The sales process · Customer research
Write to the person who signs, and to the mistake they are afraid of making.
A buyer persona describes the individual who decides inside a company you want as a customer. It covers what their day looks like, what they are measured on, and what they are afraid of getting wrong. Age and income belong in it only where they change the sale.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
A buyer persona describes the individual who decides inside a company you want as a customer. It covers what their day looks like, what they are measured on, and what they are afraid of getting wrong. Age and income belong in it only where they change the sale.
The maintenance head at a pharma unit and the managing director of the same unit both count as your customer. One is judged on downtime, the other on the capital budget. Send them the same email and at least one of them deletes it.
So a persona is not a card with a stock photograph and an age range. It is a short note on one buying role: what that person is responsible for, and what lands on them if your product fails. Use the words they said on the phone, not the words your marketing uses.
Three of them is plenty for a small business. If you find yourself writing a seventh, you are describing the market again rather than the people who sign.
The ideal customer profile narrowed the list of companies. This narrows it to a person inside, and customer behaviour, the step after, explains what pushes that person to act this month rather than next year.
Where this sits
Stage 2 of 10, customer research. Who buys, why they buy, and what they are comparing you against while they decide.
- The stage before
- Strategic plan
- The stage after
- Prospecting
If you want this done for you
Write your marketing for the actual person who buys, not a guess about them.
The work
What this step is actually like.
“The trigger matters more than the biography”
What happened in their week that made them start looking. A compressor failed. An auditor asked a question they could not answer. A supplier raised rates and blamed a GST change. Without that line, a persona is a description of somebody who never buys.
“Four phone calls beat a survey”
Ring the last four customers who bought and ask what they were doing on the day they decided to look for you. Twenty minutes each, no script, and write down their phrases rather than your summary of them.
“Fear is the objection you never hear”
A purchase officer is afraid of being blamed for picking the cheap one. A doctor sending a patient to a diagnostic centre is afraid of what the patient reports back. Neither will say this to you, and both are deciding on it.
“The person who uses it is rarely the person who approves it”
In a factory the operator wants a machine that is easy to clean and the owner wants a payback period. Write both, and keep them as separate personas, because one persona covering both reads as a committee.
What we do
What you end up with.
The artefacts this step produces, what each one is for, and how you know it is finished.
One sheet per persona
Half a page under six headings. Role and what they are judged on, the event that starts them looking, where they go to look, the first three questions they ask. Then what would get you struck off the list, and five phrases in their own words.
Result: Finished when somebody who has never met that buyer can write them an email from the sheet alone.
The raw interview notes
What each customer actually said, typed up without tidying. The tidied version loses the hesitation and the odd phrasing, which is where the useful copy comes from.
Result: Finished when at least one sentence in your website copy is lifted word for word from these notes.
The objection and question list
Everything the persona asks before they commit, in the order they ask it, with the answer your team gives now. Gaps in the answer column are the real output.
Result: Finished when your quotation email already answers the first two questions before they are asked.
A name at the top of every page and script
One line on each website page, advertisement and call script saying which persona it is written for. It is a dull piece of admin and it is what stops the personas becoming a document nobody reopens.
Result: Finished when a page with no persona named on it is either rewritten or taken down.
Where this fits
Three pieces of sales work, in this order.
This work sits inside sales process design, at stage 0, foundation. The audit comes before it, and sales management keeps it running.
Step 1
Sales audit
Find where deals are being lost and what to fix first.
Start here if you cannot say where orders are lost.
Step 2 · you are here
Sales process design
One written way to sell, from first enquiry to repeat order.
Start here if every salesperson sells differently.
Step 3
Sales management
A target, a review routine and someone who owns the number.
Start here if the team has targets and no routine.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
How is a persona different from an ideal customer profile?
We sell to walk-in consumers. Do personas still apply?
Who has to agree the personas?
How long does this take?
Do you do a version of this in the first conversation?
How much does it cost?
How long is the contract?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
What if we are not happy with the work?
Where to go next
The work that carries this step further.
The rest of customer research
Or read the whole sales process in order.
Your next practical step
Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.