What information should be included in developing a complete ideal persona?
Recently a client asked me to create a persona of their company’s key buyers. He wanted to focus on the small percentage of consumers that spend the most and prove to be great advocates when talking about and working with his company.
Because this practice was new to the company, I started with a profile template that is familiar to me. There are a number of persona templates available online and any would provide information needed. However, some are more complex then others and can be a deterrent to getting the persona done and functional.
The first step included outlining the types of information that are helpful in the persona. The second step was taking the template and talking to key buyers and advocates for this company. In our exercise, we were able to fill in much of the information and only asked customers about information not readily available or we weren’t sure about.
Information to include in a persona.
• Title–If your major buyers work in small companies you may find that titles are a thing of the past. So while identifying a specific title may be difficult, you can specify function which is still a valid selection.
• Time in the job–How long have they been at their present job and how long have they been in the field? This is a good indication of the group to target.
• Who do they work with directly? Who do they work with indirectly?
• Responsibilities and daily tasks. What are the daily job tasks and what are their key responsibilities?
• Likes/dislikes include items relating to their job as well as personal likes/dislikes. Review things this audience might appreciate during the sales process and things that they will definitely dislike if included in the sales process.
• Frustrations and Concerns include both personal and job frustrations and concerns.
• Pressures. Again include both job and personal pressures.
• Needs. What needs is this person looking to fill both tangible and intangible.
• Role in buying process and at what stage does the persona get involved.–The buying process consists of 6 stages. Those stages are awareness, interest, research, desire, user and evangelist. Which stage or stages is your persona involved in?
• Key Drivers–What drives this persona to make the buying decision for your company’s products or services? Include both tangible and intangible.
Once you have this information it helps to come up with a name and image. Having a name and image of the persona helps all team members to think of this buyer as a real person. I like to have the image available for meetings. Or, as Steve Jobs did, designate an empty chair where the key persona joins in during meetings.
Remember that in the buyer persona, we are trying to learn who this person is both at a rational and emotional level. We often make buying decisions by rationalizing our decisions but the emotional component is a strong influencer of behavior and should be studied.
Creating a name, image and persona is a bit like getting to know a friend so you can really understand your key customers.
