Kameel Vohra - Global Product Marketing Manager, Dell

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Getting Personal
Customers, Personas, Journeys, Surveying

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LinkedIN: linkedin.com/in/Kameel
Website: kameelvohra.com
Kameel Vohra
Global Product Marketing Manager
Dell

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Let’s talk about you
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SWWYWJ2
http://bit.ly/kameelhk

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1. Customer Persona
2. Customer Journey
3. Surveying

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Do you know your customer?

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How important is knowing your customer?
150m users
140m paid users
30% market share
“75 percent of what they watch on Netflix comes from product
recommendations based on such algorithms.”
- How retailers can keep up with consumers, Ian MacKenzie, Chris Meyer and Steve Noble, McKinsey

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“A lot of that (Amazon) growth arguably has to do with
the way Amazon has integrated recommendations into
nearly every part of the purchasing process from
product discovery to checkout.”
- Amazon’s recommendation secret, JP Mangalindan

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Video killed the radio star 217m subscribers
100m paid subscribers60m paid subscribers

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Are you following Arii on Insta?
“It’s far too simplistic to assume followers
will equate to customers – you need to
know your potential consumers.”
- Leigh-Wood Oakes, Co-Founder, Brand Agency WickerWood
@arii
2.6m Followers!
< 36 T-Shirts sold

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“MAKE SOMETHING PEOPLE WANT.
THAT’S THE FUNDAMENTAL
PROBLEM. IF YOU DIE, IT’S
PROBABLY BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T
MAKE SOMETHING PEOPLE
WANTED.”
Paul Graham, Investor, Co-Founder of Y-Combinator

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Do you know your customer?

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What data do you need to achieve that?
Age
Gender
Marital Status
Children
Education
Job Title
Goals
Aspirations
Interests & Hobbies
Influencers
News & blogs sites they
Device(s)
Screen size / Resolution
Referrers
Payment method(s)
Purchase history
Click paths
Email address
Telephone
Shoe size?

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Robert Rose
Author, Speaker, & Investor
Content Marketing Institute
@Robert_Rose
“Behavioral data… content consumption, click paths,
referring sites, previous purchases, social participation, etc
(in no particular order)”
What’s the single most important piece of data?

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Chris Brogan
Author, Speaker, & Consultant
Owner Media Group
@ChrisBrogan
“a first name. :)”
What’s the single most important piece of data?

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Who
That bottom left blue bubble is not JUST a cursory
glance at WHO your client is. Consider how you will
quickly identify this set of people, demographically,
by title/function, etc.
Your client can rarely be solely defined by one
criteria. People are three dimensional, all these
bubbles put together define who your client is.
This is my job title, industry
& who I report to
This is my demographic
(age, gender, family
profile, interests)

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What
Understand what your clients are currently doing.
Understand their current purchasing habits, will
allow you to understand how to change them.
This is what my current process is
at the moment (e.g. I buy Gillette
razors)
Nobody likes change. You can’t beat a competitor
you don’t know or understand.

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Where
Answering these questions will give you clues as to
where you need to be marketing to reach your
client.
I’m a member of these
societies & clubs, read
these magazines, and my
go-to websites are…
This could just as well read: “We shop online at
amazon/lazada” or “I buy my toiletries at Tesco”
Get data that’s relevant to your business.

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WhyThis is why your customer is going to buy your
solution. This is NOT because of some feature, but
instead because of something that’s going on in
their organization or a problem that they currently
have.
This is the solution that I need &
how it’s going to help me
This is why I like speaking to
you instead of all the other
sales people that bug me
It’s very rarely price, but if it is “how much”
cheaper do you need to be? $1 or $100 ? Don’t
be wishy washy.

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How
Understand what they need in order to buy your
solution, then give it to them. Make it easy for them
to build their case, create justifications, and buy
from you.
These are the people &
obstacles I need to work around
to buy your solution
Children (Influencer)
Mother (Authority)
Father (Purchaser)
Netflix
logo

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This is my demographic
(age, gender, family
profile, interests)
This is my job title, industry
& who I report to
This is what my current process is
at the moment
This is the solution that I need &
how it’s going to help me
This is why I like speaking to
you instead of all the other
sales people that bug me
Client PersonaI’m a member of these
societies & clubs, read
these magazines, and my
go-to websites are…
These are the people &
obstacles I need to work around
to buy your solution
Segment Name
Hint: This slide is the template
3-5 of these should do

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(ms template)

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How to Create a Client Persona
?
Understand your client
Understand their commonalities
SPEAK to them
You are helping a real person
?
?

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Do you know your customer?

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Jack
*Clearly this image is copyrighted by someone else and not for commercial use
And
JILL

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ZMOT Stages
(by Google)

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Well #1
Best Water Well

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10.4
sources of info
used by shoppers

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Awareness Engagement Evaluation Purchase Post-Purchase
Actions
Experience
Thoughts
Touchpoints
Emotion
Opportunity
Insight &
Owner
Customer Journey Map Scenario Goal
1 2
Persona
What: sales plateau, negative feedback, learn or
focus on a customer, compare customers
Who
3
Phases of the customer journey
4 Actions, thoughts and emotions of the user
5 What you’re going to do to improve

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Awareness Engagement Evaluation Purchase Post-Purchase
Actions
Experience
Thoughts
Touchpoints
Emotion
Opportunity
Insight &
Owner
Customer Journey Map Scenario Goal
High ranking on
text & video search
Bob liked itStrong comparison
data & water info.
Coupons v. successful
1-Click buy process
Lots of resellers
Poor after sales
customer service
Web search Downloads &
comparison sites
Phone a friend Phone a friend

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Do you know your customer?

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It’s cheaper to
survey than to fail

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“Be prepared with some specific goals for the conversations
so you have key learnings. Be flexible and allow the
conversation to just flow in whatever direction it needs to
go. Ask lots and lots of follow up questions.”
Eli Schwartz
Director, Survey Monkey
@5le
elischwartz.co
What’re some interview best practices?

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Hush….
Image credit: Kristina Flour (Unsplash)

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Opinions, facts & quantitative data
Image credit: Indeed UX Research Manager Dave Yeats using cmx.io

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Quantitative Questions
Good: How often do you order groceries online?
Almost every day / Once or twice a week / Every fortnight /
Once a month / Not at all
Bad: How often do you order groceries online?
Rarely / Not Often / Sometimes / Regularly / All the time
Terrible: Do you order groceries online?
Yes / No

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Avoid Leading/Biased Questions
Good: Which online portals do you buy your groceries from?
Bad: So I guess you buy your groceries from Amazon?
Terrible: Everyone buys their groceries from Amazon these days right?
(Are you looking forward to the amazing new Avengers movie?)

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Why, why, why…
• The 5 Whys (1930). Sakichi Toyoda.
Founder of Toyota Industries.
• It’s a 6 Six Sigma technique (fancy!)
• It’s a rule of thumb,
know when to stop.

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Summary: Find your inner interrogator reporter
• Your guest is the expert. Not you.
• Be prepared. Script an outline
• Get answers to key data points
• Let the conversation flow
• Silence is your friend. Don’t ramble.
• Observe & record facts. Not opinions

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Starting with surveys
• Use an online survey tool
• Start with social media
• Pay to target your audience as
necessary
• It’s cheaper to survey than fail

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Size matters
• The right sample size (200+)
• The right people (not your mum)
• If you can’t find enough people
to survey – how will you sell to
them?
Image credit: https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/sample-size/

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Homework

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Do you know your customer?

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“THE KEY TO ANY SUCCESSFUL
MARKETING STRATEGY, CAMPAIGN OR
TACTIC IS CUSTOMER CENTRICITY. AT
DELL, GIVING OUR CUSTOMERS WHAT
THEY WANT AND NEED IS IN OUR
DNA…”
Alison Dew, Chief Marketing Officer, Dell

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“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need
not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know
yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you
will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy
nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

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Thank You
Thanks for listening, I hope you found this helpful.
Please share.
You can find the complete blog article and an editable persona
template here:
http://kameelvohra.com/what-is-a-customer-profile/