Buyer Personas, Revised and Expanded, 2nd Edition

4Setting Up Your Buyer Persona Study

As much as we may like to think of ourselves as open-minded, most people's initial response to a new idea is resistance. And yet it is difficult to imagine how our lives would be affected if change was not only permitted but also encouraged.

The abolishment of pain in surgery is a chimera. Knife and pain are two words in surgery that must forever be associated in the consciousness of the patient.

—Dr. Alfred Velpeau, French surgeon in 1839

This “telephone” has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a practical form of communication.

—Western Union internal memo, 1878

There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home.

—Kenneth Olsen, President and Founder of Digital Equipment Corp.

Although your goal to interview your buyers doesn't register on this scale, we know that many marketers encounter skepticism or outright resistance to their plans to contact buyers and hear their stories.

It's interesting to note that the resistance you are most likely to experience will come from your internal stakeholders and that many buyers will respond positively to your request to interview them. There are exceptions of course, but despite the logical and relatively economical ideas in this book, it's not unusual to hear these reactions from stakeholders when marketers introduce the need for Buyer Personas:

• “We need to focus on [insert business or marketing priority], not ‘Buyer Personas.’
• “We already know our buyers. ...