Glossary: targeting
What is a buyer persona in B2B sales?
A buyer persona is a short profile of the person you want to reach inside a target company: their role, what they are measured on, the problem they feel and what would stop them saying yes. It decides who gets the email and what the email says.
The four parts of a buyer persona
Role
Job title and seniority
Goal
What they are measured on
Problem
What gets in the way
Objection
Why they might say no
A buyer persona has four parts that shape the message.
The persona is about one kind of person, not a whole company. The role, the goal, the problem and the objection should each change a line in the email, or they do not belong.
The role tells you who to look for.
Job title and seniority turn a company into a named contact. Write the titles the way they appear on a profile, including the variants.
The goal and the problem tell you what to say.
People answer email about what they are measured on. Name the goal and the problem in their words, not in your product's.
The objection tells you what to answer first.
Every role has a standard reason to say no, such as budget, timing or a tool already in place. A good email meets it before it is raised.
Here are two buyer personas for an invented security company.
Imagine Thistlewick, an invented company that sells security monitoring to accounting firms. It sells to two people. The managing partner signs the contract and cares about client trust. The IT manager runs the trial and cares about alert noise: how many alerts land on the desk each week.
Thistlewick writes one persona for each and sends them different emails. The managing partner gets a 60 word email about keeping client files safe. The IT manager gets an 80 word email about cutting alert noise. Same product, same accounts, two messages.
Thistlewick's two personas
Managing partner
- Signs the contract
- Cares about client trust
- Gets a 60 word email
IT manager
- Runs the trial
- Cares about alert noise
- Gets an 80 word email
Use a buyer persona to choose the contact and the angle.
A persona is useful only if it changes the list and the copy. These steps put it to work.
The four steps in order
- 1Talk to buyers
- 2List the titles
- 3Write per persona
- 4Read the replies
- 1
Build it from real conversations.
Read sales call notes and past replies, and talk to buyers. The words they use for their own problem are the words that belong in the email.
- 2
List the job titles that match.
Turn the role into search filters. One persona often covers five or six titles that mean the same job.
- 3
Write one message for each persona.
Give each persona its own opening line and its own proof. A message written for everyone reads as written for no one.
- 4
Check which persona replies.
Track replies by persona. If one role answers and another never does, move the volume.
Prymatica uses the onboarding call to understand exactly who to target and how to position your offer, then writes personalized, multi-touch sequences. You approve the targeting and angles before launch. See how Prymatica's cold email process works.
Teams make these mistakes with buyer personas.
The persona is fiction.
A persona with a made-up name, a hobby and a stock photo helps nobody. Keep only details that change who you email or what you write.
One persona stands in for the whole buying group.
B2B purchases involve several people. If the user, the budget holder and the signer differ, each needs their own message.
The persona is mixed up with the ICP.
The ICP picks companies. The persona picks people inside them. Blending the two gives a list with the right titles at the wrong companies.
These glossary terms sit next to buyer persona.
Questions
People ask these questions about buyer persona.
What is the difference between a buyer persona and an ICP?
The ICP describes the company you want: industry, size, region and trigger. The buyer persona describes the person inside it: role, goal, problem and objection. Outbound needs both, the ICP to choose accounts and the persona to choose contacts and copy.
How many buyer personas do I need?
Write one for each role that takes part in the decision. That is often the person who uses the product, the person who pays for it and the person who signs. Start with the one who feels the problem most, then add others as you learn who replies.
What should a B2B buyer persona include?
Job titles and seniority, what the person is measured on, the problem that gets in the way, the objection they raise most and the words they use to describe all of it. Leave out anything that would not change an email.
How do you use a buyer persona in cold email?
Use the role to filter the contact list, the goal and the problem to write the first two lines, and the objection to choose the proof. Then send each persona its own sequence and compare reply rates.
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