How would you develop reasonable buyer personas for a company whose data you don't have access to?

Hi Steve,

In this case, it is difficult to describe reasonable since you are describing a situation that does not involve direct contact or qualitative interviews with your target audience - which is essential to completing a buyer persona development process. Given that, I would suggest that you take an approach of creating a buyer persona sketch and hypothesis based upon the gleaming of public data from the Internet. Establishing a platform for validating when you do have the ability or use a source to validate qualitatively. These include the suggestions Ardath makes but may go further. The key is in recognizing consistent indicators that sheds light on how they buy as well as what drives them to buy.

I hesitate to even label what you propose "buyer personas" because the effort you pose the question on is more akin to developing a buyer profile. Buyer personas are grounded as well as based upon qualitative research and goal orientation which takes some work. Buyer persona development is a commitment to a process as opposed to the creation of a profile may be another way of articulating my point.

Having said that, I commend the thinking on heading in the direction of understanding your target buyers. The process of buyer personas can yield tremendous insight into connecting with your audience and help you to uncover new areas of opportunities because they go well beyond the typical practices of learning about buyers that are found in the probing questions associated with sales methodologies.

Admittedly, I get a little winded here on this topic but sure hope it helps you Steve and glad you asked. Keep up your good writings on social media - really enjoy it.

Tony

Several thoughts to complement Ardath's:

1. You can probably develop a reasonable baseline by looking at their near competitors, developing the initial framework based on similar roles, then adding whatver information on the specific roles in the company that you are targetting.
2. Interview their customers to get their views. Depending on who you are trying to reach, the customers may actually have good contact with them.
3, Likewise interview their suppliers to get their views. (At least suppliers that are complementary or non-competitive to you.)
4. Look at their partnerships/alliances/channel partners, talk to them to get a view.
5. If they have any sort of digital presence follow their digital footprints (as Ardath suggests).
6. If you are targeting specfic individuals, look at past employers and people they may have worked with--both for insight and a possible introduction.

Having provided some thoughts, I'm a little confused about the question. It sounds as though you are trying to profile specific individuals, rather than develop personas.

If you are looking for a persona, it would seem that competitors, complementary companies, etc. would give you a sufficient level of insight to be able to initiate a meaningful conversation. At times, I don't have a detailed profile on the individual I am trying to reach, but because I have relatively deep knowledge about the companies, industry, cusotmer, competitive issues, I am usually able to have a high impact conversation based on that level of knowledge. Knowing about the individual, specifically, is icing on the cake.

Ardath summed up the top sources.

If you feel your competitor(s) are doing well connecting with the target market you have in mind, study their marketing content, follow their conversations online, listen to them speak at events, etc.

One thing I would add, if this company you are targeting is a known competitor, ask your sales force. That company is probably targeting the same companies you are.