As the chapter closes on my role as a Pragmatic Marketing instructor, a new plan for buyer-focused marketing
ByMy largest client for the last decade has been Pragmatic Marketing, the company that inspired and marketed the Effective Product Marketing seminar that I developed in 2001. When I sold the seminar to Pragmatic Marketing in 2007 and trained another instructor, I knew that I would someday leave the seminar behind. So I started thinking about what the attendees needed after they left the seminar.
This wasn’t really a new line of thinking. After every class I’d wondered whether the attendees would be able to put their enthusiasm for strategic marketing into action in the weeks and months that followed. Confronted with the day-to-day reality of sales requests and tactical checklists, would they be able to rally the rest of the company around their new role?
How many people, I wondered, would get permission to participate in qualitative win/loss calls? Would they create buyer personas that were so real and convincing that the company would be willing to take direction from them? Would they use their new insights to prioritize investments around activities that directly impacted revenue and buyers?
I always knew that the strategic role of product marketing represented a major change for many of the participants, and that the seminar could not address all of the specific challenges the participants would face in any particular company.
So I decided that my next step should align with the seminar attendees’ next step. I decided to dedicate the next few years to supporting the three areas that thousands of attendees have described as impediments to buyer-focused marketing:
- Coaching individuals and teams through win/loss analysis and the other efforts that result in powerful buyer personas.
- Using buyer personas to guide the planning and execution phases of a specific marketing goal, launch, strategy or campaign.
- Developing top-down and cross-organizational support for a strategic, buyer-focused marketing effort.
This type of consulting isn’t new to me – I’ve continued to consult throughout the years that I was teaching the Pragmatic Marketing seminar. But because the class was my top priority, it was impossible to work on the projects that I’ve accepted over the last few months. I think I’m beginning to crack the code on what it takes to create the result that motivated me every time I taught the seminar to a new group of marketers.
I’m still teaching through the end of April, and by adding the consulting projects I’ve been too busy to develop a website that explains the new services. I should have it live within the next two months. If you have any ideas about the services I should offer, please let me know.
I admit that I’ll miss the stage, but I know that I’m better prepared than ever before to make a huge impact on my clients’ success. And as those who have seen me teach know very well, I never confuse efforts with results.
Adele,
Thanks for the years of inspiration and sound instruction you have provided.
Many marketers have benefited from your wisdom. I trust that you will continue to post on your blog from time to time.
I look forward to seeing your web site and your next phase along life’s journey.
Oh yes, the blog will go on! Thanks for the kind words.
While I’ve moved back to my comfort zone (Online Marketing) I still use much of what you taught me in day to day activities.
I’ll continue to follow your blog for your insightful thoughts. Best of luck to you, Adele.
You’ve had a great deal of impact upon me and my clients. You are the ‘expert’ I turn to on the topic of buyer personas. I hope we can find a way to work more closely together in the future.
You have helped 1000′s of people, and now a new door opens to serve others in a new way. You are the leader in the persona space and I am sure your clients will value your experience.
You are also moving into an area I enjoy most which is ; “don’t SELL buyers, help them BUY”
Let’s stay in touch.
Mark Allen Roberts
http://www.nosmokeandmirrors.com
Hey there Adele,
This is indeed exciting news.
Your ideas around buyer personas was a critical foundation in my thinking and is a centerpiece in my book The New Rules of Marketing & PR.
The concept of buyer personas has influenced many thousands of people via your seminar and this blog and through my book has reached another nearly quarter of a million people in 24 languages from Bulgarian to Vietnamese.
Most people don’t have an opportunity to touch more than the few lives of people they are closest to. But you should be proud that you have touched the lives of so many and have helped people to become successful.
Looking forward to working with you in your new efforts.
Your friend, David
Hi Adele,
I took your class in Feb. and it changed my whole perspective on what marketing was about. As a lawyer and community manager for LexisNexis it is hard to classify where my job belongs. There is a debate in community management circles whether we should report to marketing, sales, customer service, product development, or content teams. While no clear answer is in sight one thing is certain: knowing our market and having it influence our decisions should be a first step (probably in all those departments!). You taught me that. As I start my own company now with LexisNexis as one of my launch partners, the lessons I took from your seminar on buyer personas have been invaluable. I’d love to see you put together ebooks about your teachings and eventually publish a definitive guide. If you’d like to collaborate on the logistics of that I’d be honored to help in any way I can. Good luck on your new venture and please keep writing on this stuff.
Sincerely,
Mike Mintz
PS – thanks for suggesting David’s book World Wide Rave. I really enjoyed it!