Customer personas without the cardboard cut-outs.
Specific beats everyone
Trying to appeal to everyone usually produces generic language, scattered marketing, and a business that is difficult to distinguish. A customer persona creates a working definition of the people or organisations you most want to attract.
It does not mean refusing everyone else. It means making deliberate decisions about where to focus.
Start with profitable reality
Look back at the customers and projects that produced good outcomes for both sides. Which work had healthy contribution, reasonable delivery, low friction, and a customer who genuinely valued what you did?
That evidence is usually more useful than inventing a fictional customer in a workshop.
Example: a specialist builder
A builder may struggle to compete with high-volume companies on standard flat sites, but perform exceptionally well on sloping sections because retaining and complex site work are handled in-house.
A useful target persona could be an existing homeowner who has land-banked a difficult section and now wants a builder confident with the site rather than merely willing to price it.
Keep the number manageable
Three or four meaningful personas are usually enough. More than that and the tool can become a filing system rather than a decision aid.
Use the personas to test the offer, website, advertising, sales questions, and service experience. If the exercise does not change a decision, it may be decorative rather than useful.
- Begin with real profitable customers
- Describe the buying situation and need
- Identify value, objections, and evidence
- Use the persona to make actual decisions
More insights
- Contribution vs profit
- Markup vs margin
- Customer journey
- Customer personas
- Scaling a team
Describe behaviour and commercial fit, not an imaginary person’s favourite coffee.
1. Situation
What is happening in their business or life when the need becomes important?
2. Value
What outcome do they value, and why would your particular strengths matter?
3. Friction
What stops them buying, and what evidence or reassurance would reduce that concern?