Lesson 5 - Take Your Buyer's Perspective

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Step into your buyer’s shoes in this lesson. You’ll learn how to empathize with their goals, challenges, and priorities, equipping you to connect with them on a deeper level. Your assignment will involve conducting research on a buyer persona, detailing their pain points, motivators, and how your solution aligns with their needs

Transcript

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Welcome back to the Daily Quota. I'm your host, Nicholas Hill. In today's lesson, you're going to take your buyer's perspective. Walk a mile in their shoes. Really understand what is it that makes them tick. Now, you might be saying, Nick, we did this in a previous lesson where we learned about the Persona cards. And we did a little bit. But what's different here is that I really want you to Start to go to where these buyers congregate and understand what they're talking about. What are the things that they gossip about? What are the things that frustrate them? Not about your solution, but about their jobs, about their day to day responsibilities. Um, what are the things that, uh, drive them? What is their culture? Uh, what is their language? You want to start learning, you know, what are some of the things that, that they say? I remember when I was selling to engineers, I learned the term foobar. Um, if you don't know the term foobar, look it up, right? That's a term that I didn't know before I started working with engineers. Playing poker with, uh, the people that you sell to, you can learn so much. What are their inside jokes, right? What are the things that they joke around about? Um, and the reason that you want to understand this is, You really want to be able to show your buyer that you were not on the outside selling to a group of individuals that you know nothing about. You really want to be able to show your buyer that you are one of them. You are someone that is, yes, not doing the role, but someone who has taken the initiative. To truly understand the role. Now, there are a number of ways you can do this. Some of which we did talk about in the Persona Cards lesson. Um, I remember that we mentioned online forums. Online forums are a great place to start. Uh, see if there's a subreddit for the role that you're selling to. So if I'm selling to social media managers, I might look to see if there are forums for social media management or subreddits. Um, I might look for, uh, Quora, I might go into Quora and look for, uh, some of the questions that those personas are asking and how their peers are answering them. Um, look at professional networks. If there are certifications for this, uh, for that title, then you can look and see if that certification has forums or webinars or, um, online spaces where, uh, Where people are congregating, look for LinkedIn groups, LinkedIn groups, and, um, industry specific associations might offer some insights into some of the challenges. Um, LinkedIn groups will typically have discussions from those personas about. Things that they're interested in, um, attend the webinars, not just for your product or your competitor's products, but just in general, attending the webinars and the conferences, um, for those personas to talk to them and understand, um, what, what they're there for and what's driving them. And then on social media platforms, right? You can think about, um, industry specific Facebook groups. You can look at, you know, depending on the solution you're selling, they might have other social media presence. Instagram, TikTok, um, X, any of those. Um, but the number one thing to remember is that you are not going to these places to sell them anything, right? The goal is not to go to these conferences and say, I'm here to sell you my product. The goal is not to go to these forums, these subreddits, these LinkedIn groups and say, hi, I'm a salesperson. I'm here to sell to you all. Right. That's a very quick way to get ostracized. What you want to do is show up seeking to contribute and understand. So you're, um, you are there to listen, to learn, to add value. If you can, if you have best practices from their peers, um, from other members of their industry, if you have value to add, jump in by all means, like do so. They're going to appreciate that. And that's going to help set you up as a thought leader. Um, but just be very careful. You don't want, you know, people are good BS detectors, and you don't want people to get the hint that you're there with a motive, that you're there just to sell them something, because that's not what those spaces are for. Those spaces are meant to be safe areas where people in their role can congregate, hang out, talk to each other, and, um, and ultimately, vent, gossip. Um, make jokes, have a good time. So make sure that you are, um, fitting the vibe of, of that, that area. Uh, when you're there, um, participate though, right? If you have something to say, you can participate. The other thing that you can do is look for influencers and thought leaders, right? A lot of buyers, just like in social media, maybe you have influencers that you follow for cooking or photography or fishing or whatever your hobby is, right? They have thought leaders, too, and influencers, too. And if you can find out who those industry leaders are and follow them and engage with them and start to understand what topics are topical, what's currently important to them. But ultimately, any way that you can get into your buyer's head. Just, uh, to start to learn more about how they tick is going to benefit you. As I mentioned in the lesson on learning your product, it can also be good to actually start to do some of the tasks that they find engaging or challenging. Um, learn, how would you do that? Look up templates for that task. Um, and really start to, to put yourself into their shoes. So that you can become an active value providing member of that community, which will ultimately greatly enhance your sales approach. Um, really, I think that's it for this lesson. Uh, now it's, now it's your turn, um, for today's assignment. I want you to choose. I want you to go out looking, right? Find one platform where your buyers are active, where those titles, those roles are the most active. That could be an online forum, a professional network, a LinkedIn group, social media group. Um, and in your study guide, I want you to, I basically want you to lurk. I want you to just kind of lurk in that group, give value if you can, but listen. Um, and then in your study guide, I want you to write down, what are the most common questions or problems that are being mentioned? Um, what are the solutions that people say they're looking for? How are they describing, you know, their ideal work environments or their ideal worlds? What are they venting about? What are their inside jokes? What is some of the lingo or the language that they're using? Um, spend at least an hour here exploring the conversation, some of the top voted areas. Um, and just document your findings, right? Um, consider, uh, at the end, how all of this information can help you to better understand and serve your potential customers. Again, you can ask your mentor, your manager, your new hire buddy for help. Um, if you have one, if you have those resources, um, but that's it for today's lesson, hope you find it useful and we'll see you next time.