with people in the banking world. I found that bankers travel with tanned chinos, boat shoes, and a brown satchel or a dark polo. I don’t know why. It just seemed to be the travel outfit for bankers. At that time at least. That would have been a trait that I would have said in a room of 100 people, would help me Identify bankers. But more than outward appearances, people have other signals too, that identify them as one persona or another.
Some traits are fun and lighthearted, like the bankers’ traits. Other traits could be more serious. For instance, when you talk to a lead, they may say things about the business like “I wear too many hats in my business.” This would indicate that they are a Persona of a smaller (or newer) organisation where the owner does everything.
Next, you want to have a look at what you can do. What can you as a business do for them, ergo, what is your marketing message to them? What can you spell out that is going to address some of their objections, as well as some of their frustrations? You then narrow it down to the elevator pitch.
Don’t worry about not getting all the perfect words. Done is better than perfect. Focus on the stickiest way to say what it is you can do for them.
The next items on the worksheet are:
Their brand likes. What are the other brands that this Buyer Persona likes?
Their general background story that will be helpful to you for context.
Now Onto The Advanced Sections
On the right of the worksheet, you see some scales:
Significance vs. connection
Certainty vs. variety
Growth vs. contribution
You need to do this because at the core of anything that a human being does, there is at least one of six basic human motivations. People are either driven by a quest for:
Significance
Connection
Certainty or Safety
Variety and adventure
Growth, either personal or community growth
Contribution, or the feeling of doing something for the greater good
Below this, you’ll see channels. In this area, you’ll have to identify how the buyer persona likes to be spoken to. What communication channels do they prefer? Is it traditional or online? Are they influenced more by social media or by their referrals? Do they prefer blogs or forums? If you’re going to reach out and speak to them, would they prefer phone or email?
If it’s a mix of both, your indicator on the worksheet should go right in the middle. These indicators are not mutually exclusive. But it is helpful to pick a strategy. Whether you go social or you go referral, this way of thinking helps you to pick a strategy and be confident with your decision.
What Personality Does Your Buyer Have?
Now, let’s go to the part of the worksheet which indicates your buyer persona’s personality type.
Is your buyer persona more introvert or extrovert? The best way to answer this question is to consider the following:
How does your buyer persona recharge?
How do they get their energy?
If you think about yourself, you’re either an introvert or an extrovert or somewhere on the scale.
An introvert at the end of a long, hard day will say to themselves, “Oh, I just can’t wait to go to a quiet room, make myself a nice cup of tea or coffee and read a book.” They recharge by spending time by themselves. They recharge by understanding their inner world.
Meanwhile, an extrovert gets energy by spending time with other people. They will say to themselves, “Oh my goodness, I cannot wait until the weekend. I’m just going to go and have a blast with all my friends. We’re going to be loud and have lots of boisterous fun. That’ll help me recharge.”
Next! How do you decide between somebody being a sensing person or an intuitive person? Let’s start with intuitive. An intuitive person walks into a room and they have got invisible feelers coming out of their brain reading the room. They intuitively understand the big picture before anyone has told them any details.
How do you know when somebody is a sensing person versus an intuitive person?
Easy peasy. If you were to tell that person a story, would they say “get to the point already! Just start with telling me the end, what happened in the end, and then tell me the details. Don’t take me through the pieces one by one. It’s frustrating. Just get to the bottom line!” If they say that, then they are saying, give me the big picture first. This means they’re intuitive.
On the other hand, a sensing person would most likely refuse to hear the punchline first. They might say, “I don’t want to know what happens at the end. Take me through every single detail, piece by piece. What happened? And then what happened? And then what happened next?” They would want to get all the tiniest in sequential order so they can relive the story in the details.
So when deciding between a sensing and an intuitive personality for your Buyer Persona, it’s important to remember what their preferences are. You also have to remember that some people are at the extremes, while other people are just somewhere along the spectrum. They may have a preference for detail, but it doesn’t mean that they can’t understand the big picture.
How does all this relate to your marketing?
In a sales conversation, a sensing person may want to know about the features and benefits of your product or service in detail. They’d want to know where to plug it in. How often to change the batteries. When to call, and what happens next. An intuitive person might say, “Well first tell me how much it costs. Tell me what I get out of this. What’s the big picture here? How does this fit into my big vision?”
The next item on the scale is feeling vs sensing. This is very simple. When they talk to you, do they say things like, “I feel like this would be something I’d like” or do they say “I think the right thing for me is…”? Do they tend to make decisions with their heart or with their head? Do they operate in the world of feeling or do they operate in the world of thinking? Facts and details versus the intangible connections that have to do with the heart.
And finally, the last item on the scale is perceiving and judging. What’s the difference between a perceiving person and a judging person? Note: we don’t mean judging as in the bad kind of judging where people judge you for what you’re wearing. Judging here talks about how people make decisions.
Imagine you were going on a holiday. Somebody comes along and says your business is like a rockstar at the moment. You’ve won an incredible award. I’m going to give you $500,000 to take a holiday anywhere in the world, all expenses paid.
What would be the most exciting thing for you about this scenario? Would it be gathering all of the options,
