How sales teams can use Personas to sell

So you’ve got one piece of the puzzle solved – your marketing team has come up with buy personas. The next question is: What are you going to do with that information? Is it going to sit on your desk for the next six months or get pushed to the bottom of the pile – or are you going to make good use of that information?

Use them the right way and personas can be a huge leg up in every angle of your company, especially with your sales team. Marketing already knows how to use them to their advantage – does your sales team? Keep these ideas in mind and hand them out to your sales team to use personas to boost sales:

Right off the bat, your sales team can use the specific phrases and words plucked from your personas. This way, they can be sure that they are echoing the exact same words, tones, and voices the customers’ use. It’ll show they’re professionals and on the same page as everyone else in that specific industry.

They can also use the personas to help understand the various channels each audience member prefers. That way, they can alter their outreach depending on how people like to be communicated, whether it’s via phone calls or through email. But when they are doing discovery calls, personas can help uncover the priorities and what should come first. This way, they will know the top-of-the-line, critical problems organizations are dealing with.

Another way your sales team can use personas to sell better – it can give them a better idea of the actual buying committee. They can uncover what these people care about (and what they don’t) and what formula they need in order to seal the deal.

There’s a surprising area you might not have thought of yet. We all know the cost and frustration of training, especially if a new employee doesn’t stick around. Having a clear-cut persona can get people on board a lot faster. Include it I your training materials so newly hires will know from day one what they need. It’ll help them start meaningful conversations as they are equipped with the right knowledge right from the start.

Finally, having a buy persona can close that big gap between marketing and sales. If you feel like your marketing and sales team are on two totally different pages, you aren’t alone – it’s a universal problem. But when both marketing and sales realize they are all working toward the same goal, with the same target audience, it will bridge that gap, so everyone can work together.

Making your sales team understand the importance of buyer persona can be one of the most difficult aspects of your job. If you want to take the headache out of it, try a company like Persona Builder. Not only do they help you define your target audience, but they assist in marketing and sales, too. The company will get everyone on the same page, as everyone will now have the same exact goals.