Discovering the best business market segment for your B2B business has been the subject of this blog since last week. Today’s post will cover personal characteristics of purchasing decision makers. Tomorrow’s post will summarize the material on selecting your best business market segment.

Business Market Segment Based On Personal Characteristics
Personal characteristics also influence purchasing decision makers. This includes their personal background, their demographics, and their needs and values.

Have Personal Conversations With Decision Makers

The more you know about the decision maker’s personal background, the better you can relate to and sell to the person. Thus, having personal conversations with decision makers is good for more than just making them comfortable. It serves an information gathering function because the more you listen to what they tell you about themselves, the more you will learn about that personal backgrounds that influence their purchasing decisions.

If you are not contacting them face-to-face, it can also provide you with demographics about them. People divide into market segments based on age, education level, occupation type, gender and race. These demographics also reveal generation, life stage, social class, lifestyles and other psychographics that influence purchasing decisions.

It the decision maker’s demographics are similar to yours, you will likely relate well to the person without even trying. However, if they are different from you, knowing characteristics by segments can provide you important insights that will enhance your ability to relate to and sell to the decision maker.

Know Their Needs and Benefits

Their personal backgrounds, demographics and psychographics influence the needs and benefits that they want from a purchasing transaction. If the decision maker is the owner, those needs and benefits will represent the business’ needs and desired benefits. For instance, an owner is likely to want a positive working relationship with vendors, seeking, the best price, great quality and excellent customer service.

But if the decision maker is an employee, needs and benefits may be far more personal. Employees often base decisions more on what best serves their career or personal needs than on what is best for the business. The two don’t always go together. Thus, you need to know what the employee wants to gain from a purchase.

Conclusion

Knowing as much as possible about decision makers for your present and potential business customers will help you to select the business maker segment that can provide you the most sales. It will also help you to develop more long-lasting relationships with your customers and insure their loyalty to your business and product. So don’t overlook decision maker characteristics as you select the best business market segment for your B2B business.

To learn more about market segments, you can get my free report by completing the form below.

To link to the next post in this series, go here: Business Market Segment Summary.

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Posted 4-22-08: Business Market Segment:

Decision Maker Characteristics 2

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Category: Business Market Segments

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