219: Insights into Buyer Behaviour: Trust, Decision Making, and the Power of Buyer Personas with...

Jim Kraus is the President of Buyer Persona Institute (BPI) and a leading authority on buyer personas and buying insights. BPI’s buyer persona research and workshop methodologies have become a gold standard for thousands of marketers in hundreds of companies worldwide that rely on these studies to reveal everything a prospective buyer needs to know and experience to have confidence in their solution. Marketers use these insights to develop strategies and messaging that drive more leads, improve conversion rates, and help sales hit their numbers.
In addition to his work at BPI, Jim is an avid blogger, author of the Buyer Persona Buzz newsletter, and is currently working on a second edition of the book Buyer Personas with BPI’s founder, Adele Revella. He also frequently speaks at events and podcasts to advanced thinking around buyer personas and buyer insights more broadly.
Outside of work, Jim enjoys travel, reading, sports, and spending time with his family.

Questions
· I always love to give our guests an opportunity for them to share in their own words, a little bit about how you got from where you were to where you are today.
· You mentioned that you just completed your manuscript for your second book, which should be released later this summer. Could you share a little bit with our listeners what can they expect? And maybe how it is that you decided to even write a second manuscript as a follow up to your first book.
· Could you share with us maybe two to three things that you believe are critical for an organisation to achieve that trust with customers if it is that you're trying to attract that buyer and gain their trust?
· Now, as it relates to the buyer persona and the different aspects that make up that whole process. Apart from trust, what do you think is the key most important step or component in that process that can never be eliminated regardless of the industry that you're in?
· Now, Jim, could you also share with our listeners what's the one online resource, tool, website or app that you absolutely can't live without in your business?
· Now, could you also share with our listeners, Jim, maybe one or two books that you've read, it could be a book that you read recently, or even one that you read a very long time ago, but it has had a great impact on you.
· Now, Jim, can you share with our listeners what's the one thing that's going on in your life right now that you're really excited about? Either something you're working on to develop yourself or your people.
· Where can listeners find you online?
· Now before we wrap our episodes up, we always like to ask our guests, do you have a quote or a saying that during times of adversity or challenge you'll tend to revert to this quote if for any reason you got derailed or you got off track, this quote kind of helps to get you back on track. Do you have one of those?
Highlights
Jim’s Journey
Me: Now, I know we've read a little bit about your journey. And I always love to give our guests an opportunity for them to share in their own words, a little bit about how you got from where you were to where you are today.

Jim shared that his entire career has really been spent on understanding markets, understanding customers, understanding buyers, really just trying to provide market insights that help organizations make more informed decisions. He’s done it in a variety of places, both on the client side and as a consultant over the past three decades or so. Over the past 15 years, he has been a principal at a KS&R which is a full service market research firm. And they are working with Buyer Persona Institute, he’s leading by Buyer Persona Institute as division of KS&R right now. And they're 100% focused on understanding buyers and more specifically, understanding the buying decisions that your prospective buyers make so that you can make more informed decisions around your marketing and sales strategies. So, his whole career has been focused on insights, right now it's over the last couple of years in particular, been really focused on understanding prospective buyers to help marketing and sales.

What Customers Can Expect from Second Book?
Me: Now, in our pre interview conversation, you mentioned that you just completed your manuscript for your second book, which should be released later this summer. Could you share a little bit with our listeners what can they expect? And maybe how it is that you decided to even write a second manuscript as a follow up to your first book.

Jim shared that the first book, Buyer Personas was written by Adele Revella, who is the founder of Buyer Persona Institute about 9 years ago. And him and her co-authored the second edition, this updated and expanded edition. And the main reason that they decided to update it is one, a lot...