How to Build B2B Personas That Don’t Suck (and Actually Help You Sell)

Let’s not sugar-coat it—most B2B personas are absolute bollocks.

You’ve seen them.

“SaaS Steve is a 35-year-old who enjoys cycling and artisan coffee. He works in a fast-paced tech company and values innovation.”

Cheers, Steve. Now tell me how the hell that helps me write a landing page or close a deal.

It doesn’t. Because it’s nonsense.

The sad truth? A lot of marketers build personas to tick a box. Not because they’re trying to understand the customer, but because someone higher up said, “We need personas.” So what do they do? Chuck a few stock photos in a PowerPoint, guess some goals, and call it strategy.

If that’s what you came for—hit the back button. Go play Persona Generator Roulette or something.

But if you’re here because you want to build buyer personas that actually do something—personas that make your messaging tighter, your content more relevant, and your sales calls more effective—then stick around.

Because this guide’s for you.

We’re talking about:

    • How to actually research and build personas based on real data, not vibes.

    • What to include (and what to bin) to make them useful across marketing and sales.

    • Why your personas probably suck—and how to fix them.

    • Real examples and formats that don’t look like they were spat out by a 2013 HubSpot template.

It’s all tailored to B2B. It’s built with tech in mind. And yes—there might be swearing.

Let’s get into it.

What Actually Makes a Good B2B Persona?

Here’s the thing: building personas isn’t just about creating a cute little character sheet you can show off in a stakeholder meeting. It’s about understanding how someone makes a decision to buy your thing—and what stops them from doing it.

Because when you know that, you’re not just “raising awareness” or “creating demand.”
You’re giving people a reason to give a shit.

So what does a good B2B persona look like?

It’s not about whether they use Slack or Teams. It’s not about whether they’ve got a dog called Bingo or enjoy woodworking at the weekend. Nobody cares.

A good B2B persona is built around five core things:

1. Their Role and Influence in the Buying Process

Not just “Job title: Head of Marketing”. That’s a LinkedIn search.
You need to know:

    • What they actually do day to day

    • What they’re responsible for

    • Who they need to convince when it’s buying time

Are they the decision-maker? The gatekeeper? The poor sod who gets asked to “do a comparison of tools” even though they have zero budget authority? That stuff matters. A lot.

2. Their Goals

And no, “grow the business” doesn’t count.

We’re talking real, practical goals.
The stuff they’re getting asked about in performance reviews. The targets they’re trying to hit before end of quarter so they don’t get grilled in the Monday standup.

“Generate 100 qualified leads per month.”
“Reduce churn by 15% this year.”
“Launch a new product feature by Q3.”

Get specific. Get measurable. Otherwise, you’re just guessing.

3. Their Pain Points

These are your money-makers.

Because if you can speak to someone’s pain better than they can describe it themselves, you’ve got their attention. Probably even their trust.

You want to uncover the stuff that frustrates them, slows them down, costs them budget, time, or credibility.

Maybe it’s:

    • Constant firefighting and no time for strategy

    • A clunky tech stack that breaks every other week

    • Getting ghosted by sales every time they hand off a lead

When you really know their pain—you can start showing how your product is the cure.

4. What Makes Them Say Yes (and No)

This is where most personas fall flat.

They tell you what a buyer wants.
But they don’t tell you what gets in the way.

You need both.

What tips them over the edge? What makes them finally book a demo or start that free trial? And on the flip side—what makes them bin you off after the second email?

Could be things like:

    • They won’t even consider you if you don’t integrate with Salesforce

    • They’re terrified of long implementation times

    • They’re comparing you to a better-known competitor and don’t want to look stupid picking the wrong one

Knowing this stuff arms both marketing and sales with the info they need to address objections before they come up.

5. Where They Go for Answers

You’ve got to meet people where they are.

If your persona spends their evenings on Stack Overflow and Reddit, don’t hit them with LinkedIn whitepapers and webinars.
If they want to see customer reviews, demos, or a comparison matrix—give them that.

Think:

    • What content do they trust?

    • Who influences their decisions?

    • Where do they go when they’re trying to solve a problem?

Not everyone wants a newsletter. Not everyone cares about a 20-page ebook. Figure out their preferences and build your content strategy around that.

How to Build a B2B Persona (That Doesn’t Belong in the Bin)

Alright. Time to roll up our sleeves and get practical. Because if you’re gonna build personas that are worth more than the paper they’re printed on, you need to ditch the guesswork and dig into the good stuff.

Here’s how to do it, step-by-step.

Step 1: Get Off Your Arse and Do the Research

No shortcuts here. If your persona research starts and ends with your marketing team sitting in a room going “I think our buyer cares about efficiency,” you’re setting yourself up for a steaming pile of assumptions.

You need real data. And that means going to the source.

🔍 Where to get your intel:

    • Customer interviews – Grab your best-fit customers and ask them why they bought, what nearly stopped them, and what life’s like now.

    • Churned customers – Brutal but brilliant. Find out what didn’t work. What made them walk?

    • Sales and support teams – These legends are on the front line. They know the questions, the objections, the panic-induced hesitations better than anyone.

    • CRM data – Who actually buys? What roles? What industries? What’s the deal size? Gold dust.

    • Web analytics – What content gets traffic? Where are people coming from? What do they bounce on?

    • Review sites & forums – G2, Reddit, LinkedIn comments. It’s all insight if you’re paying attention.

And for the love of all things SaaS, don’t just stop at job titles. Your CFO persona might technically have the same role across five companies—but their needs, challenges, and context could be wildly different.

Step 2: Spot the Patterns (and Group ‘Em)

Once you’ve got a big ol’ pile of notes, it’s time to play detective.

You’re looking for patterns. Common themes. Clusters of behaviours, pain points, or buying triggers that make certain groups of buyers act in similar ways.

It could be:

    • Startup CTOs who hate complex onboarding

    • Mid-market marketing managers who are sick of leads that never convert

    • Enterprise IT directors who lose sleep over compliance

The goal here isn’t to create 15 hyper-specific personas with micro-differences. You want 3–5 high-impact personas that cover your most important buyer segments without making your marketing team cry every time they plan a campaign.

If you find yourself spiralling into “Freelancer Freddy” vs “Solo Consultant Simon”—take a breath. You’re in too deep.

Step 3: Build Out the Actual Persona Profile

Now for the fun bit. This is where all your research turns into a fully-fledged profile.

And we’re not talking name, age, and favourite brand of hummus.
We’re talking stuff that helps you sell.

Here’s what to include:

Section What You’re Looking For
Name + Title Make it easy to reference. “DevOps Dave” is fine. “Cloud Infrastructure Liaison Karen of the Global Data Continuity Sector”? Get in the bin.
Company Context What kind of business are they in? Size, industry, stage. This shapes their priorities.
Goals What are they trying to achieve? Think business KPIs, not personal dreams.
Challenges What’s stopping them? Friction, bottlenecks, team issues, crap tech.
Buying Triggers What makes them finally start looking for a solution? (A data breach? Their CEO asking, “Why is this taking so long?”)
Decision Criteria What boxes do they need ticked? Budget, integrations, scalability, support, etc.
Objections What makes them hesitate? Cost, complexity, trust, bad past experience?
Preferred Content How do they like to learn? Reports? Demos? Slack communities?
Influencers/Stakeholders Who else is involved in the decision? What hoops do they need to jump through?

Throw in a quote or story if it helps humanise them—but only if it’s something that actually reveals how they think.
“I’m tired of wasting hours in status meetings when I could be automating deployments” is gold.
“I love playing golf with my Labrador at the weekends” is not.

Step 4: Sense-Check It With the People Who’ll Use It

Before you get carried away designing flashy slides, take your personas for a spin.

Go to your sales team. Ask your CSMs. Even get customer feedback if you can.

Ask:

    • “Does this sound like our real buyers?”

    • “Would this help you on a call?”

    • “What’s missing?”

If the feedback sounds like “meh,” you’ve missed the mark.
If they say “This is exactly what Sarah from Acme Co was like,” you’re on the money.

Step 5: Put Them to Work (and Keep Them Alive)

A persona sitting in a SharePoint folder under ‘Q2 Strategy Ideas’ isn’t helping anyone.

Use them:

    • When writing copy (“Would this hit home for Persona X?”)

    • When prioritising content or campaigns (“What’s most useful for this stage in Persona Y’s journey?”)

    • When training sales (“Here’s what Persona Z really cares about, so lean into that in your pitch.”)

And then—here’s the big one—keep them updated.
Market shifts? Product pivots? New ICP? Update the bloody persona.

They’re not carved into stone. They’re a living, breathing cheat code. Treat them like one.

What Sales Actually Wants From Your Personas

Here’s the brutal truth: most marketers build personas for other marketers.

They chuck in some cute names, list a couple of vague goals, maybe even throw a mood board in there if they’re feeling spicy—and then wonder why the sales team never looks at them.

Want your personas to actually be used by sales?

Here’s what you need to include:

💥 1. Pain Points That Sound Like Real People, Not Corporate Robots

Sales doesn’t want abstract concepts like “struggles with digital transformation.”

They want:
“I’m sick of managing campaigns across six different tools that don’t talk to each other.”
“I’ve got a CEO breathing down my neck about pipeline and I don’t have a clue what’s working.”

Real words. Real frustrations. Straight from the horse’s mouth.

When a salesperson hears a prospect mention a pain that’s already written on the persona, they know exactly how to frame the pitch. Boom—relevance, trust, and forward momentum.

⚡ 2. Buying Triggers

You want to be there at the right time?

Then your personas better tell you what starts the buying journey in the first place.

Salespeople need to know the signs:

    • “They just hired a new Head of Ops? Probably reviewing tooling.”

    • “They mentioned they’re scaling the team? Might need onboarding automation.”

    • “Just raised Series B? Bet they’ve got budget to burn.”

If you know what event or pain lights the fire under someone’s arse, you know exactly when and how to show up.

🎯 3. Decision Criteria (a.k.a. The Must-Haves)

This is where deals are won or lost.

Sales needs to know:

    • What does this buyer care about most?

    • What features are non-negotiable?

    • What will get us kicked out of the running?

If your persona says, “Needs to integrate with HubSpot” and your tool doesn’t—sales knows not to waste time.

If they’re obsessed with scalability or security or local customer support—that’s where the pitch needs to go. No fluff. No guessing.

🙅 4. Objections and Deal Killers

Every buyer’s got a red flag. A reason they hesitate. A reason they stall.

Your personas should surface them.

    • “Worried about vendor lock-in.”

    • “Burnt by overpromising sales teams before.”

    • “Doesn’t want to deal with a long implementation.”

This gives marketing the chance to kill those objections early (case study, social proof, cheeky testimonial), and it lets sales prep responses before they even jump on the call.

No one likes getting blindsided. Your persona should be a shield and a sword.

👥 5. Who Else Is in the Room?

In B2B, your buyer is rarely alone.

Sales wants to know:

    • Is this person the final decision-maker?

    • Who else needs to sign off?

    • Who influences them behind the scenes?

If your persona says, “Needs buy-in from CFO and Security team,” sales knows they’re selling to a squad—not just one person. That changes everything.

Do they need a budget sheet for the finance guy? A compliance checklist for IT?
Give the sales team a map and they’ll plan the route.

📚 6. How to Talk to Them (And Where to Find Them)

Let’s not forget the comms side.

If your persona prefers reading G2 reviews, attending webinars, and scrolling LinkedIn—why are you sending them a 48-page whitepaper as a follow-up?

Tell sales:

    • What content this buyer actually likes

    • What channels they live on

    • What tone of voice lands with them

If they hate buzzwords, tell sales to cut the jargon.
If they binge YouTube demos, give sales a 90-second video walkthrough.
If they hang out in Slack communities, tell marketing to get in there and start being useful.

Bottom line?

Your persona isn’t finished until sales says, “Yeah, I’d actually use this.”

Because a persona that doesn’t help move deals forward is just a fancy poster with a pretend person’s face on it.

Real-Life(ish) Persona Examples: What “Good” Looks Like

You’ve made it this far—so let’s stop talking theory and show you what proper personas actually look like.

Here’s what you should be aiming for. No fluff, no filler, no weird “likes gardening” sections.

🎯 Persona #1: CTO Charlie

“If I have to sit through another ‘scalable, cloud-native’ buzzword bonanza, I’m out.”

Title: CTO
Company Type: Mid-sized SaaS, ~150 employees, Series B
Decision Role: Final decision-maker (but consults DevOps Lead + CFO)

Goals:

    • Reduce infrastructure costs without increasing downtime

    • Improve deployment speed and developer productivity

    • Future-proof the tech stack for scaling

Challenges:

    • Legacy tools don’t play nice together

    • Developers are wasting time on manual work

    • Feels vendor-locked and wants more flexibility

Buying Triggers:

    • Recent downtime that pissed off users

    • Growing team, growing pains

    • CFO just asked for a “cost reduction plan”

Decision Criteria:

    • Integrates easily with their stack (AWS, GitHub, etc.)

    • Transparent pricing and no vendor lock-in

    • Hands-on support and strong docs

Common Objections:

    • “We’ve already got five tools that do half of this”

    • “What’s the switching cost?”

    • “I’ve been burned by crap support before”

Preferred Content:

    • Technical docs

    • Dev community opinions (Reddit, Hacker News, Stack Overflow)

    • Product walkthroughs over polished decks

Bonus Insight:
Charlie’s a doer. Doesn’t want fluff. Wants to see the thing working. If your pitch is all marketing smoke, he’ll bounce.

💼 Persona #2: Marketing Lead Mia

“If I don’t show pipeline growth this quarter, I’m toast.”

Title: Head of Marketing
Company Type: B2B SaaS, ~50 employees, scaling fast
Decision Role: Budget holder for marketing tools, consults CEO

Goals:

    • Increase inbound demo requests

    • Improve lead-to-opportunity conversion

    • Show clear attribution and ROI on campaigns

Challenges:

    • Current CRM setup is messy

    • Leads are slipping through the cracks

    • Sales keeps saying “the leads are crap”

Buying Triggers:

    • CEO breathing down her neck for results

    • SDR team complaining about lead quality

    • Launched a big campaign but can’t track performance

Decision Criteria:

    • Easy to implement and onboard her small team

    • Integrates with HubSpot and Slack

    • Good reporting for exec dashboards

Common Objections:

    • “I don’t have time for a complicated rollout”

    • “Looks expensive for what it does”

    • “Will sales actually use it?”

Preferred Content:

    • Case studies from similar companies

    • ROI calculators

    • Short, sharp webinars or demo videos

Bonus Insight:
Mia’s not technical, but she’s sharp. If you can show her how this makes her look good and keep the CEO happy, she’s all ears.

How to Format Personas So People Actually Use Them

Okay—so now you’ve got your content. But if it’s buried in a 12-tab spreadsheet or a 400-slide deck? Forget it. No one’s touching that.

Here’s how to lay out your personas for actual use:

✅ One-Pager Format

Keep it punchy. Each persona should fit on one clear, well-structured page—PDF, slide, Notion card, whatever works for your team.

🧱 Block Layouts

Use clear sections and headings:

    • Top: Name, title, quote, company size

    • Middle: Goals, challenges, buying triggers

    • Bottom: Objections, decision criteria, preferred content, stakeholders

🖼️ Visuals Matter

Throw in a headshot (stock photo’s fine), use icons for each section, and highlight key points with bold text. Make it skimmable.

💡 Contextual Callouts

Bonus tip: add a sidebar or callout like:

    • “Messaging hook: Lead with ROI and integration”

    • “CTA to test: ‘See how fast you can launch’”

Gives teams an at-a-glance takeaway for each persona.

Final Thought: If It Doesn’t Help You Sell, Bin It

Personas aren’t meant to be pretty. They’re meant to be useful.

If it doesn’t help you:

    • Understand your buyer

    • Speak their language

    • Hit their pain points

    • Or close the damn deal…

…it shouldn’t be in your persona.

So stop creating B2B characters. Start building decision-making guides.
Your marketing will be sharper, your sales calls will hit harder—and you’ll stop wasting time on fluff.

Want a free persona template in this format? Drop me a message and I’ll throw you one that doesn’t suck.

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Jonathan Burns

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