The Big Idea from Buyer Persona

Understanding buyers requires discovering the insights behind their actual buying decisions, not inventing a profile based on assumptions about who they are.

This book moves beyond basic demographics and asks you to understand the buying insights that influence real decisions.

For this step, we are especially interested in:

• What alternatives did the buyer consider?
• What did they expect from each option?
• What influenced their decision?
• What made one option more valuable than another?

This gives you much stronger information for positioning than simply researching competitors.

When you are just starting out and have zero customers, you cannot interview your own buyers. However, Revella’s framework can still be implemented by shifting your target to the people who bought from your competitors or evaluated similar solutions in the last 6 months.

Steps on how this is to be done is in EVUNN Action steps for this step (premium)

What Business Problem Does Buyer Persona Solve?

It solves: I know who my customer is, but I don’t know what actually drives their buying decision.

A typical persona might tell you: Age: 35–45, job: Consultant, Income: ₦X, Location: Lagos

That information may be useful, but it doesn’t tell you:

• Why did they choose this solution?
• What alternatives did they consider?
• What made them reject those alternatives?
• What did they value most?
• Who influenced their decision?
• What made them trust one option over another?

Those are the insights you need and you can only get them by soeaking to people who have ttried to solve that problem in the past 6 months.

Should I Read Buyer Persona Now?

Yes. Read it specifically to understand buying decisions and buyer insights.

You don’t need to turn this into a full buyer-persona research project. Your objective is narrower:

Understand how your customer evaluates alternatives when deciding how to solve the problem.

Which Parts of Buyer Persona Matter Most for this Step? Focus on. These:

Chapter 1: Understand Buying Decisions and the People Who Make Them

(ESSENTIAL)

This establishes the difference between simply knowing who a buyer is and understanding how they make decisions.

Pay particular attention to: Buying Insights and why demographic and psychographic information alone isn’t enough.

Chapter 2: Focus on the Insights That Guide Marketing Decisions (ESSENTIAL)

Focus on The 5 Rings of Buying Insight

This is very useful because it helps you uncover the information behind the customer’s decision rather than simply describing the customer.

Chapter 3: Decide How You Will Discover Buyer Persona Insights (IMPORTANT)

Focus on how interviews and other research methods can uncover genuine buying insights.

The goal is to learn from actual buyers rather than inventing assumptions.

Chapter 4: Gain Permission and Schedule Buyer Interviews (SELECTIVE READING)

Pay particular attention to: which Buyer Should You Interview? and especially: Interview Buyers Who Chose You as Well as Those Who Did Not

Someone who chose another solution can reveal what your offer was competing against in the real world.

Chapter 5: Conduct Probing Buyer Interviews (SELECTIVE READING)

Focus particularly on:

• Take Me Back to the Day…

• Questions that keep the conversation flowing

• Who influences the decision

• The perceived value of differentiators

• What actually affected the decision

You are looking for decision evidence, not compliments.

Chapter 6: Mine Your Interviews for Buying Insights (IMPORTANT)

Learn how to turn raw conversations into actual buying insights. This prevents the toolkit from becoming a collection of interesting customer quotes.

Chapter 7: Determine How Many Buyer Personas You Need (SELECTIVE)

Focus on: Segment Buyers Based on Insights, Not Profiles

This is useful if your research reveals that different groups make the buying decision differently. Don’t create multiple personas simply because customers have different demographics.

Chapter 8: Decide What to Say to Buyers (SELECTIVE)

For this step, focus particularly on:

• Evaluate Your Competitive Ranking

• Assess Relative Value to Buyers

These concepts become important bridges into Step 4: Define Your Position.

What Should I Skip For Now?

For now, skip or skim the sections dealing primarily with:

• Marketing activities

• Sales enablement

• Sales playbooks

• Long-term organizational implementation

• Strategic planning

Those become more relevant later. Your immediate objective is: Understand the customer’s decision.

Your EVUNN Action:

Build Your Customer Alternative & Decision Map

To do that take the: Best-Fit Customer Profile (from Step 1) and the: Buying Situation Profile (from Step 2)

1. Find Lookalike Buyers 

Now investigate what happens after the customer decides they want to make a change. Your job now is to find and talk to 8-10 people who have tried to solve that problem or something close to it in the past ( they don’t need to be your buyers if you are hust starting)

Find Lookalike Buyers to Interview.  Example those who:

• Evaluated your competitors (and either bought from them or decided not to buy). Look at G2, Capterra, or Trustpilot reviews for your competitors. Look for complaints about pricing, service or mentions of company size.
• Solved the problem manually or bought an adjacent tool recently.
• Fit your target market criteria (industry, job title, company size).

Step 2: Conduct the Unscripted Interview

“Take me back to the day when you first decided to look for a solution to [this problem/this type of tool], and tell me what happened.”

EVUNN Action Steps, Doers Community & Execution Toolkits are for paid users.

Get the rest of the Action Steps for this step, plus all Stage 1 Action Steps and EVUNN Execution Toolkits – with 12 months of access.

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EVUNN Mindset Checkpoint

Are you trying to prove that your offer is better? Or Are you avoiding the conversations because you’re afraid of what you might hear?

This is a common trap at this stage.

You may discover that your customer prefers another solution, or even prefers doing nothing.

Don’t rush to defend your offer or convince them that yours is better.

Instead, ask: Why does this alternative work for you?

Listen for what they value, what they dislike about the alternatives, what makes them choose one option over another, and what would make them change their mind.

The goal isn’t to win the conversation. It’s to understand how your customer actually makes decisions.

Optional reading: The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick.

If you find yourself leading customer interviews, looking for confirmation, or trying to get people to say they like your idea, this is the book to read.

Optional. Don’t read it unless this resistance is actually present.

Your Step 3 Output

By the end of this step, you should have a Customer Alternative & Decision Landscape that has:

Alternatives Considered
↓
Why Customers Consider Them
↓
Decision Criteria
↓
Primary Decision Drivers
↓
Decision Influencers
↓
Reasons Alternatives Are Rejected
↓
Potential Reason to Choose Your Offer

↓

And now: Primary Competitive Alternative

Look at the other options your customer has.

Your customer may be choosing between you and nothing orr they may be considering another provider, doing it themselves, using a different solution, or simply doing nothing.

Use the EVUNN Execution Toolkit – Customer Alternative & Decision Map

Don’t guess what customers compare when deciding whether to buy.

Use the EVUNN Customer Alternative & Decision Map to identify the alternatives they consider, why those alternatives are attractive, what criteria influence the decision, who affects the choice and why customers ultimately choose one option over another.

Do this before you position your offer because, you may focus on what makes you different while missing what actually makes your customer choose.