WHO is Your Prospect?

Search "buyer persona" and you'll fall into a rabbit hole. Templates that want their favorite periodicals, the thought leaders they follow, their education level, marital status, number of kids, the car they drive, and — I'm only slightly exaggerating — their childhood pet's name. I've seen persona frameworks that chase a level of detail bordering on ridiculous. For a big outbound marketing campaign, some of that detail eventually earns its keep. For getting started with your prospecting, most of it just gets you lost.

So let's simplify, because the point of a persona isn't to fill out a form. The point is to know who you're talking to before you open your mouth.

What a persona actually is (and what it's for)

A customer persona — you'll also hear it called an avatar or a profile; I use "persona" because it's the simplest — is a fictional representation of your ideal customer. You use it to tailor your communication to the specific wants and needs of the person you're trying to reach.

Now, when people hear "communication," they think brochures, websites, videos. Those count. But at the most basic and important level, your persona shapes your scripting — what you say, how you say it, and, most importantly, to whom. That's true of a one-on-one conversation as much as any polished campaign. And you can't tailor a word of it until you can picture the individual on the other end. That audience is made of many people, each of whom fits your persona to one degree or another. (And yes, you'll likely end up with more than one persona — most of us do.)

The Big Rocks

There are plenty of criteria you could track. But for our purposes, and to keep you from drowning in detail, I want you to focus on three primary questions about your ideal prospect — the big rocks:

• Who are they? The person, sketched simply.
• What's their role? Their position or situation as it relates to the decision.
• What do they want? The real, often emotional, thing they're after.

That's it. That's the whole assignment for now. Here's how it looks in practice, using three quick examples:

For a high-end residential painting company, meet Helen Homeowner. Her role: political correctness aside, in most households it's the wife who drives the management and purchasing decisions about the home. Her want: she wants her home to be the best possible expression — and extension — of herself in front of family, friends, and neighbors.

For a marketing company (this one's ours), meet Peter Principal. His role: owner, chief executive, and principal decision maker. His want: Peter is far more passionate about his own craft than about marketing, but he wants more clients, more sales, a lower cost of acquisition, and simple processes his people can actually follow.

For a P&C insurance agency working the first-time-homebuyer niche, meet Bill & Betty Buyer. Their role: a typically young couple, anxiously buying their first house. Their want: to get the "homeowner's insurance nonsense" handled so they can focus on moving in — while making sure they get the right coverage at the right price.

A few honest caveats

The silly fictitious name — Helen Homeowner, Peter Principal — is not required. I use them because they make a persona easier to hold in your head, especially once you're juggling more than one. Skip the puns if they're not your thing; keep the clarity.

Notice, too, that the three rocks flex to the situation. Gender mattered for the painting company but is irrelevant for Peter, who could just as easily be a woman. And "who" and "role" sometimes blur together, especially in B2C — if you'd rather combine them for simplicity, go right ahead. The framework serves you, not the other way around.

When you're ready for a little more

Once you've nailed at least one primary persona, a few additional details can sharpen the picture — if they're actually useful to what you offer:

• More likely male or female?
• Age range?
• Income range?
• Education level?

Remember these are generalizations about the group — there will always be exceptions among individual prospects. Add anything else your own industry experience tells you matters. Just don't let the extras distract you from the big rocks. What this means to you: when in doubt, fewer, clearer details beat a beautifully complete form you never actually use.

How Prospect & Flourish approaches this

In the program, this is the payoff of Module I, Unit 2. Natural market told you where you already have affinity and access. Picking a niche narrowed that to a group worth specializing in. The persona takes the final step — turning that group into a single, specific person you can actually speak to. And that's no accident of sequence: the very next unit is about messaging and scripting, and you cannot script a word until you know who's listening. There's a downloadable Customer Persona Starter Worksheet in the course to walk you through your first one (and it won't ask about anyone's childhood pet).

Frequently asked questions