Buyer Insights will tell you what recent buyers were thinking and doing as they spent money and time to solve problems that you address. Understanding what triggered a recent buyers search for a solution, what results they were looking to deliver, their perceived risks and barriers and the criteria that they used to choose a final solution will tell you a lot about how prospective buyers are likely to make their purchase decisions.

A marketing persona is a term that causes your salespeople to roll their eyes when they hear it. Why? Because they know that there is nothing captured in that persona that will actually help them influence their buyers purchase decision. A marketing persona is very good at predicting age, income, values, lifestyles and social interests of ideal prospects. If you sell exercise equipment, it may be helpful to know this information but It’s difficult to imagine how a marketing persona would persuade a CFO to improve their compliance practices. And do you really need a marketing persona to tell you that a CFO is risk averse?