Why You Should Use Those Buyer Personas You’ve Been Avoiding
Sometimes marketing just doesn’t get it. In my own experience, I’ve worked with companies in which the marketing team gave me one pitch while the sales team gave me a totally different one. Which one did I believe? The sales team’s pitch, because they were the ones on the front lines, and they knew the lingo to use and the angle to take.
But when marketing is dialed in, sales can get content that really resonates with prospects and leads. And that content might include buyer personas. If your organization has handed you buyer personas, and you’ve been reluctant to rely on them, read on…
The Case for Buyer Personas
Does your organization suffer from a distrust of marketing? Have you had marketing qualified leads handed over only to discover they’re not sales qualified leads? OK, that happens. But don’t distrust everything that comes from the marketing side. If marketing hands you buyer personas, and you’re skeptical, consider these two important reasons for using them:
- You can be more targeted in your approach when you have a better understanding of someone’s situation and pain points—which is what a buyer persona is designed to help you figure out.
- You can approach different audiences in different ways. Your prospects might include decision makers vs. end users, or a business decision maker (BDM) vs. a technical decision maker (TDM). The pain points will vary between each, and you want to hit on the right ones for each—or else they won’t listen.
What Should a Buyer Persona Include?
Buyer personas can be quite detailed, and some organizations even use a photograph to try and make the persona that much more real. What, exactly, the buyer personas you’re offered include is up to the team that creates them, but, in general, a persona should help you understand a prospect’s:
- Role
- Responsibilities
- Current solution
- Goals
- Challenges
Other information might include budget, education, industry, years of experience and more.
Give Marketing the Feedback They Need
And what if you’ve tried the buyer personas and been frustrated? If you put these buyer personas to work and discover a disconnect, give marketing feedback on what is or is not working. After all, you’re the one out there with boots on the ground. You might have insight they need to refine these buyer personas to better describe your organization’s ideal prospects. And marketing is approaching these buyer personas from their own perspective. They need the information to improve upon the content they’re creating. You need the information to make more sales. So speak up. Don’t put the personas aside. Just ask for better versions.
Making Your Own Buyer Personas
And what if your marketing team doesn’t offer you buyer personas to work from? You can create your own. HubSpot offers a free template that you can find here. If you’re doing this on your own, you won’t need to get into too much detail, and you can refine these as you go. But at least you’ll benefit from a more targeted approach with your sales process.