyers with relevant information
To cut through the noise of all the adverts consumers get bombarded with every day, it is imperative to reach buyers with information they are interested in, ideally when they are most interested in it, which is when they are in the market to buy a new product or service and are researching a solution that is in line with what you offer. Here is where buyer intent data comes into play. This is data that you can collect yourself through your company’s touchpoints, or purchase from third parties, and that allows you to narrow down your audience and identify those buyers who are currently active in the market based on their online behavior.
2. Do your research
Once you have obtained a list of leads, don’t just jump into action and contact them immediately. Do your research first:
- Use LinkedIn, for example, to find out about their company and their role in it.
- Research the company itself and the industry it operates in, identify any challenges they might be facing that your product could help solve.
- Don’t forget that behind a business person there is just a human being – find out what they are personally interested in (use, for example, Twitter or Instagram, if they have public accounts) and look for any information that could help you build a personal relationship with the buyer.
3. Ask questions
When you finally meet with your prospect, whether via phone call, online meeting, or in person, don’t jump straight into your sales pitch. You might have done your research already, but asking the right questions will help you fill in any gaps and create a bond with your buyer. People love to talk about themselves, so not only asking questions will reveal what they are interested in and allow you to offer a personalized buyer experience, it will also make consumers feel like you genuinely care – and according to Salesforce, for 84% of consumers it is really important not to feel treated like numbers in order to win their business. Be sure, however, to keep the questions short and relevant – buyers are busy, and they will lose interest if you take too long to get to the point.
4. Get some help from technology
We already mentioned buyer intent data, but there are also other ways technology can help you personalize the buyer experience. There are plenty of sales enablement tools available that might be worth investing in – If your budget allows it. Here are just a couple of examples:
- Create and use interactive content. One of the best ways to offer a personalized buyer experience during a sales meeting is to use dynamic sales decks that can be easily customized to fit the buyer’s needs. This will help you provide relevant information and keep your buyer engaged throughout the sales conversation.
- Use a content management solution that offers content tracking capabilities. This will give you internal buyer intent data by allowing you to see how your buyers interact with any content you send. Knowing when your prospects open an email attachment or how they engaged with an ROI calculator will allow you to reach out at the right time and provide you with useful information to personalize the buyer experience.
5. Be honest and transparent
Consumers nowadays prefer not to talk to sellers if possible, but they’ll make time for a trusted advisor. Honesty is the first step towards gaining your buyers’ trust. Especially when it comes to complex B2B purchases, buyers will appreciate and trust you if you are transparent about what your product can (and cannot) do. And when your product is not the best solution to address your prospect’s pain points, why not suggest an alternative, complementary solution from other vendors? This will show your customers you have their best interests at heart and will earn you their respect.
Final Thoughts
Companies that deliver a great buying experience grow twice as fast as those that deliver average experiences, Gartner found. It is therefore important to give your buyers what they want, exactly when they want it. Personalization is the ticket to a great buyer experience that will earn you loyalty, trust, and ultimately more sales (did you know that 80% of companies see a lift in sales after implementing personalization?)
Talk to one of our sales experts and learn how Prezentor can help you personalize the buyer experience.
