$ man persona

Persona

The type of person you're targeting within a company. Job title, department, seniority. "Who do we talk to?"

by Shawn Tenam

You can target the right company and still lose if you're talking to the wrong person. Personas define who has budget, authority, pain, and interest. A VP of Sales cares about pipeline. A Director of Ops cares about efficiency. Same company, different pitch.

Every partner has a personas.md file with 3-5 tiers. Tier 1 = primary buyers (VP Sales, CRO). Tier 2 = secondary decision-makers (Director Sales Ops). Tier 3 = influencers (SDR Manager). Tier 4-5 = edge cases or champions. I use those tiers in a persona qualification prompt that checks job titles and assigns outreach priority. Tier 1-2 = high priority, custom research. Tier 3 = standard sequence. Tier 4-5 = nurture or skip.