A Buyer Persona Template to Get Sales & Marketing to Win Together

Are your sales and marketing teams aligned on your ideal buyer? Do they know the exact role, demographics, needs, and interests of that ideal buyer? Or how about what triggers your ideal buyer to actually make a purchase?

Understanding your buyer personas is more important now than ever. In the past, we categorized buyers very broadly. And while it might seem like companies are still doing this, savvy marketing specialists know that this is no longer the case—they know what’s behind the curtain.

And it’s all thanks to technology. We have apps that help us segment, apps that provide data and analytics. Marketers use incredible tools to help understand our ideal buyers—and it just keeps getting better by the day.

That’s why we believe it’s critical for your sales and marketing teams to use a buyer persona template to define your ideal buyers. Why sell in the dark when you can target buyers that are in desperate need of your product or service?

Buyer Persona Template: Defining Your Buyer Personas

Defining buyer personas is typically a marketing task. A marketer performs research, evaluates, and defines the ideal buyers through a very specific process.

The issue with this? Well, sales is usually left out of this process. And we believe that your sales team has a lot to offer about your ideal clients! They’re the ones interacting with prospects and customers on a day-to-day basis, after all.

So how do you get your sales and marketing teams to align during this process? It’s simple. Organize a meeting with both teams and use the buyer persona template here.

Buyer Persona Template Instructions

Purpose

The purpose of the buyer persona template is to define your ideal buyers. This allows your company to understand the needs, wants, and interests of your buyers. It also provides context for your sales and marketing staff as they interact with prospects, create content, and continue to develop your offerings, products, or services.

Steps

Begin by organizing a meeting with both your sales and marketing teams.

You might choose to use the meeting as an introduction to the buyer persona template, then have each member of the team fill out the template back at their own desk. Alternatively, you might choose to facilitate the meeting and have your teams complete the buyer persona template during the meeting. The choice is yours.

*Note: for the sake of getting a complete and accurate view of your ideal buyers, you might consider assigning the buyer persona template as “homework,” and asking your teams to reach out to actual clients for advice and insight.

Once your team members have each filled out the buyer persona template, it’s time to re-convene and discuss. We recommend using a whiteboard or a flip-chart during this exercise. As you review each section of the template, write the important keywords on the whiteboard or flip-chart. Once you’ve reached the end and have everyone’s notes up, it’s time to transition and start making some decisions.

FAQ

How many buyer personas should we have?

This is a very common question, and there is no specific answer, as it depends on your business and product or service. We recommend starting with 1-3, then building others (if applicable) from there. We’ve found that some companies only have two buyer personas, while others have five or six.

How specific do we need to be?

Extremely specific! The more specific, the better.