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When you don’t clearly know who you’re building for, positioning, pipeline, and product decisions all become guesswork. The fastest path to clarity isn’t dashboards—it’s better conversations. Use AIO (Activities, Interests, Opinions) to structure those conversations and to align Sales and Marketing around what you learn. That’s how you zero in on your true audience and move faster together.
Why AIO?
AIO is a lightweight psychographic lens that captures what customers do, want, and believe—not just who they are. Track AIO consistently and you’ll spot patterns that reveal the segments most likely to buy, stay, and grow.
AIO prompts
AIO lens | Goal of questions | Example prompts |
Activities (what they do) | Map the workflow, tools, and triggers | “Walk me through your last task.” “Which tools do you use and in what order?” “What triggers this work?” |
Interests (what they want) | Clarify outcomes and success metrics | “Which outcomes matter most?” “How do you measure success today?” “What would make this a win in 30/60/90 days?” |
Opinions (what they believe) | Surface beliefs, objections, criteria | “What’s overrated in this category?” “Any adoption or ROI concerns?” “What’s a deal-breaker?” |
Align Sales & Marketing so insights drive action
Sales–Marketing rhythm (light wording + clear owners)
Shared AIO taxonomy – Standardize A_, I_, O_ fields (plus a “verbatim” notes block) in your CRM. (Owners: RevOps + PMM)
Joint discovery guide – Co-own 8–10 AIO questions for Sales + Marketing; retire any that stop yielding signal. (Enablement + PMM)
Weekly AIO sync (30 min) – Sales brings 2–3 call snippets; Marketing brings 1–2 message/offer hypotheses. Pick one test for next week. (Sales Lead + PMM)
Insight → asset mapping – If an Opinion keeps recurring (e.g., “implementation risk”), ship a matching case study/FAQ and a talk track. (PMM + Content + SE)
RevOps dashboards – Segment win rate, cycle time, and ACV by top AIO patterns and share the read-out weekly. (RevOps)
Mini-example: After tagging Opinions: proof of value on 37 deals, the team ships a “90-day outcomes” one-pager. Win rate on those deals lifts 11% and cycle time drops by 6 days.
Remove friction: get more conversations on the calendar
Make scheduling effortless—and capture richer AIO context up front.
Booking Page — Let customers self-book the right internal host. Add a short intake with 2–3 AIO questions so calls start with context. Sample intake: “What prompted this call?” (A) · “What outcome would make this a win?” (I) · “Any concerns about tools like ours?” (O)
1:1 — Set up recurring customer interviews (champions/admins/churned). Keep AIO prompts consistent to compare over time.
Group Poll — Find overlap fast for cross-functional debriefs or customer councils. Align Sales, Marketing, and Product on next bets.
Sign-up Sheet — Recruit research panels or beta workshops with limited seats. Balance roles (user/admin/executive) to validate messaging and onboarding.
Conversation kit
Agenda (30–45 min):
1) Context & role (2–3 min) 2) Activities walkthrough (10 min) 3) Interests & success metrics (8 min) 4) Opinions & objections (10 min) 5) Playback & confirm (3 min) 6) Optional demo aligned to A/I/O (5–10 min)
CRM field schema (quick start)
Field name | Type | Example values |
A_Workflow | Long text | “Launch brief → design → approvals → QA → publish” |
A_Toolchain | Multi-picklist | Asana; HubSpot; Figma; GA4 |
A_Trigger | Picklist | “New product release”; “Quarterly campaign” |
I_PrimaryOutcome | Picklist | “Pipeline”; “Activation”; “Time-to-value” |
I_KPI | Text | “MQL→SQL 25%”; “Onboarding < 3 days” |
I_Timeframe | Picklist | 30 days; 60 days; 90 days |
O_TopObjection | Picklist | “Adoption risk”; “Integration effort”; “Price” |
O_DecisionCriteria | Multi-picklist | “Time-to-value”; “Security”; “Admin controls” |
AIO_Verbatim | Long text | Direct quotes to reuse in copy |
Segment_AIO | Formula/derived | Top AIO pattern tag (e.g., Activation-focused, Asana-first) |
Metrics that matter (to continuously improve impact and efficiency)
AIO coverage rate – How often A/I/O fields are filled on qualified calls.
Insight-to-asset time – Days from a recurring Opinion to a live asset/talk track.
Message-fit uplift – Performance lift of AIO-based copy vs. control.
Segment performance – Win rate & cycle time by AIO patterns.
Scheduling efficiency – Time-to-meeting and no-show rate after adopting Booking Page / Group Poll / Sign-up Sheet.
Bring it home
Finding your target audience isn’t about guessing—it’s about listening together. Use AIO to guide conversations, align Sales and Marketing on what customers do, want, and believe, and make scheduling effortless so those conversations actually happen. With the right questions—and the right booking flow—you’ll pinpoint your audience faster and build momentum that shows up in pipeline and performance.
