How do you update and refine your buyer personas over time?

2 Validate your assumptions

The second step to update your buyer personas is to validate your assumptions. You may have made some hypotheses or generalizations about your ideal customers based on your data sources, but you need to test them in the real world. You can do this by reaching out to your existing customers, prospects, and leads and asking them relevant questions that confirm or challenge your assumptions. You can also use tools like A/B testing, social listening, and competitive analysis to see how your audience responds to different messages, offers, and channels.

3 Segment your personas

The third step to update your buyer personas is to segment them according to their level of awareness, interest, and readiness to buy. Not all your prospects are at the same stage of the buyer's journey, and you need to adapt your sales development approach accordingly. You can use criteria like lead scoring, lead source, lead activity, and lead qualification to segment your personas into categories like cold, warm, hot, or qualified. This will help you prioritize your outreach, personalize your communication, and align your goals.

4 Align with your team

The fourth step to update your buyer personas is to align with your team. Your buyer personas are not only useful for your sales development role, but also for your marketing, product, and customer success colleagues. You need to share your insights, feedback, and best practices with them and ensure that everyone is on the same page about who your ideal customers are, what they want, and how to reach them. You can use tools like collaborative documents, dashboards, and workshops to facilitate this alignment.

6 Repeat the process

The sixth step to update your buyer personas is to repeat the process. Updating and refining your buyer personas is not a one-time activity, but a continuous cycle of learning and improvement. You need to regularly review your data sources, validate your assumptions, segment your personas, align with your team, and monitor your results to keep your buyer personas relevant and accurate. This will help you stay ahead of the competition, deliver value, and build trust with your ideal customers.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?