“We WILL be there with you every step of the way.” 

• Asking the Wrong Questions. If you take full advantage of your customer’s time, the insights you glean will be gold. You’ll learn more about the people you’re trying to acquire than your competitors know, and gain the power to create marketing that win’s the right people’s hearts and minds. However, unless your ideal customer is an incredibly sophisticated marketer, avoid asking questions that will just be confusing. It’s additionally critical to avoid offending anyone. The worst types of interview questions could include:

• • How many pages do you typically visit on a website before becoming a lead?
  • When did your [pain point] get bad enough you had to buy our product?
  • What did you think of our landing page form?

Avoid jargon, technical questions, or anything that can be construed as overly personal. Your interviews should make your customers feel like you value their business and insights, not consider them research subjects.

• Developing Too Many Buyer Personas. Many major companies and savvy small businesses have more than one buyer persona. However, if you’re just beginning to practice profiling, trying to target 15 different types of customers can be overwhelming. Focus on capturing your ideal customer, getting the interview process down, and applying the results to your sales and marketing strategy before you move on.
• Filling in the Blanks. Next to simply skipping the interview stage, the worst thing you can do is to make leaps of judgment while profiling. Never assume that customers are attracted to your company because you’re focused on community service, or that your technical white papers are the star of your content marketing strategy.

Decisions made without customer insights aren’t always sound, and a buyer persona based on personal opinion simply won’t advance your marketing game