All businesses want to grow sales, but very few have figured out how do this efficiently and consistently over time. Cintell, a cloud-based customer intelligence platform, recently published a study entitled “Understanding B2B Buyers”. This may uncover a secret weapon. 71% of companies that exceed revenue and lead goals have documented buyer personas.

A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers. This is unlike an Ideal Prospect Profile (IPP), which describes the kind of company your business wants to sell to. A persona describes the buyer who will see the most value in working with your organization. Personas describe the pains, motivations, processes, trusted sources, and daily lives of your buyers and typically have names like Molly Marketer or Eddie Entrepreneur to further personify the best customers in your employees’ minds.

If you can better identify with potential buyers, it will be easier for you to define your differentiators. Also this will create relevant content that engages prospects throughout the buying process.

In conclusion, buyer personas aren’t just for sales, either. They can help you develop better products, differentiate your packaging, or modify service and support models. Maybe that’s why 82% of companies that are using personas have managed to create an improved value proposition!

Quote of the Week: “When you combine the Buyer Profile with Buying Insights, you will have clear guidance for the decisions you need to make to win their business.” — Adele Revell