Revenue Journal®

Personas do have their place. When you're designing a product, you have to make decisions about what to put in and what to leave out. Personas can help with that process.

But once the product is designed, and it's time to create your web page, write selling copy, and train your salespeople, personas can get you into real trouble. They can make you think you're addressing the buyer properly, when in fact you are probably ignoring who the buyer is, what the buyer really wants, and, in many cases, insulting the buyer.

You see, if I'm the buyer, I already know who I am. So I'm not the least impressed if you think you know who I am. Besides, it makes me feel a little creeped out anyway, that you're so determined to know everything about me you can describe me to your buddies around the conference table.

Do you really have to know all those things about me to sell something to me? I mean, c'mon. What does it matter how old I am or how much money I make? I just want to buy something to fix a problem. I don't want my personal space invaded.

Not only that: Is it going to be a fun to buy your product, or are you going to make it a hassle? Are you going to really help me solve my problem, or push me into buying something that is right for some persona? Are you going to answer my questions? Tell the truth? Deliver on your promises? Treat me with respect? I am paying close attention to your behavior, to learn the answers to these questions, as I decide whether to buy from you.

As a buyer, I have a particular scenario in mind when I set out to buy something - and I expect you to be a part of that scenario. It's my play. I'm the producer (the guy with the money, on a mission), the director (the one who will decide how the play will proceed), and the leading lady (yep, I'm a fussy character who wants things to be just the way I like them). Are you going to play along, and support my scenario, or are you going to sabotage my scenario, continually trying to foist your success fantasy on me?

Personas can get you into trouble because they can actually prevent you from making it easy for the buyer to do business with you.

Let's look at an example. Let's say you want to buy a used car. As the buyer, your preferred scenario would be to walk onto a used car lot, look around at the inventory - uninterrupted - until you start zeroing in on a particular car. At that moment, you would turn from the car and start looking for help. A salesman would recognize that you are ready to talk, and would come over to you.

He'd be pleasant. Not smarmy. He would answer all your questions honestly. No games. When you asked about the price, he'd say, "The low price on the sticker is the absolute price of the car. We don't dicker here, it just wastes everybody's time. However, if you want to pay cash today, and drive the car off the lot, I can give you a 10% discount."

You take a test drive. You like the car. You like the way the engine sounds, it's clean and fresh-smelling inside, and it's obviously been well-maintained. Your careful checking under the hood, in the trunk, under the seats, and even underneath the car, have convinced you that it's a good choice. You decide to buy the car. You sign all the papers, which includes a 3-month free repair labor warranty that makes you feel that they stand behind their used cars. You hand over a check, and drive the car off the lot.

That's your scenario as a buyer.

I won't bother to go into detail about what usually happens at a car dealership; we all know that you are never unmolested while looking, that your questions are not answered honestly, that the price is never the price, and that most dealers wouldn't dream of offering a 3-month-free-labor warranty on a used car.

Now, let's talk about what would happen if that car dealer had fallen for "personas." When you come to the dealership, the dealer sizes you up. "Mid-thirties, professional woman, wants efficiency. Serve up the 'professional, independent woman" package." The rep would make a point of telling you things he thinks you want to hear. He would try to sell the car to your "persona."

"This automobile is perfect for the commuting professional," he would say. "There's that convenient coffee cup holder, and a special place for toll tokens. There's an extra plug for your Blackberry." And so on.

But what if that mid-thirties woman has just quit her job and has decided she's going to take six months off and drive around the country? What if she has fallen in love with a man who has four children and she's thinking she really needs a station wagon? What if she has taken up golf, has decided she wants to "tour" golf courses, and the car she wants is a red convertible with a big trunk that gets good gas mileage?

Nothing this dealer is saying to her "persona" will speak to her. Because he assumes he knows what she's all about, and he fails to ask her what she's looking for in a car, he is miles away from her scenario, a distance voice babbling on about irrelevancies.

She can see that this is not the car - or the dealer - for her, and walks off.

This is also what happens to websites that are persona-driven. Copywriters are always so pleased with themselves when they feel like they have "pegged" their customer. "Oh, good, now I know who my customer is, and I can write meaningful website copy for them," the writer thinks. The resulting copy is basically a self-congratulatory piece bragging about how much the copywriter knows about the buyer:

"You want to drive to work in style. You want to be able to rely on your car, in all conditions, and feel safe. You want to smoothly travel from one destination to another, in your own private and secure world, with plenty of perfect spaces for your morning coffee, your tokens, and your electronic devices. When you plug in one of your favorite CDs, you want to be surrounded with rich, beautiful sound. This car was made for you."

Does any of this help the customer buy? No. Does any of this address the buyer's buying scenario? No. Could a company pay copywriters to write this drivel, then serve up the typical in-your-face, slimy, manipulative car buying experience? Happens all the time. It's the norm.

Companies obsessed with personas are ignoring - and even contradicting - what buyers know: The buyer already knows who she is and what she wants. All she's looking for now is someone who will give it to her. She has a complete buying scenario in mind. She doesn't need you to tell her who she is.

You're wrong, anyway.

How many strangers peg you correctly? One in a million? How many people really know who you are, and what makes you tick? A few, maybe? Given these odds, with the tables turned, why should we think that an individual can be so easily categorized?

When it comes time to buy something, buyer scenarios knock buyer personas right out of the ring. What does the buyer want, an how does she want to buy it?

What's driving her? A whole bunch of things, including her own personal experiences, preferences, hopes, fears, personality, peer pressure, and on and on.

For all we know, she might even have the contrarian gene; if her entire family is doing X, she can't help herself - she has to do Y. She may have just gotten over a cancer scare, and has decided it's time to change her life, radically. She might have decided it's time to trade her grey Volvo in for a red Porsche. She might be wearing the clothing of a "professional, independent woman," but that's just last year's wardrobe, which she put on because she's on her way to visit her worried mother.

No one knows the buyer's motivators except the buyer, at the moment of the purchase.

The good news is, when you look at buyer scenarios, you will see similarities in the way people want to be treated during the buying process. No matter who they are or why they are buying. They want the seller to "see" them - the real person - and interact with them as a real person. They want the seller to ask questions, and listen, until he/she understands the buyer's needs and scenario. They want the seller to then get in sync with their scenario.

The seller who comes the closest to matching the buyer's scenario is going to make the sale. That's the truth, and if that truth is not driving your efforts, you may as well be speaking a foreign language when the buyer comes to your website or interacts with your salespeople. Nothing you say will matter.

The salesperson has the advantage of being able to ask the all-important question at the beginning of the interaction: "What are you looking for?" You don't have that luxury on your website. But you can interview a bunch of real, live buyers ahead of time, and find out what is important to them. There will be some common threads. They will describe HOW they want to buy and what they want the experience to be like. They will tell you the questions they want answered.

Now it's your job to sync up with their wishes. Map out their buying processes. Make sure that buying process is supported every step of the way. Make sure you answer all their questions on your website. When you're done, invite them to take a look - and give you feedback. The best way to get that feedback is with them on the phone, going through the site with you, while you record the audio and get screen captures.

Do this with at least 10 - 15 people, and make the appropriate changes. Now your site will sync up with their buyer scenario. It will be fun and hassle-free to buy from you. You will sell more.