Embracing buyer personas: Gaining buy-in across your organization

Buyer personas are important for organizations, but like many tools they are most effective when embraced by all areas of the business. In some companies, the marketing department (whether that consists of one person or 50) develops and utilizes personas regularly, but the buy-in doesn't always extend to other departments. 

Even if you appreciate the benefits of buyer personas, you might struggle gaining acceptance from other areas including the sales team or upper management.

If this sounds familiar, we've outlined some of the key benefits of using buyer personas below. Hopefully these will help you make your case:

Increased Efficiency – Buyer personas enable you to create personalized, targeted marketing content. You can segment and send customized messages to different personas, making them more personalized while reducing waste. You can send appropriate messages to different personas in each stages of the buy cycle (ex. sending a specific, price promotion to someone in the awareness stage of the buy cycle isn't the best use of resources). 

Reduced Customer Acquisition Cost – Because you'll be more efficient, you'll have more time to nurture promising leads and spend less time chasing the wrong ones. You'll reduce your overall cost to acquire a customer. Management won't complain about this. Numbers speak loudly. 

Better Retention Rates – We all know it costs less to keep a customer than to gain a new one. Buyer personas help you customize and personalize your communications, deepening your trust and developing long-term relationships.

Company Wide Benefits – From customer service to product development, sales or technical support, every single employee will benefit from knowing more about your customers. The sales team can more easily overcome potential objections, and customer support will understand their pain points and speak their language. Instead of assuming everyone knows, it's more effective to share personas and make sure all employees are on the same page.

And for the best collaboration results: 

Ask for input – Ask the sales team for input when creating buyer personas. They are tremendous resources because they have a direct line to the customers. Sales people can offer great insight, and once the personas are complete they can use them to maximize their sales efforts. Everyone likes to be heard and feel like his or her contributions are valuable. 

Once your entire team is on board and embraces buyer personas, you’ll find that your improved efficiency extends to other areas of the company. Every employee should have a clear understanding of your ideal customer(s). 

Whether you're just starting to develop buyer personas for your business or looking to maximize them our free guide “How to Create Buyer Personas for Your Business,” can help. It has easy to follow tips on creating buyer personas, specific suggestions for questions to ask during the research process and recommended formats for presenting to upper management.