Oftentimes, persona development will require conducting research beyond what sales and marketing can provide from experience alone. A great way to develop personas (and confirm their accuracy) is to visit a recent customer's profile on LinkedIn and browse their company's website. LinkedIn can provide you with a more complete picture of the person who you're selling to. What is their job title? How long have they been at the company? What is their skillset and background? A company's website can engineer database serve as a great resource to help inform your assumptions about target industry, key motivators, company size, business model and company values, among other distinguishing factors.
Download our Field Guide to Buyer Personas to start crafting accurate personas for your business.
Pay Attention to Firmographics as well as Demographics
For B2B companies, it's especially important to consider a target persona's demographics in tandem with their company's firmographics. Job titles can encompass different responsibilities depending on the size and annual revenue of an organization. For large, "enterprise level" organizations, someone at a VP or director level might hold considerable buying power and act as the primary point of contact. In small-to-medium-sized businesses, CEOs are usually much more directly involved in the sales process and will hold more buying influence. Knowing who your personas are within the context of their organization can give you a clearer understanding of their unique pain points and goals.
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Focus on Perfecting Primary Personas
Best practice for persona development involves limiting yourself to three to four primary personas. While secondary personas are often brand champions and thus great sources of information, it's not likely that you'll be in contact with them on a regular basis — if at all — during the sales process. Primary personas are the ones responsible for initiating or sanctioning a purchasing decision and are most likely to be your point of contact throughout the sales process, so clearly defining these target audiences is key. After you've established solid primary personas, identifying negative personas — buyer personas who may look similar to your primary personas at first glance but don't properly align with your services and/or ideal industries — can help your sales team understand who to avoid during their outreach and enrichment efforts.
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