Corporate Visions

The Problem with Personas - Surprising New Research Reveals the Flaws

New research analyzing 5,300 sales opportunities across 15 industries reveals that traditional B2B segmentation methods like buyer personas and industry verticals may undermine sales effectiveness, suggesting alternative variables better predict buying behaviors and sales outcomes.

Companies often develop marketing and sales messages based on segmentation tactics that categorize buyers based on industry and role. These segments are then recorded using two of the most popular and pervasive “best practices” in B2B: buyer personas and industry verticals.

Typical buyer personas are designed to shape messaging based on decision maker and stakeholder roles and responsibilities. Vertical segmentation, meanwhile, requires you to build content targeted at your buyer’s industry. That’s a lot of extra work for marketing and high expectations for sales. Is it worth the effort?

Are buyer personas and industry verticals really the best approaches for categorizing your prospects?

Based on the results of a new real-world behavioral study, you’ll see:

  • Data collected from 5,300 different sales opportunities across 15 different industries.
  • How buyer personas and industry vertical segmentation might be sabotaging your sales.
  • Which variables are better for accurately predicting buying behaviors and, ultimately, opportunity wins and losses.