Persona marketing clarifies buyers’ real concerns with
actionable insights other marketing strategies cannot match.
But skillful execution is crucial.
Chapter 1. Confessions of a buyer persona evangelist
Chapter 2. So what is a buyer persona?
Chapter 3. What can the buyer persona help you see?
Chapter 4. What you don’t know, what you really need to know
Chapter 5. Interviewing in search of insight
Chapter 6. Putting your insights to work
Chapter 7. How the buyer’s voice empowers Marketing
1. The
Buyer Persona
Manifesto
Persona marketing clarifies buyers’ real concerns with
actionable insights other marketing strategies cannot match.
But skillful execution is crucial.
Adele Revella
www.buyerpersona.com
2. Contents
Click these white arrows to
navigate throughout the book
1. Confessions of a buyer persona evangelist
2. So what is a buyer persona?
3. What can the buyer persona help you see?
4. What you don’t know, what you really need to know
5. Interviewing in search of insight
6. Putting your insights to work
7. How the buyer’s voice empowers Marketing
“The buyer persona goes a critical
step further to reveal the story behind
About Adele business that doesn’t come to you.”
(page 5)
Back to cover page
3. 1. Confessions of a buyer persona evangelist
It was an insight that changed my way of a seminar, Effective Product
outlook and defined my life’s work. Marketing,™ that I authored and led
for Pragmatic Marketing®. Over the
As a marketing executive I faced course of 10 years I taught progres-
an insurmountable obstacle: a rock sive marketers all over America and
threatening to sink a start-up with many other countries.
an ingenious solution to an emerging
enterprise software issue. But since When we started, the buyer persona
companies had not yet realized the was a brand-new concept. We could
problem, nobody was tasked with solv- see clearly its benefits as a strategic
ing it. We thought we knew who should tool. What we lacked was the body of
be concerned with the issue, but we experience needed to equip market-
could not get them to focus on it. ers with a proven execution road map.
I’ll tell you the story further on. But Looking back, I have to confess how
after years of losing money as we critical that execution piece is.
struggled to overcome this obstacle, Adele Revella
I had an insight that not only led to a Steering the proverbial supertanker
solution; it turned the company into a is a snap compared to introducing
runaway success. any new idea in a major corporation.
With a ship, at least you know that if
I didn’t have a name for it at the time. you crank the helm hard, it will even-
But when I later heard about a then- tually come round.
new strategic marketing tool called
“buyer personas” I was an instant Plus, I’ve come to realize that while
believer. I had already felt its power. the buyer persona is a tool every bit
as sharp as predicted, it is not like
—3—
Having seen the light, I soon became scissors, something anyone can pick
– back to table of contents – an evangelist for buyer personas by up and use right away.
4. More than 5,000 people attended my insightful strategic application; and
seminar over 10 years, and many have skillful execution.
stayed in touch, emailing to report on
the joys and frustrations of working But as this e-book will show you, the
with buyer personas. Some rave about payoff goes way beyond impressive
the amazing feats they have achieved. sales growth.
Others need a hug as they relate how
it all went wrong in execution. Togeth- Applied with skill and determina-
er we puzzle through why and how. tion, this tool can transform market-
ing from a passive, outward-facing
Having seen literally hundreds get function to a key source of strate-
it either right or wrong, I now know gic insight closely watched — and
all the snakes and ladders by heart. respected — by top management.
That’s why my focus has changed
from telling marketers what the buyer This e-book is not a how-to guide for
persona can achieve to coaching mar- dabblers. It is a manifesto for radical
keters, step-by-step, as they execute. transformation, aimed at progressive
B2B marketers who won’t sit still
Realizing the value of buyer personas for the status quo. If that’s you, read
takes focused and sustained effort; on… and enjoy!
This e-book is not
a how-to guide for
dabblers.
It is a manifesto
for radical
transformation…
—4—
– back to table of contents – …read on
5. 2. So what is a buyer persona?
It’s an archetype, a composite competitor’s customers, your recent
picture of the real people who buy, conquests — and perhaps even
or might buy, products like the ones those who have never considered
you sell. buying simply because they had no
idea that a workable solution was
It’s an avatar you craft from what within reach.
you learn in direct interviews with as
many buyers as possible. And from This distinction between buyer and
behavior observed anywhere else: customer is critical, because market-
at industry conferences; in online ers assume all-too-often that cus-
forums; through social media. tomer experience tells the full story.
The buyer persona goes a critical
If crafted with skill and insight, the step further to reveal the story behind
person who emerges in this picture business that doesn’t come to you.
may become as real to you as anyone
you can ever remember meeting. In I recommend looking at the buyer
your mind’s eye, this person becomes from two perspectives.
three-dimensional to the point that
you can see the world through his or The “Core Buyer Persona” seeks
her eyes. to understand the buyer in his own
environment — without reference to
Expect other characters to appear whatever you might want to sell him.
through this lens: bosses, internal This tells you whether the buyer is
users, finance functionaries and rivals looking for solutions like yours, or is “…If crafted with skill and
— and others with input into your buy- busy with other priorities. The sec- insight, the person who emerges
er’s decision-making process. ond perspective — what I call the in this picture may become as
“Product Persona Connection” — real to you as anyone…”
—5— These composite people are not your reveals the buyer’s attitudes about
– back to table of contents – long-time customers. They are your your product and company.
6. In tandem, these two perspectives that borders on euphoric: “These
bring the issues that matter to buyers people get it! They understand exact-
into sharp focus — allowing market- ly what I want!”
ers to see their product as the buyer
sees it. Every time that happens, you have a
chance to form a bond of trust that
So instead of talking at the buyer, rivals may not be able to overcome Instead of blurting
blurting out a “me-me-me” narrative — even with substantially lower out a “me-me-me”
with absolutely no consideration of pricing. narrative,
his real concerns, marketers can get marketers can
straight to the heart of the matter. The buyer persona’s buzz-saw ability
get straight to
to “cut the crap” in messaging is only
When buyers find they don’t have to the beginning of the story. Read on to
the heart of the
wade through reams of irrelevant learn how the buyer persona can yield matter.
babble to get straight answers to insights that provide decisive guid-
their concerns, I’ve seen response ance to overall corporate strategy.
—6—
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7. 3. What can the buyer persona help you see?
Ask the boss at almost any company justified by rational factors about
if his people know who their buyer product and pricing. Any number of
is, and how that buyer decides, and subjective factors can distort the
you can expect a confident answer, process: office politics, conflicting
“Of course, we do!” priorities, nationalism, you name it.
Ask the same question down in Not that anyone on the buyer side will
Marketing and you are likely to get a tell your sales rep about any of this.
more nuanced answer. Savvy practi- Everyone likes to put on a rational face.
tioners know that far too much guess-
work is involved. The truth is that, The buyer persona is a tool that
beyond a few very basic binary data can help you see way deeper than a
points (e.g. “67% liked this; 33% scratch into the buyer’s thinking. Once
didn’t”), most companies have only the you get down there, you will uncover
faintest idea what lies behind the buy- unexpected answers. You may even
ing decision. We presume an awful lot. find the person you thought was your
buyer has no interest in considering
What’s more, most companies lack your proposition.
a way to usefully model and apply
what they already know. To harness In fact, that was the revelation that
whatever insights they have, market- opened my eyes to this approach.
ers need a three-dimensional way
to share their understanding of the As mentioned earlier, a long time
buyer’s story, among themselves and ago I headed marketing for a startup
throughout the enterprise. based on an ingenious solution to an
enterprise software issue.
Scratch the surface and you are
—7— likely to find that buying decisions Corporations were just switching
– back to table of contents – are driven by emotional factors then from building software from scratch
8. to licensing off-the-shelf software could find and phoning everyone I could
platforms for key business applica- think of. I volunteered for industry task
tions. But since licenses didn’t come forces and attended any conference
with “source code” there was an inher- where I might meet potential buyers
ent risk in the arrangement. What if and influencers in a non-sales setting. I
the software vendor went bankrupt? wanted to see how they thought.
We’d spent
Our answer was simple but inge- When I came across the answer I felt years talking to
nious: “software escrow.” As a trusted like an anthropologist discovering a
third party we held the source code lost tribe in the Upper Amazon.
the wrong end
for release to the licensee if the ven- of the horse!
dor could no longer support its prod- I found this obscure workshop for
uct. We were sure executives and people with a job title that I didn’t
their attorneys would snap at this realize existed. They were “contract
bait like hungry bass. administrators,” functionaries hidden
deep in the corporate bureaucracy.
As this was pre-internet, we adver-
tised in relevant trade publications We had been pitching way up the
and targeted direct mail to all the rel- food chain to executives who should
evant executives we could identify. have been worried by their depen-
But when we managed to get one on dence on third-party software. But
the phone, our sales reps often said they were too focused on immediate
they could almost hear him yawn. priorities to even think about a fire
that had yet to start.
After years of losses we were des-
perate to figure out why our proposi- Who we should have sought were
tion wasn’t taking off — to the point those who had the problem we aimed
that I proposed shutting the whole to solve on the desk in front of them.
thing down. But our CEO asked me
to take another crack at it, so I did. Our buyer was the contract admin-
istrator — and we didn’t even know
—8— With no theories to guide me, I worked it. We’d spent years talking to the
– back to table of contents – like a detective, reading everything I wrong end of the horse!
9. Having identified this tribe, like an as that company extended its reach
anthropologist, my next challenge from document storage to digital
was figuring out how to make con- solutions.
tact. Would they even care about our
solution? How do you model the kind of learn-
ing those contract administrators
What I read in the workshop agenda gave me? What I learned
made me wonder. Buried deep in about these
the 8-point-type listing of sessions I Afterward, I realized that what I buyers came from
found one entitled: “Software escrow learned about these buyers did not immersing
and why it doesn’t work.” come on slides with bar graphs and myself in
pie charts. It came from immersing
their world.
Fast as I could dial (okay, we did have myself in their world to learn what
push-button by then) I called the orga- motivated and frustrated them, and
nizers in Florida to demand: “Wad- to understand what consumed their
daya mean, ‘software escrow doesn’t time and budget.
work?’” Next thing I knew I was lead-
ing their new session: “How to make They were willing to talk frankly about
software escrow work.” what value they saw in my service.
Even more critically, some told me
Whatever value those workshop par- why they could live without it. Others
ticipants got from the program, the told me straight-up what I needed to
chance I got to examine my lost tribe do to help them win over their boss-
at close range was worth a thousand es. I heard the kinds of statements
times more. and tone that caused them to nod
their heads in agreement — and what
Thanks to what I was able to learn turned them off.
from listening to people whose
needs our product really answered, Once I had done several workshops
DSI escrow finally took off. Our rev- on software escrow, participants’
enue began to double each year, stories began to blend into a single
—9—
and within five years the company narrative; their faces became a
– back to table of contents – was acquired by Iron Mountain, mosaic and then a composite picture.
10. I didn’t have a name for it then, but exactly what we need to know about
when I first heard the term “buyer per- buyers in order to guide strategic busi-
sona” I knew instantly what it meant ness decisions. And we can effectively
— and why it was vitally important. share those insights throughout the
enterprise.
I overcame that escrow challenge
— but I had to work way too hard Intelligent application is still essen- When I first
to do it. Since then, buyer persona tial, but the process is now straight- heard the term
methodology has moved light years forward and repeatable. “buyer persona”
ahead. I knew instantly
The starting point is to take stock of what it meant
We can now gather critical insights what insights into your buyers you — and why
quickly and efficiently. We understand are missing. it was vitally
important.
— 10 —
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11. 4. What you don’t know, what you need to know
Core Buyer Personas
PRODUCT CONNECTIONS
Priority Success Perceived Buying Decision
Initiatives Factors Barriers Process Criteria
Once marketing teams realize Let’s short-circuit all that by listing
how little they actually know about what you really need. For B2B mar-
their buyer, many react by rushing keters, the buyer persona needs to
madly off in all directions in search deliver five key insights that I call:
of information.
The Five Rings of Insight™
At this point I often have to say, “Whoa,
slow down!” It’s all too easy to get dis- 1. Priority Initiatives: To what three-
tracted by irrelevant and even trivial to-five problems or objectives does
questions. I’ve actually seen teams get your buyer persona dedicate time,
— 11 — bogged down in debating whether the budget and political capital? This is
– back to table of contents – buyer persona is blond or brunette. the centerpiece of the Core Buyer
12. Persona. It’s about his or her world- 3. Perceived Barriers: What could
view, not you or your product. prompt the buyer to question whether
your company or solution is capable of
n If your product addresses one of achieving his or her Success Factors?
these priorities, this persona may be
your primary buyer. If not, your prima- n This is where you begin to uncover
ry buyer lower down the totem pole critical unseen factors. You may find
may still need this persona’s signoff. the buying decision hinges on things
that have nothing to do with your
n Avoid generalizations that do no product. Take a sports car buyer for
more than restate this persona’s role example. No matter how impressed
or job description. he is by your model’s finer points, the
deal may hinge on persuading his wife
The other four Rings of Insight link up to that the car is more important than
form the “Product Persona Connection.” renovating her kitchen. Good luck.
n Look for elephants in the room. A
2. Success Factors: To understand looming business-process change
the buyer’s approach to a Priority may be coloring all decisions; getting
Initiative, identify what tangible or end users to accept change may be
intangible rewards he or she associ- tough; toxic office politics may over-
ates with success. ride rational decision-making. This is
real-world stuff.
n Clearest factors are tangible met-
rics assigned by management: “grow n Other Perceived Barriers may stem
revenue by X, cut costs by Y.” from prior experiences with your
product or company; with similar
n Even if the buyer has no tangible products; or negative feedback from
metrics, something is always at stake media coverage.
— e.g. getting fired or demoted if a
risky decision goes wrong. The real n Expect to find Perceived Barriers
— 12 —
story may be about ego inflation or that are no longer (or never were)
– back to table of contents – the desire to one-up rivals. factually correct.
13. 4. Buying Process: What process detailed views on product capabili-
does this persona follow in explor- ties they see as important. Beyond
ing and selecting a solution that can “what,” you want to know how the
overcome the Perceived Barriers and buyer arrived at his conclusions.
achieve the Success Factors?
n If the insight is about “ease-of-use,”
n These insights are best mapped you need to find what specifically
with a table that begins with busi- they think should be easy, and for
ness triggers that cause the buyer whom. And you want to know how
to start searching for a solution, and they decided that.
ends with a satisfied customer.
n To be useful, Decision Criteria
n At each step in the buying process, should go beyond insights from cus-
identify each of the buyer personas tomers to include buyers who chose
involved in the decision to proceed to a competitor and those who chose to
the next step, what role each plays, do nothing at all.
and the resources each consults to
find answers to their questions. These five insight categories give
you a framework with which to sort
n Note that this insight details the and analyze what you learn from your
buyer’s process to arrive at a deci- buyers. How do you get answers to
sion, not the selling process as your all these key questions? You ask the
sales people may have defined it. buyers directly. You interview them.
Core Buyer Personas
5. Decision Criteria: What aspects
of each product will the buyer assess
in evaluating the alternative solutions
available?
n In compiling these insights don’t
— 13 —
fall back on jargon like “easy-to-use”
or “scalable.” You are after the buyer’s
PRODUCT CONNECTIONS
– back to table of contents –
Priority Success Perceived Buying Decision
14. 5. Interviewing in search of insight
Here is where the real skill comes peripheral, one-off project. This is
in. To get the required insights you the core of your marketing effort.
have to talk — well, mostly listen — This isn’t a
directly to buyers. You have to phone Start with a team that is in the plan- peripheral,
them up or take them to lunch and ning stages of an important launch or one-off project.
interview them. campaign. The team should include This is the
people from each of the functional core of your
How many interviews should you do? areas involved in the project. Make marketing
Although a highly accurate persona their buyer persona work a priority effort.
can be drawn from just five or six and dedicate time and resources to
interviews, a larger sample size lends it. If you say, “Do this when you have
authority to your research. But qual- time,” failure is all but guaranteed.
ity matters much more than quantity.
Five really good interviews are more Next, select a few people from that
useful than 50 clumsy ones. team who stand out for their energy,
enthusiasm, empathy and curiosity.
What you might expect to read next, Only one or two of these people need
in an e-book by a consultant, is “give to lead the interviews. Others can sit
us a retainer and we’ll do the rest.” in whenever possible so that everyone
For better or worse, that won’t work. can share and discuss what they hear.
Best practice is to have a second per-
To get full value from buyer personas, son taking notes, leaving the interview-
your team needs to be involved in er free to focus on building rapport.
the interviews from start to finish. A
consultant can model the skills and When doing live interviews, rapport is
provide feedback to improve results, all about making eye contact — and
but you can’t watch from behind a even many seasoned journalists get
— 14 —
two-way mirror. Your people have got this wrong. Instead of looking and
– back to table of contents – to be in on it — because this isn’t a listening they keep their heads down
15. taking notes. That means they miss the intelligence these skills are not hard Isn’t there an
facial expressions and body language to acquire. easier way?
that tell so much more than words
alone. When you have eye contact, We can help your team develop both Some may be tempted to
your reaction can encourage a person interview skills and strategies. We take a short cut, trying to
to answer more candidly, to elaborate. can help you get started with the get insights from focus
actual interviews. But unless your groups or surveys. Resist
In a phone interview, without that eye team develops the ability to continu- this temptation.
contact, it is tougher to build rapport. ally refine your knowledge, the proj-
Surveys are useful
That’s why the interviewer needs to ect will end and your buyer will fade
when you know what
learn how to keep the buyer talking: from sight.
the question is. Focus
“That’s really interesting;” “Wow, that groups can get people
must’ve been a challenge for you;” So who to interview? to choose the best of
“How did you evaluate that?” When your buyer persona team is three alternatives. But
geared up and ready to go, start by these techniques can only
Learn to stifle the urge to correct the looking for buyers who have made a confirm the best answer
interviewee no matter how stupid, decision in the last 30-60 days. from a list of pre-selected
wrong or unfair his perceptions are. options — validating what
This will be tough at times, but the This is where you may hit your first you already know.
interviewer’s job is to uncover percep- obstacle: sales reps may not want
tions not to change them. Marketing talking to their contacts. The buyer persona
So you may need the Marketing head interview process goes
Bringing out those deep-down per- to ask the Sales head to help secure deeper to identify the
questions you don’t know.
ceptions is a skill that great journal- cooperation.
It’s the way to get at non-
ists cultivate. In a friendly way, ask
obvious insights that
a provocative question that gets the But don’t limit the search to your own allow you to redefine the
subject engaged. When one line of sales force. Mine the stack of busi- competitive playing field.
questioning hits a wall, you move on ness cards you have from confer-
to another topic, then circle back to ences. Trawl through online industry
probe for further detail. forums. Search Google. Work like a
detective to sleuth out buyers. Brain-
— 15 —
For anyone with half-decent social storm to identify those who should
– back to table of contents – skills and a measure of emotional buy but have yet to consider it.
16. And what to ask? they hesitate to choose a player fur-
Once you begin contacting buyers, ther back in the pack?
ask for at least 20 minutes of their
time. Make the questions open-end- Never assume you know the answer!
ed to get them talking. For example:
When you write up the results, quote
n What happened on the day you the buyer directly. You want to cap-
decided to look for a solution like ture the way they talk and the words
this? they choose. You want to highlight the
points where the buyer got emotional.
n What process did you go through
to find potential solutions? After doing five or so interviews,
you should have a sense of which
n How did you narrow the options buyer personas are driving the initial Never
down? purchase decision, and who else is
involved. Will the CIO respond to a
assume you
n What criteria did you use to evalu- marketing campaign? Or should you know the
ate the options? start lower down the food chain? answer!
n How did our solution fare against Armed with that knowledge, shift
the competition by those criteria? the focus in additional interviews to
questions that emerged in the initial
With your follow-up questions, aim round. Keep at it until you have fully
for as much clarity as possible. filled the Five Rings of Insight.
Since generalizations like “you guys
are the market leader” aren’t action- In fact, don’t ever stop doing buyer
able, ask why it was important to interviews! Your knowledge of the
choose a market leader. Why would buyer is never complete.
— 16 —
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17. 6. Putting your insights to work
Insights gleaned from the interview Where? Having identified where
process will equip your team with all buyers begin looking for solutions,
they need to develop detailed and the team targets the events, online Spray buyer
accurate core buyer personas, and forums, magazines, bloggers and persona
an actionable “Product Persona Con- influential columnists they look to.
nection.” Guided by these insights, Knowing what search statements
insights on
your team will know exactly where to buyers actually use, the team plans marcom-babble
focus their efforts. to meet them wherever they land. and wipe with
a cloth.
Who? Now that they clearly under- What? Spray buyer persona insights
stand the buying process, the team on marcom-babble and wipe with a
may decide (for example) that an cloth. What remains are clear answers
early pitch to the CIO is a waste of to questions that really matter to buy-
time and resources. CIO sign-off may ers. When freed from wading through
be essential in the end, though, so gobbledy-gook to find the information
top-level support must be built as the they need, buyers are not only grate-
process moves along. But Marketing ful but more likely to trust you.
now knows who down the ladder can
initiate the discussion. This insight How? Buyer persona insights tell
triggers sales enablement activities you not only what the buyer wants to
that guide front-line sales reps to the know, but how best to tell the story.
right people at each stage. Let your creative team hear the buy-
er’s authentic voice: the words and
When? Now that they understand what metaphors they choose; how formal
events trigger the search for solutions or informal they are. Don’t stoop to
— budget cycles, equipment-update “Dude, it’s awesome,” but if your buy-
cycles, business-process changes, er is a 24-year-old techie then you
— 17 —
expansion plans and more — the team shouldn’t talk like a Pentagon spokes-
– back to table of contents – calculates when to contact who. man either.
18. Why? To implement your buyer per- easy to mistake this as some trivial
sona insights the team will inevitably game in the Marketing department.
have to overcome internal opposi-
tion. For example, engineers may Sell the results you achieve with this
feel slighted if you omit their dense tool, not the tool itself.
description of features buyers don’t
want to hear about. Use the insights If your buyer persona initiative suc- Teams often get
to explain why you’ve got to do it. ceeds, consistent wins will attract so excited by their
attention throughout the company. buyer persona
Here’s one pitfall. Teams often get so People will notice how your communi- that they want to
excited by their buyer persona that cations differ from competitors. Even introduce him — like
they want to introduce him — like a the CEO may start to ask, “What’s a trophy boyfriend…
trophy boyfriend — to everyone in the going on down there in Marketing?” Resist that urge.
company. Resist that urge. Unless the
introduction comes with convincing At this point, your ultimate Success
answers to a critical question, it is too Factor appears on the horizon.
— 18 —
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19. 7. How the buyer’s voice empowers Marketing
Like Rodney Dangerfield, in Market- churning out information into a mar-
ing we “get no respect.” ketplace that is seldom impressed.
The buyer persona can change that. The fact is that Marketing holds little The buyer persona
sway over the strategic direction of gives Marketing the
confidence to say,
Why does Marketing get no respect? the company, and that isn’t going
to change until marketers can bring “This is what
For starters, unlike product develop- decisive input to the table. really matters
ment, finance or management, our to our buyers.”
discipline is not the preserve of an This is where the buyer persona has
established profession: engineering, the power to drive radical change.
accounting or business administra-
tion. And unlike Sales, the contribu- By channeling the buyer’s voice —
tion of Marketing is rarely measur- clearly, accurately and persuasively
able in terms of revenue. — the buyer persona gives Market-
ing the confidence to say, “This is
Our function is squishy. what really matters to our buyers. So
here’s the plan.”
I’m determined to change that. I’ve
seen too many great products and My own goal is to see that come
companies fail due to poor market- about, working hands-on with pro-
ing. And I can’t bear to watch the gressive and ambitious clients to
wasted budget and talent when mar- make sure it does.
keters exist only to execute the will To learn more,
of functions higher up the totem poll, That’s what this e-book is about. visit www.buyerpersona.com
— 19 —
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