Why Your Buyer Persona Isn't Working

By: Spiro Skias

Crafting a robust buyer persona is paramount for any company engaged in sales, whether targeting individual consumers or businesses. Understanding the buyer's characteristics, whether an individual or enterprise, can make a significant difference in closing the deal. However, the fundamental way in which buyer personas are approached really depends on your target market. The distinction between selling to an individual versus selling to a business is crucial, and more often than not, insurtechs tend to get it wrong.?

Herein lies a common misstep for many insurtech companies. Despite recognizing the corporate nature of their prospects, most insurtechs continue to structure their buyer personas with an individual focus, even though the buying process in the insurance industry extends well beyond a single individual.

In this article, we unveil a novel sales strategy for insurtechs that offers insights into developing a more effective buyer persona and how to execute impactful campaigns tailored for the insurance market.

Selling to the Individual (Traditional Buyer Personas)

The conventional approach to creating buyer personas has traditionally centered around individual buyers, emphasizing details such as age, title, gender, preferences, and dislikes. While these personal characteristics hold significance in a Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) setting, the dynamic nature of the insurance industry introduces a unique challenge. In this sector, roles and titles undergo frequent changes, rendering traditional buyer personas obsolete whenever there's a turnover in personnel.?

The additional challenge lies in the fact that traditional personas overlook the intricate organizational structure of the target prospect. If you're marketing a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution to an insurance carrier, crafting a buyer persona solely for the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) won't suffice. The insurance industry operates within large and intricate organizational frameworks, each with its unique roles and responsibilities. Attempting to designate a single person as 'the buyer' or constructing a persona around an individual lacks an understanding of the complexities inherent in insurance operations.

Another significant drawback of traditional personas is their failure to acknowledge that buying decisions in most organizations are not singularly driven. In the realm of insurance, companies typically initiate a request for proposals (RFP), an extensive questionnaire that encompasses requirements from various departments such as business, actuarial, information technology, product, claims, billing, underwriting, and more. In this context, the limitations of a traditional buyer persona become evident—it simply doesn't align with the multifaceted decision-making processes within insurance organizations.?

Selling to the Corporate Landscape (Strategic Prospect Personas)

Recognizing the intricate organizational dynamics of insurance companies, insurtechs must reimagine their buyer persona strategy beyond individual titles. Instead of honing in on one role, it's crucial to analyze the organization holistically.

At Ink Digital Marketing , our approach involves categorizing the organization into three key segments: Influencers, Decision Makers, and Executives. This method allows for a tailored messaging strategy that addresses pain points across various organizational levels.

Influencers

Influencers, as the name suggests, wield significant influence and serve as an extension of your sales team. Convincing influencers of your product's excellence ensures they relay that message up the hierarchy. In the insurance realm, influencers are primarily the main users, including roles like business analysts, actuaries, underwriters, claims representatives, quality assurance, product developers, and more.

Decision Makers

Decision makers, comprising managers, directors, and supervisory roles, play a pivotal role in determining the necessities for team success. While they may not experience software-level frustrations like influencers, the technology used by influencers directly impacts their ability to optimize work. Outdated or complex technology can hinder overall efficiency and financial goals.

Executives

Executives operate on a corporate-level, focusing on big-picture items. Although they may not be attuned to specific software challenges, they are more aware of budgetary and overall performance issues.

By understanding and targeting these distinct roles within an organization, insurtechs can strategically align their offerings to meet the diverse needs of insurance companies.?

Crafting a Comprehensive Prospect Persona

Now, with a nuanced understanding of diverse organizational personas and the realization that decisions are not singular, it's time to delve into the intricacies. Filling in the persona details becomes paramount, contingent on your specific solution. The roles and responsibilities within each persona will vary based on the offerings of your solution.

For instance, if your product is a data solution, your influencers might include data scientists or actuaries. Conversely, if you operate as a product distribution platform, influencers may take the form of underwriters or business analysts.?

Below is the template utilized by Ink Digital Marketing, designed for ease of use and aimed at facilitating a thoughtful examination of the different roles and challenges within your target organization.?

Messaging is Everything

Now that we established the comprehensive personas, we can craft proper messaging that is tailored to each of them, targeting their specific needs.?

When Targeting Influencers

Focus your messaging on the influencer pain points. Target the challenges they have and the frustrations they may be experiencing in their current solution. Demonstrate how your solution is better, provides more operational efficiency, and makes their job faster and easier.

When Targeting Decision Makers

Focus your messaging on how your solution is cost effective for them. Demonstrate how your solution can not only save them money in the long run (by doing things faster and more efficiently), but also improve their overall operations.?

When Targeting Executives

Focus your messaging on the strategic initiatives. Modernizing their technology stack, future-proofing their operations, and positioning them to be more competitive in the market.?

Once you have your tailored messaging crafted, now you can build custom campaigns in LinkedIn that targets those specific companies, roles, and titles.?

In Summary

1. Build a prospect persona matrix based on influencers, decision makers, and executives
2. Create messaging that is tailored to each of them
3. Launch custom campaigns on LinkedIn for each of the persona groups. One for influencers, one for decision makers, and one for executives.

If you would like to learn more about building an effective insurtech prospect (buyer) persona, contact us at [email protected].