How to Create a Buyer Persona: 63 Buyer Persona Questions to Know.

Creating a buyer persona, buyer persona formula

Here is your product buyer persona formula

Buyer Persona =
f(personal background) + f(employed by company) + f(role in a company) + f(challenges) + f(goals) + f(information source) + f(shopping preferences)

let's define each argument. 
Note: for simplicity he=she

Buyer persona questions,  will define your buyer persona formula arguments

Personal Background = f(demographic, education, career path)

Describe person demographics

• Is he male or female?
• What is his name?
• What is his picture?
• Is he married?
• What's his annual household income?
• Where does he live?
• Is he male or female?
• How old is he?
• Does he has children?

Educational background

• What level of education did he complete?
• Which schools did he attend, and what did he study? (Get specific here. "MIT" is better than "liberal arts college.")

Career path

• How did he end up where he is today?
• Did his major in a subject that's very similar to or very different from his current role?
• Has his career track been pretty traditional, or did he switch from another industry?

Employed by Company = f(industry)

Industry

• In which industry or industries does his company work?
• What is the size of his company (revenue, employees)?

Note: details will help in building the fields for order forms.

Role in a Company = f(role, metrics, typical day, skills, tools)

Role

• What is his job role title ?
• How long has he had this role and title?
• Is he an individual contributor, or does he manage other people?
• Whom does he report to?
• Who reports to him?

Note: The importance with which you should regard buyer persona's job and seniority level depends on the product or service you're selling.

1. For B2C. You may consider this information as a way to better understand buyer persona's life.
2. For B2B. This piece of information is more crucial. Is buyer persona at a managerial or director level, and well  knowledgeable about your industry? They'll need less education than someone at an introductory level, who may need to loop in other decision makers before making purchasing decisions.

Metrics

• Which metric(s) buyer persona responsible for?
• Which numbers or charts does he look at every day?

Note: This will help to determine what makes him successful, and what he might be worried about when it comes to "hitting their numbers."

Typical day

• What time does buyer persona get to work?
• What time does buyer persona leave the work?
• What does he do when he is most productive?
• What's his "busy work" look like?
• Is he spending more time at work or at home?
• Where would he rather be?
• What does he like to do for fun?
• Who is the people in his life that matter most?
• What kind of car does he drive?
• Which TV shows does he watch?
• What outfit is he wearing?

Skills

• If they were hiring someone to replace them and had to write a job description of what's actually required, what would it say?
• What are the ideal skills for this job, and how good is our persona at each of them?
• Where did they learn these skills?
• Did they learn them on the job, at a previous job, or by taking a course?

Tools

• Which applications and tools does he use every single day?
• Which applications and tools does he use every week?

Note: Understanding what products they love (and hate) to use can help you identify commonalities in your own product (and adjust your positioning accordingly).

Challenges=f(challenges)

Challenges

• What is his biggest challenges or problem?
• How does that problem affect his day-to-day life?

Note: focus on the nuances that illustrate how that problem makes him feel. For example, let's buyer's company sells personal tax software directly to taxpayer. Some customers may be a first-time tax preparer. What are the pain points of first-time tax preparers? They are probably intimidated by the customer of doing their taxes by themselves for the first time, overwhelmed by a tax code they don't understand, and confused about where to start. These pain points differ from those of a seasoned tax preparer, whose pain points may be not knowing how to maximize the amount of their return and find creative loopholes for deductions.

• Try coming up with real quotes to refer to these challenges. 

Note: For example, "It’s been difficult getting company-wide adoption of new technologies in the past;" or "I don’t have time to train new employees on a million different databases and platforms."

Goals = f(goals at work)

Goals

• What is he responsible for?
• What is his primary goal at work?
• What is his secondary goal? 

Note:  It will help you learn what you can do to help your persona achieve his goals and overcome their challenges.

Success = f(success)

Success

• What makes him look good?
• What does it mean to be successful in his role?
• What can you do to make your buyer personas look good?

Note: Companies that take the time to understand what makes their personas successful will enjoy more effective communications from both the sales and marketing teams.

Information Source = f(search channel, content source, social groups)

• How does he learn about new information for his job: online, learn in-person, newspapers, magazines?
• What social networks does he visit?
• Does he use search, Google etc?
• Which sources does he trust the most: coworkers, friends, family, or industry experts?
• Which publications or blogs do you read?

Social groups

• Which associations and social networks does he participate in?

Shopping Preferences = f(point of sale location, influenced by, history experience)

Point of sales location

• How does buyer persona prefer to interact with supplies?
• How much time do they expect to spend with a sales person?
• What should their sales experience feel like?  (consultative, etc.)
• Prefer: In-person meeting, or online or over the phone?
• Where does he find new information? (online, look at review websites, ask their friends or family)

History experience

• Describe a recent purchase. Why did he you consider a purchase, what was the evaluation process, and how did you decide to purchase that product or service?
• What might make them reticent to buy from you or any other provider in your industry?
• Is this their first time purchasing a product or service of your kind? (If not, what caused them to switch products or services?)