Buyer personas: enterprise software/SaaS

Challenge: ACTIVE Network’s Ski & Attractions sales and marketing team needed to better define its audiences.

Solution: Developed three highly detailed buyer personas for influencers and decision makers of enterprise software purchases at North American ski resorts and attractions:

• IT Director at a for-profit attraction (amusement park, water park, museum, zoo/aquarium)
• CFO at a mid-size ski resort
• IT Director/Manager at a large ski resort

Persona development included:

• Examined buyer responsibilities and key pain points.
• Clearly defined reasons why a buyer might not make a decision, or even back out of a sale.
• Determined specific questions a buyer will likely ask the salesperson during the seven steps of the sales cycle.
• Created a well-defined value statement and a detailed list of solutions to the buyer’s problem(s).

Using these personas, a content audit followed, and included:

• Taking an inventory of all existing sales and marketing content (print and online).
• Determining which content answered the specific buyer questions.
• Identified areas where there were gaps in content, or no content existed. This resulted in new opportunities for creating content that was the most helpful in the sales process.