A customer persona is a representation of your ideal customer – a motivated seller, complete with a narrative, where a fictional character embodies the persona and sells you its property. Personas include a profile, with demographics, defining character traits, preferences and values, goals and objectives, and challenges and frustrations. So what?
So, 76% of customers expect companies to understand their needs, and customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable than those that are not. If used properly and to their full potential, seller personas will take your marketing and sales decisions to the next level.
Motivated seller personas help you understand common seller types so that you can modify business decisions to better assist them. They also inspire new products (e.g., eBooks, flyers, etc.) and services (like creative financing) to improve the overall experience.
In a previous article, I gave you steps on how to create personas. Now let’s discuss how you can use them to get more deals and boost productivity and success.
What are Personas Used for?
This is important, because how can you use a persona to its fullest if you do not understand its objectives?
Personas are used by companies to achieve the following:
Build Empathy
When you create a persona, you craft a lens through which you and your team look to see the world from that seller’s perspective. You understand what they value in a purchase, the kind of experience they are looking for, backed by their lifestyle and behavioral triggers.
You are able to internalize the persona’s wants, needs, and goals.
Develop Focus
You should be able to recognize who to focus your efforts on and who not to. Why? Because some seller types, better known as “negative personas,” waste your time and energy and never sell you their property.
Personas allow you to prioritize which sellers are more important, and in what order of priority. You cannot market to everyone at once, or you risk marketing to no one. Maybe one persona makes up the majority of your sales. You focus on them first, altering your marketing and sales to target them, and then focus on your secondary seller.
Form a Consensus Among Your Team
Share your personas across your team so that everyone is in the loop on how to communicate with these ideal motivated seller types. Alignment is very important and ensures success without misdirection.
Measure Effectiveness
Each time an idea is offered up by your team, it should be run against the persona before an actual person. If the idea does not stand up to and satisfy the inquiry of Henry the homeowner or Louie the landlord, then it’s not going to do well with the real leads.
You can either optimize or drop the idea instead of investing in it and getting negative or no results. Always test till you get it right or walk away.
How Do You Use Motivated Seller Personas?
This is why you’re here: this is the information you want to know. I want you to gather your team, take a look at your seller personas, and do the following:
Focus Your Content
Targeted content captures audience attention and retains it. It keeps them coming back for more because you offered something they like, want, or need. It could be education or a lifetime value.
If you customize your message based on what you know about the persona, you can attract more leads. This means using keywords that trigger interest, offering solutions to their challenges. How? Through focused marketing.
Do you have a favorite blog? If so, why do you like it? Probably because it offers you value. A blog can do the same for motivated sellers, and it helps them see you as a knowledgeable resource.
Personas show you content possibilities, and you can focus your message so that, not only do you improve SERP and SEO rankings, making it easier for your leads to find you, but you also draw leads to you who genuinely want to engage with you.
Customize the Seller Experience
What was the best purchase you ever made and why? Was it because of friendly customer service? Was it because their website was easy to navigate? Or maybe they offered you incentives and material that helped sway your decision?
All of those things are part of the experience. Companies use personas to determine what will work and not work for their ideal customers. You can do the same thing!
You can discover ways to optimize your channels and help your sales team effectively answer lead inquiries. With personas, you can deliver a personalized approach to every customer, so that they feel better about selling you their houses, and may even refer you to other owners.
Identify Channels
Not everyone is the same. You know that. Sellers have different likes and dislikes, also preferred methods of communication.
Personas help you identify which sellers are tech-savvy – the ones that like social media and are on their phones every spare moment of the day – or the not-so, who prefer direct mail or a phone call. Jane the millennial may want to conduct the entire conversation via text message, while Karen the boomer would rather speak with someone using her landline.
Guide Customers Through the Customer Journey
Think of how you felt the first time you bought or sold a house. Did you feel intimidated or nervous? Imagine how your sellers feel. All they care about is making a good deal that benefits them.
Use your personas to map out the motivated seller journey map. Identify those areas that pose a challenge and help sellers overcome them. You’ll get a better understanding of lead behaviors throughout their journey and be able to accommodate them so they feel someone cares and has their best interests in mind.
You can create a strategy guide that guides sellers through every stage, from Awareness to Consideration to Sale, with confidence.
GoForClose Has Personas and Knows How to Use Them to Your Advantage
GoForClose has invested its time and research to create customer personas for each type of motivated seller we come across in the Real Estate Investing industry. We also revise and renew these when new data is available, like after a change in the market.
We then use our personas to focus our message across our marketing channels, and that includes our email, SMS, RVM, and cold calling scripts. We market to sellers, nurture them if they are ‘Not Ready Yet to Sell’, and when they are ready, provide a warm transfer to you or your sales team.
If you have questions or are curious to know more, request a free consultation below.
Wayne Hudson
Wayne Hudson has a background in sales and real estate - but with a passion for economics. He uses his knowledge of economics and real estate to help clients think strategically and make decisions to optimize their outcome.
As the company's business developer, Wayne works to help GoForClose grow.
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Wayne Hudsonhttps://www.goforclose.com/knowledge-base/author/opsgoforclose-com/
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Wayne Hudsonhttps://www.goforclose.com/knowledge-base/author/opsgoforclose-com/
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Wayne Hudsonhttps://www.goforclose.com/knowledge-base/author/opsgoforclose-com/
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Wayne Hudsonhttps://www.goforclose.com/knowledge-base/author/opsgoforclose-com/
