buyer-persona-builder

Use this before writing to a role you have not sold to before, or when outreach reads like it was written for nobody in particular. It produces one persona card per role that changes what a rep writes.

Inputs

• The job titles in the buying committee, or the deal type so you can propose them.
• Raw evidence: call recordings or notes, won-deal emails, support tickets, reviews, job listings for the role.
• The ICP and the product's core job.

The play

1. Separate the roles

A deal usually has four: the economic buyer who signs, the champion who feels the pain and pushes, users who live in the tool, and the blocker (security, finance, IT, legal) who can stop it. Build a card per role. One blended persona produces messages that fit no one.

2. Start from what they are measured on

The fastest route to relevance is the number on their scorecard. A VP Sales is measured on bookings and forecast accuracy; a RevOps lead on data quality and tool cost; a founder on runway and growth rate. Pains connect to these numbers or they do not matter.

3. Use their words

Mine the evidence for exact phrases. Job listings are the most underrated source: they spell out the problems the company is paying to fix and the tools in use.

4. Map objections and proof

For each role, list the top three objections and the proof that answers each one: a customer story, a number, a demo moment, a security document.

5. Find the angle

One sentence per role: the reason this person would take a meeting this quarter.

Persona card format

Role: <title variants>            Type: economic buyer | champion | user | blocker
Measured on: <2-3 metrics>
Goals this year: <2-3>
Pains (their words): <3 quotes or close paraphrases, with source>
Triggers: <events that make the pain urgent>
Objections → proof: <3 pairs>
Trusted sources: <communities, newsletters, peers, analysts>
Angle: <one sentence>
Do not say: <phrases that make them tune out>

Read references/persona-examples.md for two complete cards and the most common do-not-say phrases by role.

What good looks like

• A rep reading the card can write a different first line for a VP Sales and a RevOps manager at the same company.
• Pains are quoted or traceable, not imagined. "Struggles with efficiency" is a sign the evidence step was skipped.
• The blocker has a card. Deals die in security review far more often than in the first call.
• The do-not-say list is specific: "revolutionary", "synergy" and "quick question" are on most lists for a reason.

Rules

• MUST build separate cards for the economic buyer and the champion.
• MUST tie each pain to a metric the role is measured on.
• NEVER invent quotes; label paraphrases and inferred pains as such.
• NEVER use demographic stereotypes (age, gender, personal life) in a B2B persona.

Example prompts

• "Build personas for selling our SOC 2 automation tool: CTO, Head of Security, and the finance approver."
• "Here are 12 call transcripts with heads of RevOps. Turn them into a persona card."
• "Our champion persona feels generic. Rewrite it using these job listings."