Marketing and advertising agencies in India are increasingly adopting customer personas to improve sales performance. There is no denying the fact that sales executives across the world are highly motivated by meeting sales targets. A single successful sale represents the success of the entire marketing program. To ensure that maximum sales are achieved, it is essential to use innovative ways to grab the attention of customers and win their trust. The first step towards this end is to create unique personas that reflect the true personality of the company.
Customer personas in India have evolved as an important tool to achieve this objective. These profiles are usually designed by an individual or team appointed by the company to conceptualize a specific image of the company for its targeted markets. In the past, designing and developing profiles was a costly exercise that involved a lot of time and cost as the market study and research was extensive and time consuming.
Today, leveraging social media has helped in reducing the costs associated with this process. Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook allow sales executives to share messages on a more personalized basis that improves customer engagement. Through online communities, top management can also get the feedback from sales representatives working in different locations who are not able to meet face-to-face. By monitoring the discussion threads in these forums, an organized approach can be developed to engage with potential customers on a more personal level. Through customer management software, all these activities can be recorded and automatically sent to the main email for regular updates. This helps in setting up a very clear and precise framework through which to manage the various aspects of a customer’s experience from the very beginning.
However, in order to build customer personas that lead to success, the profile should be clearly defined and optimized through the processes of creating a buzz about the product or service. Here, the right mix of images, videos and other multimedia messages can be used to create interest in the product or service and help in converting prospects into paying customers. By properly optimizing a sales personas profile, the ultimate goal is to create an image of success.
Customer personas are essential to any business that aims to penetrate into the minds of customers to make them part of the business. Therefore, the key to the success of any business lies in building strong customer relations. Here, it is important to take time to understand the persona of a prospect before engaging with them on a personal level. By following a few tips, this process can be made easier and more productive.
First and foremost, the marketing strategy needs to focus on the branding of customer persona as much as it does on sales conversion. There are three common ways of achieving this end: Internal Recruitment, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Online Customer Relationship Management (OCRM). With the former, the sales team is tasked with getting the name and picture of the prospective customer attached to the brand. The latter involves maintaining close contact with existing customers, tracking the feedback they provide, and actively seeking out new leads. However, there are inherent risks associated with such initiatives that need to be weighed carefully. For instance, it is a better idea to seek the aid of a third party company for customer intelligence rather than spending valuable time dealing with existing contacts.
Another way to get into the mind of a customer is through personalized merchandising. This involves designing unique products that reflect the interests and goals of a potential customer. It is one of the most effective ways of putting a person’s profile at the forefront. The right blend of colors, textures, and theme can be highly effective in making an impression on customers. The trick is to design products that appeal to the senses of the particular target market.
Customer personas, although they play a crucial role in the sales process, are often overlooked by businesses. Customer-centric organizations to make full use of them. To get the best out of customer persona-building efforts, it is essential to train all staff members to be aware of each customer’s individual needs. Moreover, the same training should also be extended to the managers who should constantly monitor the progress of their salespeople.