In the world of B2B growth marketing, we've become obsessed with the ICP. Revenue tiers. Headcount. Funding rounds. Tech stacks. We treat these metrics like a North Star—as if mapping out "ideal" companies on a spreadsheet is a strategy.
But here's the truth nobody says out loud: An ICP is a filter, not a strategy. It tells you which doors to knock on. That's it. It doesn't tell you what to say when the door opens. For that, you need a Persona. And in the rush for "execution" and "scale," we've abandoned the hard work of really understanding the human being on the other side.
The Filter vs. The Feeling
Most teams use ICP and Persona interchangeably. Wrong.
ICP is firewalls and governance: Revenue ARR, headcount, funding, industry. It's logical. It's binary. You qualify or you don't.
Persona is the human operating inside those walls: Their fears, their wins, their daily reality, what their CEO is breathing down their neck about. It's psychological.
You don't sell to "a $50M SaaS company." You sell to the VP of Sales who is terrified they're going to miss quota, lose their stock options, and get passed over for promotion. That VP is not worried about your product. They're worried about being seen as the leader who brought in pipeline.
The Reality Check: I've seen teams nail their ICP and bomb their market because they didn't understand what their persona actually cares about. They hit the right company but said the wrong thing.
The Asymmetry Nobody Talks About
B2B stands for Business-to-Business. But every single deal is Human-to-Human. The moment you forget that—when you start sending "company-appropriate" messages instead of human-compelling ones—you become white noise in an inbox.
Why Smart Personas Became "That Slide We Skip"
If personas are so critical to winning deals, why do 90% of marketing departments treat them like an afterthought? I'll tell you why:
1. The Productivity Illusion
A persona doesn't generate leads on day one. You can't "launch" it. Executives want campaigns running by Friday, not to spend three weeks understanding what keeps a procurement manager awake at night.
2. Doer Bias
Most leaders got promoted because they excel at doing, not thinking. They view deep research as delay. "Just launch something" is faster than "understand the buyer." So that's what happens.
3. The AI Shortcut
ChatGPT outputs "Principal Peter who loves innovation and efficiency." It feels like a persona. It's not. It's sterile. No depth. No soul. No actual insight from human research.
The Trap: A generic persona that took 15 minutes to create feels like a persona. It looks right in a deck. But it kills conversion because it's not built on truth.
The 4 Layers: From Corporate to Human
To build a persona that moves prospects to action, you have to peel the onion. Most teams stop at Layer 2. To win, you go to Layer 4—where the actual psychology lives.
Layer 1
Corporate Vision
"We help you enlighten future leaders."
❌ Too vague
Layer 2
Department Mission
"We help your marketing team generate leads."
⚠️ Too generic
Layer 3
Job Role's KRA
"We make your quarterly reporting easier."
⚡ Better, but dry
Layer 4: The Human Level
Deep Personal Desire
"We help you become the most respected voice in your industry."
✅ Winner
The "Holy Trinity" of Buyer Psychology
Every human is a collection of competing desires. Your job isn't to out-product the competitor. It's to tap into the three emotional levers that actually move people to say yes.
Aspirations
The "hero version" they want to become. What would it mean for their career if this worked? What would their peers say?
Core Fears
What keeps them up at 3:00 AM? What's the one failure they absolutely cannot afford? What would ruin them professionally?
The Pattern: People don't buy because your product is better. They buy because you make them feel understood. Because you articulated the fear they've been avoiding. Because you showed them how to become who they want to be.
The Real-World Test: School Principal
Let's say you sell educational software. The official tagline: "Pedagogical excellence through modern learning platforms." 🥴
But inside the principal's head? Something totally different is happening.
He wants credibility. He's tired of being seen as a "traditional educator" in a district where tech is the narrative.
He wants to be first. To have a story for the local paper: "Our school is leading the innovation charge."
He wants superiority. To feel like his school is different—better—than the one across town.
The moment you stop saying "pedagogical excellence" and start saying "Become the superintendent's go-to principal for how learning technology done right"—your messaging stops bouncing off and starts landing.
The Conversion Point: You didn't change the product. You changed who it's for and why it matters to them. That's persona-driven marketing.
Here's What We Usually Get Wrong
Most B2B companies treat "persona development" like it's a project. Something you do once in Q1, stick on a Notion page, then forget about.
But personas aren't documents. They're a process.
The process of:
- → Asking real humans why they actually buy (not what your ICP says they should care about)
- → Testing your messaging against their real psychology, not corporate mission statements
- → Obsessing over the gap between what they say they need and what they actually fear
- → Building messaging that converts because it speaks to who they are, not who they pretend to be
The Real Difference: Your ICP might get them to the meeting. But your persona—that's what actually gets them to say yes.
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