#SDSummit Extending Personas Into the

May 18, 2017

Post-Sale Customer Lifecycle

Kristin Farwell
Marketing Consultant
@kfarwell
 Executive Summary

• Key issues
• Companies need to understand that the end of the buyer’s journey is the start of
new roles for many internal functions, as stewards of the customer lifecycle
• Just as multiple buyer personas or roles participate in the buyer’s journey,
multiple customer roles are involved in the post-sale lifecycle
• Customer lifecycle mapping will be successful only if the goals of the company
and the customer are taken into account and customer roles are well understood

• What you will walk away with

• An overview of the SiriusDecisions Customer Lifecycle Framework
• A defined process for creating and documenting customer personas
• Examples of how customer personas influence messaging and offers

#SDSummit @kfarwell 3 © 2017 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved

 Customer Experience Is the New Demand Creation
SiriusPerspective: Keeping the business you have makes growth easier and more profitable; in addition,
a lack of focus on customer marketing opens the door to competition and increases growth costs.
Level of Interaction

Time

#SDSummit @kfarwell 4 © 2017 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved

 Customer Experience Is the New Demand Creation
SiriusPerspective: Keeping the business you have makes growth easier and more profitable; in addition,
a lack of focus on customer marketing opens the door to competition and increases growth costs.

Awareness
Level of Interaction

1
Time

#SDSummit @kfarwell 5 © 2017 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved

 Customer Experience Is the New Demand Creation
SiriusPerspective: Keeping the business you have makes growth easier and more profitable; in addition,
a lack of focus on customer marketing opens the door to competition and increases growth costs.

Consideration
Level of Interaction

1
Time

#SDSummit @kfarwell 6 © 2017 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved

 Customer Experience Is the New Demand Creation
SiriusPerspective: Keeping the business you have makes growth easier and more profitable; in addition,
a lack of focus on customer marketing opens the door to competition and increases growth costs.

Purchase
3
Level of Interaction

1
Time

#SDSummit @kfarwell 7 © 2017 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved

 Customer Experience Is the New Demand Creation
SiriusPerspective: Keeping the business you have makes growth easier and more profitable; in addition,
a lack of focus on customer marketing opens the door to competition and increases growth costs.

3
Level of Interaction

2 Ownership

4
1
Time

#SDSummit @kfarwell 8 © 2017 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved

 Customer Experience Is the New Demand Creation
SiriusPerspective: Keeping the business you have makes growth easier and more profitable; in addition,
a lack of focus on customer marketing opens the door to competition and increases growth costs.

3
Level of Interaction

5
2 Repurchase

4
1
Time

#SDSummit @kfarwell 9 © 2017 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved

 Customer Experience Is the New Demand Creation
SiriusPerspective: Keeping the business you have makes growth easier and more profitable; in addition,
a lack of focus on customer marketing opens the door to competition and increases growth costs.

If this is negative…
3
Level of Interaction

This mountain
becomes steeper.

5
2 Ownership Repurchase

4
1
Time

#SDSummit @kfarwell 10 © 2017 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved

 The Customer Lifecycle Framework
SiriusPerspective: To increase growth and profit, organizations must view the end of the buyer’s journey
as the start of a new role as stewards of the post-sale customer lifecycle.

Deliver Develop Retain Grow

Responsibility
Company

Onboard/welcome Customer support Opportunity definition Community support

Offering execution Lifecycle nurturing Advocacy support Insight gathering
Insight gathering Insight gathering Retention support Opportunity
development

Initiate Participate Actualize Advocate

Experience
Customer

Engagement Product/service use Sales interactions Community

Product/service Service transactions Impact assessment leadership
delivery Community Peer discussion Sales relationship
Feedback delivery participation Peer validation

#SDSummit @kfarwell 11 © 2017 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved

 Pre-Work for Building a Customer Lifecycle Map
SiriusPerspective: Prepare for the mapping exercise by identifying the customer segments and post-
purchase lifecycle phases that will be mapped, and determine how to collect feedback and insights.

1 Customer/Account
Segmentation 2 Customer Personas

3 Customer Lifecycle
Phases 4 Customer Feedback
and Insights

#SDSummit @kfarwell 12 © 2017 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved

Customer Personas
Extending personas to the customer
 Buyer Personas vs. Customer Personas
SiriusPerspective: When communicating with customers, simply treating them like buyers misses the
opportunity to benefit from their new, more informed perspective and different needs.

Customer personas modify b-to-b buyer personas in three ways:

1. The basis of the relationship changes when a buyer becomes a user of the
product or service

2. Different roles may become important while other roles may cease to be
involved, or might be involved only at specific points in the lifecycle

3. The post-sale relationship involves the customer’s overall experience with

the company as well as the product or service purchased

#SDSummit @kfarwell 14 © 2017 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved

 How Are Customer Personas Used?
SiriusPerspective: Each of the customer lifecycle phases can involve the participation of different
customer personas, and each customer persona can be part of more than one phase.

Develop a strategy for communication and

interaction to improve customer experience

Plan and execute tactics that map to customer

preferences and needs at each phase

Optimize the evolution of the customer lifecycle

Focus insight collection on areas that

are critical to key customer personas

#SDSummit @kfarwell 15 © 2017 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved

 Who Should Develop Customer Personas?

The functions responsible for customer experience or customer

marketing are logical choices to lead the development of customer
personas
To get a complete view of post-purchase
lifecycle needs, it’s critical to collaborate with:
• Customers
• Sales
• Services
• Product or solution marketing
• Other relevant functions within the organization

#SDSummit @kfarwell 16 © 2017 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved

 Worksheet: List Customer Personas

Using your worksheet, list two to three customer personas:

End User (Non-Executive)

1. _______________________________________________________________

2. _______________________________________________________________

3. _______________________________________________________________

#SDSummit @kfarwell 17 © 2017 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved

 Customer Persona Attributes
Job Role: The job role describes the functional Challenges – Offering and Role-Related: As with
responsibility of the persona (e.g. decisionmaker, user) goals, consider two sets of challenges; one related to
the solution, the other to job role and broader goals
Buying Center and/or Functional Use Center:
Success Measures: Offering and Role-Related:
A buying center is the entity that holds the budget or
Define solution-related and job-related success
supplied funding for the purchase
measures
Lifecycle Phase Presence: Determine the involvement
Common Interaction Points: List the ways this
of each customer role across the four customer
customer role will typically interact with you
lifecycle phases
Interaction Preferences: Consider the touchpoints
Common Titles: List all the variations of job title held
available post-sale and develop a customer-behavior-
by this customer role
based map of what each customer role uses
Position on Org Chart: Customer roles range from the
Preferred Resources: Determine each customer role’s
most senior level to very junior
trusted sources and networks
Goals – Offering and Role-Related: One set should
Internal Customers and/or External Customers:
relate to the role’s use of the offering purchased, while
Define the customer’s customer in order to provide
the other should relate to broader objectives
adequate support

#SDSummit @kfarwell 18 © 2017 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved

 Template: Defining Customer Persona Attributes

Define the following components for one of your customer personas:

End User (Non-Executive)

Customer Persona: ________________________________________

Customer Persona Attribute Description

Job Role (decisionmaker, influencer, user, etc.) End User

Buying Center and/or Functional Use Center Human Resources

Current: Develop/Participate
Lifecycle Phase Presence
Goal: Engage earlier in Deliver/Initiate

Sample best practice template

#SDSummit @kfarwell 19 © 2017 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved
 Template: Defining Customer Persona Attributes

Define the following components for one of your customer personas:

End User (Non-Executive)

Customer Persona: ________________________________________

Customer Persona Attribute Description

Common Titles HR Specialist/Generalist/Coordinator

Offering: Faster and easier handling of

Success Measures: Offering-Related
Success Measures: Role-Related
Common Interaction Points
#SDSummit @kfarwell
recruiting candidate interview scheduling
Role: Increased efficiency (i.e. the ability to
do more with less)
Online knowledge base, customer
community, service desk and user groups
Sample best practice template
20 © 2017 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved
 The Customer Lifecycle Framework
SiriusPerspective: To increase growth and profit, organizations must view the end of the buyer’s journey
as the start of a new role as stewards for the customer lifecycle.

Deliver Develop Retain Grow

Responsibility
Company

Onboard/welcome Customer support Opportunity definition Community support

Offering execution Lifecycle nurturing Advocacy support Insight gathering
Insight gathering Insight gathering Retention support Opportunity
development

Initiate Participate Actualize Advocate

Experience
Customer

Engagement Product/service use Sales interactions Community

Product/service Service transactions Impact assessment leadership
delivery Community Peer discussion Sales relationship
Feedback delivery participation Peer validation

#SDSummit @kfarwell 21 © 2017 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved

 Using Customer Personas to Map the Customer Lifecycle

End User (Non-Manager)

Customer Persona: _____________________________________
Deliver/Initiate
Customer “How do I get started? How is this faster than my manual calendar scheduling?”
Need/Milestone
Company “How do we onboard this user and enable him or her to immediately start
Need/Milestone scheduling interviews with little to no disruption in his or her current process?”

New Customer Messaging

Marketing Community Recruitment
Key Message/Offer
by Functional Role

Web Content

Sales

Support
Monthly Account Manager Calls
Service/Admin.

Product Training Documentation

#SDSummit @kfarwell 22 © 2017 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved

 Using Customer Personas to Map the Customer Lifecycle

Manager/Team Lead
Customer Persona: _____________________________________
Deliver/Initiate
Customer “Who on my team should have access to this software? How will I manage their
Need/Milestone training? How do I ensure there is no impact on productivity?”

Company “How can we help this team lead select the appropriate user? How do we educate
Need/Milestone them on the process and reassure them there will be minimal disruption?”

New Customer/Business Value Messaging

Marketing
Key Message/Offer
by Functional Role

Industry Conferences

Sales Hand-offs and intros

Support Billing Setup

User Readiness/Training Plan
Service/Admin. Administrative Support/User Setup

Product High-Level Solution Training

#SDSummit @kfarwell 23 © 2017 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved

 SiriusDecisions Customer Experience Gap Index
SiriusPerspective: We asked b-to-b customers to tell us what post-sale content and interactions they
use today, and what they don’t get (but wish they did) to find key gaps.

PERCEPTION ABILITY

Very Satisfied Excellent 4

Satisfied Adequate 3
Dissatisfied Limited 2
Very Dissatisfied Largely Unavailable 1

#SDSummit @kfarwell 24 © 2017 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved

 Experience Index: Deliver/Initiate Phase
Executives used:
• Internet searches
• Large customer events
• Account manager calls
• Online demos
• Executive meetings
• Account team information
• Social media
• Online forums/discussions
Executives want more:
• Live provider-hosted webinars
• Provider engineer visits
• User experience testing
• Analyst reports
• Provider’s online community
• Provider solutions specialist
• Static brochures
• Industry conferences
#SDSummit @kfarwell
Users used:
• Billing or administrative calls
• Sales calls
4 • Sales presentations
3 • White papers
• In-person training
2 • Marketing representatives
• Provider’s community content
1 • Survey invitations
Users want more:
EXECUTIVES USERS • Blog posts not from provider
• Training documentation
• Training videos
Reps Content
• Dialogue with thought leaders
• Monthly account manager calls
Self- Provider- • In-person workshops
Guided Led • Provider CSM
• Invitations to customer events
25 © 2017 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved
Wrap-Up and Next Steps
 Keys to Success

• Treat the end of the buyer’s journey as the start of a new role for sales and
marketing as stewards of the customer lifecycle
• Remember that roles change when a buyer becomes a customer; different
roles may become important while other roles may cease to be involved or
be selectively involved
• Collaborate with sales, product or solution marketing, service, and – possibly
the most important – the customer!
• Avoid making assumptions about customers’ needs and key milestones
without validating with actual customers
• Create goals and milestones for each lifecycle phase from the perspective of
the customer as well as the company

#SDSummit @kfarwell 27 © 2017 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved

 SiriusDecisions • Research
Resources • The SiriusDecisions Customer Lifecycle Framework
• B-to-B Personas: Customer Role Attributes
• Customer Lifecycle Deep Dive: Deliver/Initiate
• Customer Lifecycle Deep Dive: Develop/Participate
• Customer Lifecycle Deep Dive: Retain/Actualize
• Customer Lifecycle Deep Dive: Grow/Advocate
• Tools
• Customer Experience Maturity Tool
• Learning
• Customer Engagement SiriusPathway®

#SDSummit @kfarwell 28 © 2017 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved

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