5 Essential Questions to Include in B2B Buyer Persona Interviews

In B2B Marketing, you have to know whom you are targeting in order to successfully develop messaging and imagery that motivates his/her buyer behavior. The industry standard for doing this is creating buyer personas. If you have ever created a buyer persona, you know how many questions and factors go into developing one; for a novice, it can be quite overwhelming. To aid you, below is a list of the top 5 questions to be sure and include in your B2B buyer persona interviews, and I would also recommend following Ardath Albee for additional insights into buyer personas.

1) What is your demographic?

Though a buyer persona is not just demographic information, this information is still important. For example, research shows that men respond to situations differently than women, and younger people respond differently than older people, so demographic information should be taken into account when understanding your target audience and developing messaging that motivates them to buy. Interested in more on this subject? Take a look at this post: Do Demographics Matter In B2B Buyer Personas.

2) What are your key problems/issues?

Your target prospect is just as busy as you are; thus, s/he is going to be much more prone to listen to your messaging if it involves a solution to an issue they are having. And be sure and clearly and concisely state how you offer a solution to their problem in your messaging.

3) What words would you use to search for solutions to your problems/issues?

You need to understand the actual words or terms they would use for your inbound marketing strategy. And be sure and understand how they would actually type it into a search engine (for example, would they use long tail keywords)?

4) What are the key factor(s) that would motivate you to purchase?

You want to understand what can help you make a sale, so always ask what key factor(s) would motivate your prospect say yes. Though all of them may not be possible for you to achieve, some may. It is important either way to know and be able to clearly and concisely speak to them.

5) What are the key factor(s) that would deter you from purchasing?

You have to know what would motivate them to say yes as well as what would motivate them to say no. And remember, approach this in your messaging. Whether it’s a script for a salesperson – or included on your website – you have to speak to all of these things to show that you understand them, which in turn builds trust. And we want to do business with people whom we trust and who understand us.