So check out this one<\/a> if you don\u2019t have an ideal customer profile (ICP) figured out yet. In the B2B domain that we focus on, you need to know:<\/span><\/p>\n As soon as you have figured that out, you can go further and try to find out who the person really is.<\/span><\/p>\n Well, kind of. You want to define some personal characteristics of your ideal client, as well as their painpoints, goals and needs. In our case, the demographic part was\u00a0already taken care of when deciding on the niche we were going to focus on.<\/span><\/p>\n But how do you actually get about developing the marketing personas? <\/span><\/p>\n You sit down, and you brainstorm. You come up with a \u201cSad Samuel\u201d or a \u201cKnowing Nancy\u201d and you create the persona profile answering all the crucial questions on their behalf. But is it the only way to create your personas?<\/span><\/p>\n We could go the sit-and-brainstorm\u00a0way\u00a0as well. But instead, we decided to do a kind of \u201cback engineering\u201d, that is: to screen the very people who already became our first customers.<\/span><\/p>\n We construted a template of a customer-file (I call it a C-file). The template included:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n So in the end, it looked like a classic persona profile. The crucial difference\u00a0was, however, that instead of a made-up “Sad Samuel,” we created a\u00a0profile of an actual person, who has already trusted Woodpecker<\/a> as a company and is currently drawing value from the solution we offer.<\/p>\n What are the advantages of the “back engineering” approach over the traditional persona development?<\/p>\n Now, depending on the stage you’re on now, you may have various feelings about our approach to persona development. Check out the four\u00a0scenarios below, and fit your current situation into one of them.<\/p>\n First things first, you need to define your ICP. Persona development is step two. Go to my previous post, read it and check out the two resources I mention there.<\/p>\n As you define your ICP, go back here for scenario 2 or 3.<\/p>\n Open a new document, create a template and get ready\u00a0to\u00a0start taking notes.<\/p>\n Set a meeting with your sales<\/span> reps, support guys, customer happines officers, or whoever else talks with the clients. Ask them the questions from your template. Build the profiles together. Dig into your clients’ social media profiles to find some live language and supplementary first-hand info.<\/p>\n Create several C-files and look for recurring patterns. Do your clients fit into your ICP?<\/p>\n Open a new document, create a template and get ready to\u00a0start taking notes.<\/p>\n Go to social media, forums and places where your ideal customers gather to talk. Find some people you would love to have as your first customers. Dig into their profiles, and fill in your C-file template on the basis of your findings.<\/p>\n Next, try to find those people’s email addresses and reach out to them to start some relations with your first potential clients. Try using a\u00a0personalized email with follow-up<\/a>. Don’t focus on selling your solution, though. Focus on learning about them as people involved in business.<\/p>\n Check\u00a0the post below for some guidance:<\/p>\n If you don’t fit into any of these scenarios, I’m more than curious to read\u00a0your story. You can share it below in the comments section, or drop me an email.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Hope this helps! Let me know what you think of our approach to persona development, and why you think so.<\/p>\n \n\n
So, is it about persona development?<\/b><\/h2>\n
Here\u2019s how we did it<\/b><\/h2>\n
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![\"Persona](\"https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/app\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Woodpecker-C-Files-template-blurred-screen.png\" "\\"persona-development\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nOur “back engineering” vs. traditional persona development<\/h2>\n
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What’s in it for you?<\/h2>\n
Scenario 1:<\/strong>\u00a0You haven’t defined your niche and your Ideal Customer Profile, yet. You thought persona development is actually step one.<\/h4>\n
What to do?<\/h3>\n
What’s the First Step to Building a Good Prospect Base?\u00a0>><\/a><\/h4>\n
Scenario 2:<\/strong>\u00a0You have defined your niche and your Ideal Customer Profile. You\u00a0have some first customers, so you can prepare your own C-files as to use them as your persona profiles, like we did.<\/h4>\n
What to do?<\/h3>\n
Scenario 3:<\/strong>\u00a0You have defined your niche and your Ideal Customer Profile, but you don’t have any customers yet. You want to create personas to know what clients you’re supposed to focus on.<\/h4>\n
What to do?<\/h3>\n
How We Got Our First 10 Customer Interviews with Cold Email >><\/a><\/h4>\n
Scenario 4:<\/strong> Something completely different.<\/h4>\n