Picture your ideal customer.
Do your current clients and leads look like your ideal customer? If not, you’re missing out on revenue and expanding your business.
71% of companies that exceed revenue and lead goals have documented buyer personas.
So, what is a buyer persona and how to create one for your business?
What is a buyer persona?
A buyer persona represents a fictional representation of your business’s ideal customer.
Do you need to create a buyer persona?
Deciding who your target audience will be should be the first step before even starting your outreach campaigns.
You don’t want to send cold emails to everyone because a high percentage of people will not relate and, will not open your email, reply, or get into business with you.
Not a good plan, and certainly no good implications to your sender reputation either!
But don’t sweat it. There is a simple solution to this problem.
It’s called your buyer persona.
Theoretically, this sounds simple enough, but how exactly do I craft my buyer persona?
We are going to show you 3 examples so you can use them as a template or inspiration (or just to get the point)
How to create your buyer persona
You can create your business buyer persona based on characteristics such as industry, demographics, behavior, pain points, desired outcomes, and more.
Once you’ve crafted this person, you’ll have a clear path to finding your actual prospects.
Creating your ideal customer profile takes time, especially if you don’t have a large client database to rely on.
So, how can you speed up the process?
Create your buyer persona with lemlist’s free ICP generator
All you need is your business email so lemlist can get the value proposition and business description for you.
Then, select your market focus (either B2B or B2C) and click Confirm & create personas.
Types of Buyer Personas
Not all buyer personas are going to follow the same pattern.
We’ve broken them into three different categories that you should bear in mind when searching for your ideal customer.
- Age
- Personality
- Modality
Let’s break these categories a bit further… ⬇️
1. Age
Your buyer’s age is significantly going to influence how they look at sales and meetings.
You will also have to modify the language and the level of seriousness that you employ, as a Gen X may not appreciate an excessively formal approach, nor will a Gen Z be interested in stoic seriousness.
Seasoned buyers
We’re referring mainly to Gen X buyers. Having lived all stages of technological advancement, they work very well with technology.
Generally, managers are disciplined and highly collaborative. They have made their way up in the same company.
This generation tends to be very communicative, so proposing a meeting or a coffee chat could be the way to go, instead of being limited to emailing back and forth.
Newer buyers
This new generation of buyers is, generally looking to build their own entrepreneurial opportunities, they don’t wish to climb up the ladder in one company. So they would be ideal targets for new business opportunities, selling software, etc.
One thing you should bear in mind when targeting this group, they tend to live by the “work to live, don’t live to work” motto, so always try to reach out to them during typical office hours.
2. Personality
Collaborative
When targeting collaborative people in sales, you must first build a relationship with them. They need to trust you before seeking out the rest of the team on your behalf.
You should be transparent and include social proof to build trust.
Commanding
This buyer persona is very assertive; they know what they want and will not settle for less.
You should appear very sure of your product/service, and be commanding.
You should be upfront, honest, and realistic about the benefits you can provide and tackle the pain points head-on.
Commanding people generally have tight schedules and very little flexibility, so think about including a link to your calendar to have them pick a time slot for a meeting.
3. Modalities
Competitive
The competitive buyer is highly competent and wants the best, so they leave their decision-making until the last minute.
Allow them to see that you are the best possible option by including a link to your LinkedIn, for example, in your signature.
Another helpful tactic is adding urgency. Your offer is way too good to wait!
Spontaneous
The spontaneous buyer is quick in making decisions.
They want things in the moment and do not want to prolong situations.
Story-telling is your best approach.
Methodical
They need all the details.
The methodical buyer will not make a decision without knowing every detail.
Although, once they commit, they will have the best follow-through.
Include links to in-depth comparisons or analytics.
Humanistic
They are based on emotions when buying.
Humanistic buyers value relationships and are more likely to base their decision on the relationship than facts.
They need to feel trust.
Your best approach could include a video testimonial as social proof.
Example 1
Let’s set a scenario.
You are a supplier of retail materials and are targeting small retail manufacturers.
They are on a tight budget and are having difficulties with keeping within the budget without sacrificing quality.
Profile
- Position: Retail entrepreneur (handbag designer)
- Seniority: Founder
- Hobbies: Loves visiting museums
- Age: 25
- Location: Valencia, Spain
Goals and objectives
- Responsibilities (scope): Design and manufacturing of the products
- Pain points: Finding a good quality/price fabric supplier
- Metric affected: Quality in fabric has decreased.
- Tactical problem: Retail price has been lowered, cutting on profits.
- Root cause: Current supplier fails to meet standards.
- Business impact: Decreased sales
- Dream outcome: High-quality fabrics at a reasonable price to improve sales and benefits.
Company
- Industry: Retail
- Size: Solo entrepreneur
- Revenue bracket: $25k-$30k
- Target audience: Slow fashion consumers who wish to have quality and unique products
- B2B or B2C: B2C
- Type: PaaS
Outreach
- Intent: Sell your products and help retailers sell high-quality products
- Touchpoints: LinkedIn, Social media, Email
- What alternatives to your product/service do they use? Currently switching suppliers
- What’s the risk of not solving the problem? Not achieving the desired quality
- What are the benefits of using the product/service? High-quality products
- What free resource can you offer to start a conversation? Receiving sample fabrics, samples of other customer’s products
- Tone of voice: Friendly, solution-oriented
Example 2
You have an e-commerce business and are an expert in graphics, layout, and website design.
Your target audience is photographers/videographers who post their content online, but do not have an optimal web page to make their sales.
Profile
- Position: Wedding photographer/videographer
- Seniority: Founder
- Hobbies: Travel
- Age: 31
- Location: London, United Kingdom
Goals and objectives
- Responsibilities (scope): Photograph/record pictures/videos at weddings, editing and distribution
- Pain points: Not enough time or resources to design the web page.
- Metric affected: Low visibility impacting revenue
- Tactical problem
- Root cause: Website is not optimal
- Business impact: Low revenue
- Dream outcome: Having an optimal webpage to use as a work sample and social proof that will close more opportunities
Company
- Industry: Photography
- Size: 3 employees
- Revenue bracket: $15k-$20k
- Target audience: Engaged couples
- B2B or B2C: B2C
- Type: PaaS
Outreach
- Intent: Help businesses boost revenue by designing an eye-catching website
- Touch points: LinkedIn, social media, email
- What alternatives to your product/service do they use? Basic web page designed by them
- What’s the risk of not solving the problem? Being left behind and eventually being irrelevant or considered low-quality photographers
- What are the benefits of using the product/service? More visibility, more revenue
- What free resource can you offer to start a conversation? Social proof, a selection of potential ideas for their web page
- Tone of voice: Friendly, convincing
Example 3
You are a seasoned writer looking for new job opportunities.
You want to write daily for a large company and design a new mind map for their blog.
Profile
- Position: Marketing manager in a large corporation
- Seniority: Manager
- Hobbies: Loves being out in the nature
- Age: 37
- Location: Paris, France
Goals and objectives
- Responsibilities (scope): Content creation
- Pain points: Web page visits due to poor content creation and low views
- Metric affected: Low traffic
- Tactical problem: Inefficiency in creating relatable and readable content
- Root cause: No specialized writers
- Business impact: Decreased sales
- Dream outcome: 35% more clicks and traffic
Company
- Industry: Architectural firm
- Size: 500 employees
- Revenue bracket: $100M-$200M
- Target audience: Architects, interior designers
- B2B or B2C: B2B
- Type: SaaS
Outreach
- Intent: Help businesses drive traffic by creating relatable, original, and well-crafted content
- Touchpoints: LinkedIn, Email
- What alternatives to your product/service do they use? AI
- What’s the risk of not solving the problem? Continued decrease in traffic, revenue loss
- What are the benefits of using the product/service? Traffic increase, resulting in revenue increase
- What free resource can you offer to start a conversation? Ebook on “how to improve AI-generated content”
- Tone of voice: Professional, concise, solution-oriented
lemlist AI Persona Generator
Manually crafting your buyer persona can be a bit of a pain, so this is going to blow your mind!
With lemlist’s free tool, you can leave crafting your buyer persona to AI!
Simply add your information and let AI do the rest.
You can also find your buyer persona or ICP using ChatGPT ⬇️
Key Takeaways
Going into sales without a clear objective can be very tricky.
Questions such as: “Where do I even start?” quickly arise.
So set a buyer persona and narrow down what you’re looking for as much as possible. This will give you a clear objective you can work on later.
You can do this manually with the tips provided, or you can create your account with lemlist and have AI lend you a helping hand… Your choice!
