One of my favorite film characters of all time is Indiana Jones as portrayed by Harrison Ford in the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark. Many of us will forget that he is actually Dr. Indiana Jones, the illustrious professor and expert in occult archeology. No doubt that some of us can recall the Indiana Jones persona and can recall the images of his leather jacket and fedora styled hat.
What most of us will remember is that the character of Indiana Jones was the focal point of an action packed story to find the Ark of the Covenant. Steven Spielberg weaves a series of adventurous cliffhangers and seemingly insurmountable obstacles to tell the story of his quest to recover the Ark.
Through Spielberg's masterful storytelling, we saw how Indiana Jones reacted to overcoming confrontations with the Nazi's and the Egyptians. We learned much about who he was and how he interacted with his enemies and love interest. Much in the same way, this is how we learn about buyer personas. If we were left with only a composite persona of Indiana Jones, all we may have known is that he was an illustrious professor. The Indiana Jones persona itself though would not have revealed the story of the quest for the lost Ark of the Covenant and provided the many memorable scenes.
Buyer personas, to have real value, must be put into buying scenarios whereby they are in action making usage and buying decisions on behalf of their organization. The buyer persona becomes the main character who interacts with others to reveal the story of how and why buying decisions are made. Buying Scenarios provide valuable insights into what criteria must be met and what obstacles must be overcome.
The common pitfall of creating buyer personas based on stereotypes and without little research is also a problem with scenarios. Without taking a TQM or Six Sigma approach to learning about usage and buying scenarios, the outcome can be a series of best-case scenarios that are created on the basis of desired results only. However, done with the rigors of quantitative and qualitative study as well as TQM principles, the powerful combination of buyer personas in action within buying scenarios can reveal a story of opportunities that is as action filled as the story of Indiana Jones in the Raiders of the Lost Ark.
