How do you tailor your pitch to different customer personas and pain points?

Personalize your approach using tools like Clearbit or LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Adapt your language and value proposition accordingly. It's all about precision targeting and solving real problems, not generic sales spiels.

Research and develop detailed profiles of your key customer personas, including their demographics, goals, challenges, and communication preferences. HubSpot has a web tool that can help, and there are many other tools such as UserForge which can enable you to apply your data to the personal generation. You should conduct interviews, surveys, and analyse customer data to gain a deep understanding of what drives their decision-making. Create empathy maps to visualise their thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. These personas should be regularly updated based on new insights and feedback. Ensure the entire team is familiar with these personas and considers them in all customer interactions.

It is the most crucial part of a product vision to know your customer. In the end, it is actually your customer for whom you are solving the problem. I recently came across a saying ‘Fall in love with the problem and not the solution’, mentioned by Marty Cagan in one of his books. In order to fall in love with the problem, it is essential to understand who you are solving the problem for. Without the users and the proper understanding of their problem, the idea is set up for failure.

Most personas are completely inadequate when it comes to understanding WHY people buy. Firmographic, demographic, etc. data becomes useless pretty quickly. Instead, run through jobs to be done exercises with real existing customers. You need to better understand their own personal goals & objectives, and what are the challenges or roadblocks to success in their role or life, before you'll ever be able to understand how to position your product successfully as the antidote, solution, or alternative. No off-the-shelf tool, data points, or other "scalable" tactics beat actually talking to customers, going through support tickets, reviewing recorded sales calls, or interviewing segments of potential customers.

For each customer persona, you need to create a customised value proposition that directly addresses their most pressing pain points, gain points, and goals. I'm a big fan of Strategyzer's Value Proposition Canvas as a tool to achieve this. Highlight the specific benefits and outcomes they can expect from your offering, using language that resonates with their priorities and communication style. Make sure to emphasise how your solution is uniquely positioned to solve their problems and deliver value in a way that sets you apart from competitors. Validate your value proposition through customer feedback and refine it as needed.

Let's consider a B2C health-tech product. For a youngster, the sales pitch might highlight its user-friendly interface, personalized workout plans, and integration with wearable devices. On the other hand, for a middle-aged parent in India, the pitch would emphasize family sharing features, nutrition tracking tools, and access to expert health advice. Each sales pitch is tailored to resonate with the specific lifestyles and needs of different customer segments. Understanding the needs of the customers being key here.

In past we have used 'battle card' approach and customized the pitch based on user persona. e.g. For a marketing, the pitch was to simplifies campaign management, driving website traffic and demonstrating ROI. Sales benefit from lead generation tools and CRM integration. IT managers enjoy robust monitoring and security features, ensuring reliable systems and compliance with regulations.

As a B2B SASSA product manager that works heavily with the marketing team, this skill is used quite frequently. We have leveraged a framework called "3-minute pitch" for this. It's an effective model that helps you align the the pain points of your customers to stories that are quick and easy. I have found it's especially helpful tool when working with introverted staff where story telling doesn't come naturally.

I've found it is important to share relevant stories, case studies, and examples that illustrate how you've helped similar customers overcome their challenges and achieve their goals. Choose stories that align with each persona's specific pain points and aspirations, and make sure to highlight the tangible results and transformative impact of the solution. Use clear details and don't be afraid of applying emotional language to make the stories engaging and memorable. Where possible, include measurable outcomes and ROI to substantiate your claims. Another tip: encourage your satisfied customers to share their own stories too...

Try to engage real customers as you are building out different customer personas. Getting constant feedback on the product from different groups of customers can help you build better customer personas and can help you understand real customer pain points. At the end of the day, a real customer always finds ways to use the product not as intended.