Sales Persona Development for Sales Teams

Breaking into new personas in 2025? Here's how to leverage AI to build persona-based messaging. ⛔️ Mistake: Don't wing it with new personas. Don't set up your reps for failure. ✅ Step 1: Gather great data Persona creation is garbage in / garbage out. Feed AI with solid info: - Transcripts of sales calls - Competitor content - Key influencers to follow - Transcripts of customer calls ✅ Step 2: Feed into AI I like ChatGPT. But this can work with the others. Leverage this prompt: Take the attached [sales call transcripts, case studies, etc] and turn this into an Outbound Squad Messaging Matrix. The messaging should be written using the customer’s voice. This messaging matrix should be formatted into a table with these four columns: 1) Priorities Format this into a statement like this: [headline]. [outcome] + [avoid problem]. - Headline: What is top of mind for your prospect’s peers? Imagine you have a dozen of your prospects gathered in a room. All working at similar companies in the same role. What is top of mind for that entire group right now? What trends are they worried about or focused on? What do they want your help with? - Outcome: What outcomes do they want? What are the specific outcomes, metrics, or KPIs they want to improve? - Avoid problem: What problem do they want to avoid? What problem are they hoping to address or solve? Here's an example: Skill gaps & staffing. Find and attract the right talent to accomplish our IT business goals—while avoiding unnecessary costs and project delays. 2) Current solutions Now think about how the prospect is getting the job done. People: Are they hiring, reducing headcount, etc? Process: Are they implementing a specific process? Technology: Are they using technology? A competitor? 3) Problems Problems are what get in the way of priorities. This is what your prospect hopes their current solution will help with. This sounds like: “Manually processing payroll is labor intensive and frustrating for me.” But get to the impact on the business. This sounds like: “Our team is manually processing payroll across multiple systems. We need to hire extra employees just to handle the manual work, and we can’t hire as quickly as we need to. We won’t hit our hiring targets this year.” Help me define the problem in the customer's voice. 4) Aspirations This is your prospect’s desired future state. These should be similar to the outcomes your solution provides to your customers. ~~~ This is for: [company name] who sells [solution] to [persona]. Example clients of theirs are [insert examples] ✅ Step 3: Validate findings with real buyers NEVER rely on AI alone. - Take this to similar personas at your org - Take it to board members - Hire industry-expert consultants - Validate with customers ~~~ Leverage this approach to quickly build persona-based messaging to help your outbound/selling efforts. Was this helpful? Tag someone on your team who could benefit from this.

Your buyer persona: “Meet Sarah. She’s 35. Drives a Honda. Drinks oat milk.” OK ... But that tells me nothing. I don’t care if she shops at Whole Foods. I want to know: 👉 what does she struggle with? 👉 what triggers her to buy? 👉 what words does she actually use? Most personas are packed with shallow info. Not what actually moves a customer to buy. You don’t need a cute name. Or a coffee order. You need insight. Here’s how to build a persona that actually helps you sell: 1. Do customer interviews 1. Talk to real people. 2. Ask open-ended questions. 3. Capture exact language. And during these interviews ... 2. Capture voice of customer (VOC) VOC are the words your customers use to describe: - their customer journey - your product VOC eliminates jargon. And ineffective messaging. It makes customers think, "They get me." 3. Map customer pain points 👉 What keeps them up at night? 👉 What problem are they trying to solve? 👉 Why have they failed to solve it? 👉 What else have they tried to solve it? 4. Identify search triggers 👉 Why did they start looking for a solution? 👉 What triggered their search? 👉 What makes their search urgent? 5. Document objections 👉 What gives them pause? 👉 What uncertainties do they have? 👉 Where have competitors failed them? 👉 What almost stopped them from buying? 👉 What makes them doubt your product? 6. Find "The Flip" What makes your customer flip from 🧐 “What is this?” ↓ 😍 “This is exactly what I need.” Build your messaging around this moment. ___ This is how you create a messaging guide. Not by guessing. Not with a cute persona worksheet. Knowing Sarah’s favorite podcast? Sorta helpful. Knowing what keeps her up at night? Insanely helpful. ____ ♻️ Repost this if you found it useful 🧐 Follow me (@lizwillits) for more posts 💌 Get VIP insights in my email newsletter

Most sales teams spend weeks creating detailed buyer personas that look like dating profiles "Jennifer is 35, has 2.3 kids, drives a Honda, and likes artisanal coffee." Then they wonder why their messaging falls flat. Here's what's actually happening while you're profiling Jennifer's caffeine preferences Your prospects are making decisions based on business priorities you've never researched. Real buyers don't care about demographics. They care about outcomes. The highest-performing sales teams I work with have completely abandoned traditional persona development. Instead of "Who is our buyer?" they ask "What is our buyer trying to accomplish?" Traditional Persona: → 35-year-old marketing director → Bachelor's degree → $75K salary → Works at 100-500 person company Outcome-Based Profile: → Needs to prove marketing ROI within 90 days → Has budget authority up to $50K → Reports directly to CEO who questions marketing spend → Success measured by pipeline contribution One profile tells you nothing actionable. The other tells you exactly how to position your solution. When it comes to won deals… Teams using outcome-based profiles had 23% higher close rates than teams using demographic personas. When you understand what buyers are trying to achieve, you can show them exactly how you help them achieve it. Stop profiling people. Start profiling problems. ♻️ Repost and follow for more insights Check out the AI-Powered Seller podcast for frameworks that actually drive response rates