Do your best customers come from any specific industries or verticals?
How big do your best customers tend to be?
How many people do your best customers employ?
Think both in terms of an individual sale and lifetime value of these ideal customers.
Are you confined to serving customers within a specific geographic region? If not, do they TEND to be located in any specific region (whether that means near you, domestically, internationally, etc)?
Are there certain technologies your ideal customers use that make them better fits for you over another companies?
How difficult is it to gain access to the decision maker(s) at these ideal companies? How is that access ultimately attained or granted?
Are there any intangible characteristics of your ideal customers worth noting? For example – their company values or how you feel when you’re working with them.
List a few real-life examples of either existing customers or dream customers that closely fit this profile.
What are the most common job titles you see for this particular type of person?
Is this person a decision maker? If not, how does he/she influence the buying process? At what point in your sale does he/she enter the picture?
How will this person ultimately influence the decision to buy (or not buy) from your company?
This is key. What are the problems or challenges this particular person experiences in his/her daily job that you can help solve? Why would he or she care about your company in the first place? Your company’s sales professionals probably hear these things every day and are often the best people to fill out this section.
How engaged will this person likely be in the buying process? Will his/her questions warrant consultative meetings, phone calls and emails? Or does he/she seek just the facts like data sheets and pricing information?
What are the characteristics this person seeks in a solution provider like your company?
Is this person well-versed in the types of solutions you provide? Does he/she come to the table with sufficient knowledge? Or will you need to help him/her understand the ins and outs of your solutions?
How and where does this person most commonly gather information during the buying process? From peers and coworkers? Through industry directories and resources? By going to Google?
Is this particular persona the one that most commonly discovers a solution provider like you? Or is that a different buyer persona within his/her company? If this IS the person, how does he/she usually learn about you? From peers and coworkers?Through industry directories and resources? By going to Google?
In situations where this persona seems to be the naysayer, what are his/her objections or hesitations to buying from your company?
Put yourself in the shoes of this individual. What would he/she search for in Google when trying to find a solution or solution provider like you? Think about the actual words related to his/her problems, the types of products or services he/she needs and the questions he/she often has about features, pricing, etc. Make a list of 10-25 of the most important keywords and phrases you’d expect this person might search for in Google.
