Revenue Journal®

I am continuously amused at the lengths company executives will go to, to avoid talking directly to their customers. They'd rather do their taxes than phone or go face-to-face with a real, live customer.

As a result of this fear, company executives and owners will bet the company on any other data they can get their hands on. They pore over their website metrics. They run web-based surveys. They ask their salespeople (sometimes) and customer service people (hardly ever) what customers are saying. Every so often, they may lurk on an online discussion group.

They demand more and more data from their marketing folks. Every piece of data makes them want more data, because the data they get only raises more questions. Deep down inside, they wonder if it's all BS.

If they found some backbone and focused instead on actually having a few conversations a month with their customers - and listening to the calls that come in from customers - they'd understand what their customers want them to sell, and how they want to buy.

The rise of "personas"

Over the last few years, the idea of customer "personas" has been finding its way into website design. The basic idea, obviously, is to design your website for the types of people buying your product, so it satisfies each type of person's preferences and buying process.

While this idea seems like a step in the right direction, and it might get CEOs and entrepreneurs thinking more about their customers, it is really just another way of avoiding direct contact with customers. Worse, unless the persona concept is based on real people, it's just another way to blow your marketing budget. It's just too easy to sit in a room and make up the personas - without basing those personas on real people giving real answers in real interviews.

Instead of just guessing about what customers want, the team tells itself that they have already done sufficient research and proceeds to draw up the personas. They are still guessing, in other words, but this time with the conviction of having had a series of meetings based on an exciting new marketing concept.

Meanwhile, the real customers are still scratching their heads when they get a page or two into the company's website, or when they use a search term trying to find the site.

There's no deception like self-deception.

It won't hurt, I promise

Conversations with customers are often fun. If your product is used by intelligent people, they will have all sorts of interesting, informative insights about your product, website, sales force, company, and industry. Occasionally a conversation is bracing - revealing something you really need to know. These conversations will save you from making all kinds of deadly mistakes.

If you're still not convinced enough to pick up the phone, and call a customer, pick up the phone and call me. I call customers for clients all the time. And they will tell me things that they won't tell you - because they know they won't hurt my feelings. Customers are typically too polite to use the same words with a supplier that they'd use when talking to someone else.

In these calls, I always find out the difference between what you think customers are thinking (or what your people are telling you they're thinking), and what customers are really thinking. What they're really thinking is what determines whether they buy from you - or your toughest competitor.

After a certain number of calls, preferences, needs, and behaviors are firmly established. These are facts that you can bank on, facts that can drive a spot-on sales support system and website design.

It's more about answering questions than psychoanalysis

I recently listened to more than 100 incoming calls to a sales force, part of my process of raising a client's sales conversion rate. When the customers called, they had particular pathways in mind. They had already imagined how their buying process should go - in order for them to end up with what they wanted. They started out on their individual paths at the beginning of each call. The salespeople, quite often, tried to take them down different paths. For example, many customers were looking to purchase an "experience," while the salespeople insisted on selling a "product."

Imagine someone who is having a boat built. They're looking for lights for that boat, to serve as "marker lights" while at anchor. They need small, waterproof LED lights. They call the light manufacturer. The salesperson keeps talking about the product - but the customer keeps asking questions about the experience of owning that light. Is it really waterproof? How can he be sure? Will it be easy to repair or replace if something goes wrong? Is the angular dispersion broad enough? Is it as efficient as similar lights made by other manufacturers? What is the current draw? How bright is the light, in lumens?

More often than not, the salesperson is not equipped with these answers. And, the answers aren't on the website. This is the biggest mistake that companies make, to varying degrees.

Knowing the "persona" of this person would not necessarily lead you to provide that information, either. You might say that this particular persona has high standards, and cares about the quality of the product. That's not the same as answering the question - "How waterproof is it? How do you make it waterproof?"

In some ways - online and off - selling is not that complicated. They have questions. If you know what their questions are, and you answer them, you will make the sale. If you don't, you won't.

You have to have enough personal contact with customers to know what their concerns are. You have to talk with them. You have to know the questions they ask. You have to have heard them, yourself, expressing their preferences and disappointments.

It's much less stressful to sit around in meetings, making up imaginary personas using your usual, pre-conceived notions - and then proceed with the rest of your old familiar marketing processes. In doing so, you are missing the boat.

Real customers have specific questions, and if we answer those questions - honestly, intelligently, and in as much depth as they want - they will buy.

Those persona articles I wrote recently (here and here), created a bit of a stir out there in BlogLand. Adele Revella from Pragmatic Marketing mentioned my concerns about personas and then went on to describe how those problems could be addressed, including not talking to salespeople about personas, but by relating stories about real buyers. Good advice.

Pragmatic marketing also blogged about my persona blog, with a piece about how people find numerous ways to avoid visiting clients.

Brian Eisenberg quoted Adele's quote, then also went on to talk about how to solve persona problems, using a 4-question survey that will help put flesh on the bones of your personas.

More links here - Phil Myers in the Tuned In blog, and Tony Zambito in Persona Insights.

And, my old friend Jeffrey Tarter sent me a note and suggested that I read The Inmates Are Running the Asylum by Alan Cooper. I've had that book since it came out, and I've tried to read it all the way to the end several times. I've read most of the book by now, including the parts about personas. Alan is a great product designer, and it's a good book.

My problem with reading The Inmates Are Running the Asylum is that reading it is like reading a book called Kristin Zhivago's Working Life. Or, What Drove Me to Get Into the Business I'm In. I've been working on the problem of the disconnect between technologists and their customers since I started selling machine-shop tools in 1969, and I will be still working on this problem, as far as I can tell, until I keel over.

Life in the asylum? Tell me about it. My first "real" selling job consisted of a Pratt & Whitney distributor handing me a catalog and telling me that I had the proud distinction of being the first woman to sell machine shop tools, and that I would make $3000 a week that summer. Well, he may have been right about the first part, but the second part was an outright lie - because, as I learned the hard way, you can't sell if you can't answer customer questions about what you're selling. That humiliating experience made me determined to learn everything I could about high-tech.

But even that wasn't enough, as I later learned when I was selling a software product for an entrepreneur who came here from Europe. This entrepreneur excitedly explained to me, in his heavy French accent, as he held a filterless cigarette in one hand and a drink in the other, exactly what the product could do, how it was created, why it was important, and so on. Soon, I knew that product inside and out (it was a precursor to spreadsheet programs). By the time we made our presentation to a bunch of executives at HP in Palo Alto, I knew it was a significant new type of product, and I was fully prepped.

Why didn't it matter? Because, as soon as the entrepreneur had finished giving his presentation, those HP executives basically said those Dreaded Nine Words every salesperson hates to hear: "Well, that's nice, but what we really need is..."

This is the real problem with personas. Even Alan Cooper's book describes personas as people who are made up, by the developers. Now, hang on, because I'm going to try to describe an important but extremely subtle difference between the persona and a real, live human buyer.

When you make someone up, you are in the catbird seat. It's easy to feel a little superior, something that developers are prone to do anyway, because they are a pretty smart bunch. I quote from Alan's book, page 128:

The more specific we make our personas, the more effective they are as design tools...for example, we don't just say that Emilee uses business software. We say that Emilee uses WordPerfect Version 5.1 to write letter to Gramma. We don't just let Emilee drive to work. We give her a dark-blue 1991 Toyota Camry, with a gray plastic kid's seat strapped into the back and an ugly scrape on the rear bumper. We don't just let Emilee go to work. We give her a job as a New-Accounts Clerk in a beige cubicle at Global Airways in Memphis, Tennessee.

With apologies to Alan and to my friend Jeffrey, and at the risk of setting off another bloggostorm, there's a lot of judgment in this persona. Doesn't Emilee sound a bit like trailer trash? Truth be told, Emilee is not as smart as us programmers. So we better dumb down the product for her.

Fast forward to the day when the programmers launch their product, and they are trying to sell it to the Emilees of the world. She takes one look at a screen shot, and says, "Well, that's nice, but what I really need is..." The point is, the most common problem is that developers, as they create their personas, will unwittingly design a persona that matches the product they have in mind.

I'll never forget a great demonstration of this by Derrith Lambka, speaking at one of Jim Sterne's eMetrics Summits about how important it is to actually listen to your customers - without prejudice. She asked the audience members to close their eyes, then described a consumer to us: "Female, in her thirties, divorced, two kids, out of work." She asked everyone to get a good picture of that person in their minds. Then she asked everyone to open their eyes...and on the screen was a picture of Princess Di. Everyone gasped, of course. Not a person in that room was picturing Princess Di.

Fast forward to last night, when I was looking - for the millionth time - for a decent web-based project management tool. I was pleased to see that there are now dozens to choose from, contrary to what I found when I looked as recently as six months ago. But now it's impossible to tell what each one does unless you either sign up for a salesperson to give you a demo (which you don't want to do at 10:15 PM), or sign up for a 30-day free trial. Most of them were missing the most important part - decent screen shots and/or a step-by-step, website-based demo. This is an example of the very narcissistic, unrealistic "selling" methods that technologists tend to employ, and proof that the inmates are indeed still running the asylum.

I even found a program that seemed to be exactly what I was looking for, but the automated "confirmation email" function didn't work. I tried signing up under two different email addresses, and still no confirmation email. I ended up sending them two webform emails; the subject line on the second one was "GRRRR."

When you are the buyer with a specific need, it's obvious how personas can get companies into trouble. When you are the developer or marketer at a company that is using personas, they seem perfectly logical. In the cloistered conference rooms and cubicles, Emilee looks and feels like a real person.

But if Emilee looks at the program and says, "That's nice, but..." all efforts leading up to that moment - including the construction of elaborate, detailed personas - are wasted. Wasted.

And all this happens because executives are so petrified of meeting customers face-to-face, or even on the phone (which is actually better, in my experience - people always talk more freely on the phone than they do in person).

Developing real personas that reflect real buyer needs requires real conversations and then real humility. So often, the feature that the developers are most proud of is the feature that matters the least to the customer.

The project management programs are a great example. There are all sorts of bells and whistles that really don't make much difference, while the fundamentals have been neglected and underdeveloped, resulting in a lot of excess work to do a single task. It can take eight clicks to do something routine that should be done in one or two clicks. Hardly any of them organize projects and tasks as file folders. Instead, they're all just listed - and the list, if you are managing a complex project, gets ridiculously long in quick order.

So, in spite of the protests to the contrary, and Jeffrey's claim that my "Buyer Scenarios vs Personas" article was a "foul ball instead of your usual out-of-the-stands home run," I stand by my position, which is: Personas have their place in the development and marketing phases of a product launch. But they better be based on real interviews with real people, they better not be condescending, and, if the product is to be really useful, it needs to be tested with real people as it's being developed.

During those usability tests, those real customers, hitting brick walls before your very eyes, will force you to create a product that works for them.

And, as I've said many times, if product developers really did design customer-friendly products, and marketers did a good job of showcasing those functions, all the salesperson will have to do is put the product in front of the customer and then point and grunt.

The alternative - one that happens millions of times a day - is the salespeople are sent out into the world with the shiny new product, meeting with real buyers - who watch the presentation, then say those Dreaded Nine Words.

Personas do have their place. When you're designing a product, you have to make decisions about what to put in and what to leave out. Personas can help with that process.

But once the product is designed, and it's time to create your web page, write selling copy, and train your salespeople, personas can get you into real trouble. They can make you think you're addressing the buyer properly, when in fact you are probably ignoring who the buyer is, what the buyer really wants, and, in many cases, insulting the buyer.

You see, if I'm the buyer, I already know who I am. So I'm not the least impressed if you think you know who I am. Besides, it makes me feel a little creeped out anyway, that you're so determined to know everything about me you can describe me to your buddies around the conference table.

Do you really have to know all those things about me to sell something to me? I mean, c'mon. What does it matter how old I am or how much money I make? I just want to buy something to fix a problem. I don't want my personal space invaded.

Not only that: Is it going to be a fun to buy your product, or are you going to make it a hassle? Are you going to really help me solve my problem, or push me into buying something that is right for some persona? Are you going to answer my questions? Tell the truth? Deliver on your promises? Treat me with respect? I am paying close attention to your behavior, to learn the answers to these questions, as I decide whether to buy from you.

As a buyer, I have a particular scenario in mind when I set out to buy something - and I expect you to be a part of that scenario. It's my play. I'm the producer (the guy with the money, on a mission), the director (the one who will decide how the play will proceed), and the leading lady (yep, I'm a fussy character who wants things to be just the way I like them). Are you going to play along, and support my scenario, or are you going to sabotage my scenario, continually trying to foist your success fantasy on me?

Personas can get you into trouble because they can actually prevent you from making it easy for the buyer to do business with you.

Let's look at an example. Let's say you want to buy a used car. As the buyer, your preferred scenario would be to walk onto a used car lot, look around at the inventory - uninterrupted - until you start zeroing in on a particular car. At that moment, you would turn from the car and start looking for help. A salesman would recognize that you are ready to talk, and would come over to you.

He'd be pleasant. Not smarmy. He would answer all your questions honestly. No games. When you asked about the price, he'd say, "The low price on the sticker is the absolute price of the car. We don't dicker here, it just wastes everybody's time. However, if you want to pay cash today, and drive the car off the lot, I can give you a 10% discount."

You take a test drive. You like the car. You like the way the engine sounds, it's clean and fresh-smelling inside, and it's obviously been well-maintained. Your careful checking under the hood, in the trunk, under the seats, and even underneath the car, have convinced you that it's a good choice. You decide to buy the car. You sign all the papers, which includes a 3-month free repair labor warranty that makes you feel that they stand behind their used cars. You hand over a check, and drive the car off the lot.

That's your scenario as a buyer.

I won't bother to go into detail about what usually happens at a car dealership; we all know that you are never unmolested while looking, that your questions are not answered honestly, that the price is never the price, and that most dealers wouldn't dream of offering a 3-month-free-labor warranty on a used car.

Now, let's talk about what would happen if that car dealer had fallen for "personas." When you come to the dealership, the dealer sizes you up. "Mid-thirties, professional woman, wants efficiency. Serve up the 'professional, independent woman" package." The rep would make a point of telling you things he thinks you want to hear. He would try to sell the car to your "persona."

"This automobile is perfect for the commuting professional," he would say. "There's that convenient coffee cup holder, and a special place for toll tokens. There's an extra plug for your Blackberry." And so on.

But what if that mid-thirties woman has just quit her job and has decided she's going to take six months off and drive around the country? What if she has fallen in love with a man who has four children and she's thinking she really needs a station wagon? What if she has taken up golf, has decided she wants to "tour" golf courses, and the car she wants is a red convertible with a big trunk that gets good gas mileage?

Nothing this dealer is saying to her "persona" will speak to her. Because he assumes he knows what she's all about, and he fails to ask her what she's looking for in a car, he is miles away from her scenario, a distance voice babbling on about irrelevancies.

She can see that this is not the car - or the dealer - for her, and walks off.

This is also what happens to websites that are persona-driven. Copywriters are always so pleased with themselves when they feel like they have "pegged" their customer. "Oh, good, now I know who my customer is, and I can write meaningful website copy for them," the writer thinks. The resulting copy is basically a self-congratulatory piece bragging about how much the copywriter knows about the buyer:

"You want to drive to work in style. You want to be able to rely on your car, in all conditions, and feel safe. You want to smoothly travel from one destination to another, in your own private and secure world, with plenty of perfect spaces for your morning coffee, your tokens, and your electronic devices. When you plug in one of your favorite CDs, you want to be surrounded with rich, beautiful sound. This car was made for you."

Does any of this help the customer buy? No. Does any of this address the buyer's buying scenario? No. Could a company pay copywriters to write this drivel, then serve up the typical in-your-face, slimy, manipulative car buying experience? Happens all the time. It's the norm.

Companies obsessed with personas are ignoring - and even contradicting - what buyers know: The buyer already knows who she is and what she wants. All she's looking for now is someone who will give it to her. She has a complete buying scenario in mind. She doesn't need you to tell her who she is.

You're wrong, anyway.

How many strangers peg you correctly? One in a million? How many people really know who you are, and what makes you tick? A few, maybe? Given these odds, with the tables turned, why should we think that an individual can be so easily categorized?

When it comes time to buy something, buyer scenarios knock buyer personas right out of the ring. What does the buyer want, an how does she want to buy it?

What's driving her? A whole bunch of things, including her own personal experiences, preferences, hopes, fears, personality, peer pressure, and on and on.

For all we know, she might even have the contrarian gene; if her entire family is doing X, she can't help herself - she has to do Y. She may have just gotten over a cancer scare, and has decided it's time to change her life, radically. She might have decided it's time to trade her grey Volvo in for a red Porsche. She might be wearing the clothing of a "professional, independent woman," but that's just last year's wardrobe, which she put on because she's on her way to visit her worried mother.

No one knows the buyer's motivators except the buyer, at the moment of the purchase.

The good news is, when you look at buyer scenarios, you will see similarities in the way people want to be treated during the buying process. No matter who they are or why they are buying. They want the seller to "see" them - the real person - and interact with them as a real person. They want the seller to ask questions, and listen, until he/she understands the buyer's needs and scenario. They want the seller to then get in sync with their scenario.

The seller who comes the closest to matching the buyer's scenario is going to make the sale. That's the truth, and if that truth is not driving your efforts, you may as well be speaking a foreign language when the buyer comes to your website or interacts with your salespeople. Nothing you say will matter.

The salesperson has the advantage of being able to ask the all-important question at the beginning of the interaction: "What are you looking for?" You don't have that luxury on your website. But you can interview a bunch of real, live buyers ahead of time, and find out what is important to them. There will be some common threads. They will describe HOW they want to buy and what they want the experience to be like. They will tell you the questions they want answered.

Now it's your job to sync up with their wishes. Map out their buying processes. Make sure that buying process is supported every step of the way. Make sure you answer all their questions on your website. When you're done, invite them to take a look - and give you feedback. The best way to get that feedback is with them on the phone, going through the site with you, while you record the audio and get screen captures.

Do this with at least 10 - 15 people, and make the appropriate changes. Now your site will sync up with their buyer scenario. It will be fun and hassle-free to buy from you. You will sell more.