Glossary
Buyer persona
A buyer persona is a research-based profile of a type of person who buys or influences the purchase of your product, describing their role, goals, problems, buying criteria and objections, so teams can target and write for them.
What Is Buyer Persona?
In short A persona describes a person; an ideal customer profile describes a company.
A B2B persona usually covers job title and seniority, what they are measured on, the problems that fill their week, what triggers a search for a solution, how they compare options, who else they involve and what makes them say no.
The best personas come from interviews with recent buyers and lost prospects, not from a workshop. A field like 'likes golf' does not change a campaign; 'gets blamed when month-end close runs late' does.
Buyer Persona Example
Example: a procurement software company builds two personas from 20 customer interviews: a controller who cares about audit trails and month-end close, and a head of operations who cares about how fast purchases get approved. Each gets its own email sequence, and in this example the controller sequence gets twice the reply rate.
Buyer Persona in Practice
Outbound teams turn each persona into a list filter (titles and seniority) and a message angle. A sequence to finance leaders at your target accounts talks about cost and control, while one to operations leaders at the same accounts talks about time saved. Separate sequences per persona also make results readable, because you can see which role replies.
FAQ
What is the difference between a buyer persona and an ideal customer profile?
An ideal customer profile describes the type of company that fits best, by industry, size and other firmographics. A buyer persona describes a type of person inside those companies who buys or influences the purchase.
How do you create a buyer persona?
Interview recent customers and lost prospects, look for patterns in their roles, goals, triggers and objections, then write each pattern up as a short profile your sales and marketing teams can use.
How many buyer personas should you have?
One for each role that regularly shapes your deals, which for most B2B products is a handful. If a persona never changes a list, a message or an offer, merge it into another.
What should a B2B buyer persona include?
Job title and seniority, what they are measured on, their main problems, what triggers a purchase, how they evaluate options, who else is involved and their common objections.
Do This in Ken
Do This in Ken
Turn each persona into a Ken Search filter on job title and seniority inside your target companies, then give each persona its own sequence in Campaigns so you can compare replies by role.
- Module
- Ken Search
- Open in Ken
- /features
The new Ken opens to the waiting list in batches.
Related
- GTM Glossary
Every GTM term, grouped by topic.
- Ideal customer profile (ICP)
- Buying committee (buying group)
- Value proposition
- Inbound marketing
- Firmographics
- Ken features
Sources
| Source | Checked |
|---|---|
| HubSpot: The definition of a buyer persona | |
| Salesforce: What is a buyer persona | |
| TechTarget: What are buyer personas |
Changelog
- Page published.