Three meditations: something to think about, a “how-to” resource, and a marketing deep dive. Ommmmmm.

Something to Think About

Adele Revella, founder of the Buyer Persona Institute, is the undisputed queen of buyer personas.

“How To”

Map the Buying Committee

Most of the time, we use “ICP” to talk about our target customers.

That’s probably not nerd-level technically accurate.

People still talk about ICPs in B2C contexts, but you’ll also hear buyer persona, customer avatar, and other terms for the target customer.

In B2B, the ICP is technically the company you are targeting. It should have a firmographic profile. Industry, number of employees, revenue, where they fit in the supply or distribution chain, etc.

Within that company is a Buyer Persona, which is a person. The person will have demographic and psychographic profiles as well as things like purchase triggers and intent signals.

If you sell to SMBs, there is usually only one or two buyer personas to worry about. In this way, SMBs behave a lot like B2C.

But if you sell mid-market or enterprise, there is typically a Buying Committee made up of several people who have various roles in the purchase process. It’s incredibly useful to articulate who the members of the committee are and what their roles are in the purchase process.

This 2-slide deck includes the starting point framework that I use to map the buying committee. Make a copy and feel free to edit and use in whatever way helps you.

A Marketing Deep Dive

Past Wisdom for Modern Solutions

We underestimate the people of the past.

It’s understandable.

As a species, humans are innovating faster than ever.

Sometimes, it feels hard to keep up.

With so much novelty at our fingertips, the last place we might think to look for answers is in the past.

Surrounded by evolving SaaS trends, the resurgence of crypto, and the whiplash pace of AI, what could we possibly learn from generations that lived before the Internet?

I was surprised to find something last week.

Kind of a lesson and a reminder.

Before I share it, you need to know that I am into architecture.

From ancient Greece and Rome to Île-de-France Gothic, to Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, to Frank Ghery. Architecture is some of the most enduring evidence of human thought and achievement.

And just like 3D printing promises to change construction in the future, certain technological milestones changed how buildings were built in the past.

One of those innovations was concrete.

Concrete has been around for a LONG time.

The Romans had concrete.

And they built some of the world’s most enduring structures out of it.

Like the Pantheon in Rome (which Thomas Jefferson studied at length before building Monticello) and substantial portions of the Colosseum.

If we think about achievements in construction ranked by height, the Roman period was then surpassed by the stonemasons who built the Gothic cathedrals.

Stone itself wasn’t new. But the math for bearing heavy loads while simultaneously creating light-filled open spaces was revolutionary.

Next came steel-reinforced concrete, a leap that allowed us to build skyscrapers in modern times.

And we’re back to concrete.

If there’s a rule about concrete, it’s that it cracks.

Cracks are controlled with joints. Concrete is porous, and over time, the cracks worsen from weather and temperature.

Still, concrete remains one of the most durable materials we have.

Now, ancient concrete seems crude compared with modern materials.

It’s created by mixing volcanic ash with lime and seawater.

Archeologists noticed that ancient concrete had these little white chunks of lime in it.

The prevailing wisdom was that the Romans just used what they had and didn’t do a very good job of mixing their concrete.

Silly, backward Romans.

Except…

Roman concrete doesn’t seem to deteriorate the same way that modern concrete does.

In a 2023 report by an MIT team led by Admir Masic—building on earlier work by Marie Jackson of the University of Utah, scientists found that Roman concrete continues to react with water over time.

Instead of breaking down, it gets stronger.

Sea walls built in Roman times are actually stronger today then when they were built.

And those little chunks of white lime?

It turns out that when the concrete cracks if it subsequently gets wet, those little chunks dissolve and fill in the cracks.

Roman concrete is self-healing.

Modern concrete doesn’t do that.

This has me thinking about the ideas in marketing that have deep roots.

Sure, David Ogilvy wasn’t posting on Insta in the 1950s and 1960s, but he was going long on deeply understanding the customer.

That’s an idea modern marketers like Chris Walker are showing works just as well today as it ever has.

Ultimately, the job of marketing is nothing more than matchmaking people with products that satisfy their needs.

And those needs have been around longer than Roman concrete.

Understanding people is evergreen.

It’s AI-proof (or AI-positive, depending on how you look at it).

As novel tech washes over us in overwhelming waves, there’s a certain peace of mind that comes from knowing that we’re just in the business of connecting people with other people.

New tech doesn’t change the “people” part of the equation.

Namaste.

Chad Jardine, CEO

CMO Zen