SaaS Buyer Personas: CTO, CMO & More | Allbound
Buyer Persona Examples for SaaS Companies: CIO, CTO, CMO & More
Understanding the customer – successful interpretations of audiences’ desires have led some businesses to surprising wins, while others have made grave miscalculations that tarnished their brand’s image and wasted resources.?
With this in mind, B2B buyer personas are among the most powerful tools in a SaaS company’s back pocket. It shapes their promotional strategy, sales messaging, and even who they pursue as channel partners. Therefore, we recommend you regularly refresh and build out your personas to maintain a strong connection to your customer's pain points, aspirations, and sources of information.?
If you’re a SaaS company playing catch-up, filling in the gaps, or simply wanting to see other B2B buyer personas for comparison, the provided examples can serve as springboards for your own. Remember that these are not comprehensive; it’s up to you to further flesh out the buyer persona details, assess which SaaS features most interest the prospects, and determine the ultimate decision-makers.?
The CIO Buyer Persona?
Understanding the Role of Chief Information Officer (CIO): The professional in this role does not involve themselves in day-to-day operations, instead looking for ways to influence change at a higher level. Often confused (or blended) with CTO responsibilities, CIOs focus on decision-making and improving processes, relying on others to execute and report progress.?
Why Connect With the Chief Information Officer (CIO): If it isn’t apparent, the CIO is someone who has the power to approve or veto a technology purchase. In some cases, they may be the sole decision-maker.
Example CIO Buyer Persona:?
Alice works closely with CTO and IT leadership in providing strategic oversight and other divisions to ensure they’re adequately supported. They utilize company data and industry developments to make big-picture decisions that steer internal processes, team structures, budget allocation, and technology choices.?
How Alice Gauges Success Within Their Role:
Personal Goals:?
Pain Points:
Tips for Connecting with CIOs:
The CTO & IT Director Buyer Persona?
Understanding the Role of Chief Technology Officer & IT Director: As mentioned above, the tasks of the CTO and CIO are often combined into a single position (or the CTO and IT Director are one and the same). However, traditionally, the CTO works closely with the CIO but is responsible for guiding the execution of larger strategic decisions based on technology. Additionally, they’ll play a more prominent role in product development and using technology to service customers while the CIO focuses inward.?
The CTO can wear many hats (head of product development, overseeing security, etc.). Therefore, it doesn’t hurt to assess what other C-suite roles exist within the company to understand their individual priorities better. For example, if there is a designed Chief Security Officer, VP of Engineering, or Head of Product Development, you may better understand what isn’t their primary responsibility.?
Why Connect With the Chief Technology Officer (CTO): The CIO or leadership will rarely make technology decisions without input from the CTO; after all, the CTO will be the one spearheading the team that implements the technology. If you fail to address their concerns, you may find the CTO steering leadership away from your SaaS offering.?
Example CTO and IT Director Buyer Persona:?
Morgan Manchester, Chief Technology Officer
Morgan rose through the web development and engineering ranks, taking responsibility for more of the product with each promotion. They are the conduit between the IT team, product development, and leadership. Morgan guides the technology team on how to best execute the CIO’s decisions and the company’s overall goals. Similarly, they work hand-in-hand with Product and Customer Service teams to ensure that the company’s user-facing technology-based output continues to satisfy.
How Morgan Gauges Success Within Their Role:
Personal Goals:?
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Pain Points:
Tips for Connecting with CTOs:
The CMO Buyer Persona?
Understanding the Role of Chief Marketing Officer (CMO): The head of marketing may go by CMO, Marketing Director, or several other titles. What’s more, depending on the organization's size, their direct involvement with the day-to-day decision-making may wildly vary. However, one thing remains constant - it is their responsibility to raise brand awareness and generate quality leads.
Why Connect With the CMO: For some products, the prospect’s marketing team will be a non-factor. However, given the substantial amount of money companies pour into raising their profile, there’s a good chance that many readers of this blog post will have products that speak directly to various marketing needs.?
Example CMO Buyer Persona:?
Jeffrey Jones, Chief Marketing Officer
Jeffrey must answer for all marketing strategies and use of the budget. With a general understanding of many disciplines, they are not specialized in one particular field (like social media or pay-per-click). Therefore, they must build a network of diverse marketing capabilities using internal experts, outside agencies, and supplementary software.?
How Jeffrey Gauges Success Within Their Role:
Personal Goals:?
Pain Points:
Tips for Connecting with Heads of Marketing:
Next Step: Further Build Out the Buyer Personas Based On Industry Specifics
While we built out these buyer personas to reflect SaaS sales opportunities, this is still a broad field. We encourage you to dig deeper into your audiences, keeping the following in mind:
How to Leverage These SaaS Buyer Personas
Read More to Further Your Understanding of Your B2B Audiences?
Improve your SaaS sales game beyond these example buyer personas with the following articles:
For further assistance, download our free template by following this link: