Doubles engagement with security buyers by applying buyer persona insights
Challenge: Build sales traction in a new functional area
Infoblox, a network management and security services company, recently expanded its product portfolio with a
security solution focused on the DNS layer. The company’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer,
Brad Rinklin, immediately recognized a formidable sales and marketing challenge. “We’ve been in the network
appliance business for about twenty years,” he says. “Our employee base is network appliance driven; they know
how to talk network professionals. But now we’re also a security company, and we need to sell to security
professionals.”
In the first wave of DNS security sales, the Infoblox sales team successfully bundled the new security offering
with network appliance renewals among network buyers. “But these buyers didn’t know what to do with the
security package, and it just sat on the shelf,” Rinklin says. When contract renewals were due, Infoblox had a
problem: few customers had implemented the security solution, making renewals moot. “Sales assumed they
could sell security to networking people,” says Rinklin. “It wasn’t working. We need to teach sellers who the
security buyers really are. What are their budgets? How do they make decisions? We needed to educate our
people.”
Solution: Arm sales and marketing with deeper buyer insights
Rinklin had worked with the Buyer Persona Institute (BPI) at Akamai, Carbon Black and Eze. “I’m a big fan,” he
says. “Our old personas were just two bullets on a slide – not a rich set of data.” For Rinklin, BPI represented a
powerful alternative to ignorance. “You’re not getting anecdotal data from internal people about what’s
important to the buyer. Instead, you’re getting insights right from the buyers’ mouths. I like their methodology:
‘Take us back to the day you started looking for a solution – tell us what happened.’”
“BPI research “exposed all parts of the buyer’s journey,” says Rinklin. In-depth interviews with buyers reveled
desired outcomes, decision criteria, buying obstacles, and resources that influence key decision makers.
Subsequent messaging work, rooted in buyer insights, helped Infoblox focus on strengths of greatest
significance to security professionals.”
Results: Infoblox doubles number of security contacts in one year
Before the BPI work, Rinklin says, “We didn’t even know what the triggers were. Now, it’s like getting the
answers before the test! Our marketers, salespeople, and even the product managers now know what buyers
want before we sit down with them.”
Since commissioning the research, Infoblox has applied it in multiple ways. Infoblox is leveraging the research-
informed messages in its content strategy, particularly in thought leadership and demand generation. “We’re focusing in on creating more at the intersections of buyer needs and our ability to fulfill them,” says Rinklin.
Most importantly, Infoblox has applied buyer insights to a key target market. “Because we’re using the language
of security buyers and focusing on their priorities,” Rinklin says, “we’ve engaged 8,100 new security buyers this
year, nearly doubling the 4,400 from all of last year. These new contacts have increased security-related sales.”
All the research insights and new messaging are also being integrated into sales training. “Now,” Rankly says,
“everyone is working off the same script.” For brand strategy work, Infoblox is working with a new agency to
incorporate BPI insights into corporate-level messaging. “Our deep buyer insights help us compete with
companies larger than us,” says Rinklin.
“You never want to fly blind,” Rinklin concludes. “Sales traditionally represented the customers’ voice because
they were closest to it. Now we can say, ‘Well actually, this is what the customers have to say themselves.’ BPI
has given us much better intelligence and credibility.”
