The Buyer Persona: A Necessary Element of Social Selling

If you don’t know to whom you’re selling, then why are you selling? You may know the overal

l market to which you’re targeting, but there’s an old maxim from Business Network International (BNI) that really applies in this case: Specific is terrific! (A bit corny? Yes. But believe me, you’ll never forget it. I’ve tried.)

Where that phrase comes into Social Selling is in the development of what’s called “buyer personas.” Hubspot defines a buyer persona as: … a semi – fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data  about your existing customers.

Hubspot (a company I really respect) also advises that when creating your buyer persona(s), consider including customer demographics, behavior patterns, motivations, and goals. And of course, creating a specific buyer persona will bring you those terrific results.

While creating a buyer persona is not that difficult to do, you should take the process seriously, and devote some real time to develop it. Many factors go into developing a comprehensive buyer persona, and when it comes to Social Selling, they cut across multiple social platforms. For this article, though, I will cover the components that are key when you use LinkedIn to find and engage prospects.

Start by selecting three specific types of clients with which you would like to do more business, and make them the focus of the research. This could be done by industry, geographic location, and so on.