Essay
The Buyer Persona Manifesto
Adele Revella, Buyer Persona Institute Free Beginner
Revella more or less codified the term "buyer persona" for B2B, and this free manifesto is her own definition, not someone summarizing her. It is useful specifically because it draws a hard line between a persona (an individual's buying insight) and firmographic targeting (your ICP), which is the exact confusion our question is trying to clear up. Skim it for the distinction, you don't need the full consulting framework.
- A buyer persona should be built from what real buyers said in interviews, not from guessed demographics.
- A persona explains the buyer's decision process, not just their job title.
- Five buying insights (priority, success factors, barriers, journey, criteria) matter more than a fictional bio.