Persona

A persona is the semi-fictional representation of the ideal customer: a concrete profile, with a name, context, goals and objections, built from real customer data.

The key word is semi-fictional. The persona is a character, but the traits come from real people — not from the team's imagination in a meeting room.

Persona, target audience and ICP

The three get confused and serve different purposes:

• Target audience — a broad demographic slice. "Women 25 to 40, middle class, major cities."
• Persona — a specific person within that slice, with a pain point, routine and objection. It helps decide how to talk.
• ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) — the profile of the company worth serving: size, segment, timing. It helps decide who to talk to.

In B2B you need both: the ICP says which company to prospect, the persona says who inside it decides and what that person fears.

How to build one without making it up

1. Interview customers who have already bought — especially the ones who stay and refer others.
2. Ask what happened before the purchase: what prompted the search, what almost stopped it, who else took part in the decision.
3. Look for patterns, not averages. Three customers citing the same objection is worth more than an average age.
4. Write the objection in their own words. It is the most useful item in the persona, and the most often left out.

The mistake that makes it useless

A persona built in a meeting, from what the team thinks the customer believes. The result is a nice-looking document that confirms the beliefs of whoever wrote it — and content written for someone who does not exist.

The second mistake is too much irrelevant detail: the persona's dog's name changes no decision. What changes it is the pain point, the objection, and where they look for information.