§ 1.1.3 · A1 / A2 · typically two weeks
What this is
Question one of the five, formalized into a document of its own. Who you are trying to reach, where they are, what they care about, what language they use, and what specifically moves them from content to actively looking. Most of the time this is absorbed into the messaging document rather than sold separately. It becomes a standalone piece when something downstream needs a sharp target to score against—outbound lead generation, a paid campaign, or a sales team that needs to agree on what a good lead looks like before they can agree on anything else.What makes it useful
The test we hold it to is simple. If the profile does not change how a headline gets written, it is not finished. That rules out most of what passes for audience work. “High-net-worth investors in North America” is a filter, not a profile. “Accredited investors who built their wealth running a landscaping business out of the back of a pickup, who value grit and distrust anything that looks expensive” tells you the tone, the photography, the sentence length, and which three words to never use. Both describe real people. Only one of them can be written from. So the document leans on what your audience believes rather than what they are. Demographics and firmographics are in there, bounded and specific, but the weight sits on the asymmetric beliefs—the things this audience holds more strongly than the audience next door.What we need from you
Conversations with whoever knows your buyers best, which is usually the founder or leading executive plus a leading salesperson. Three to five calls with actual current customers if you can facilitate them, which is the single highest-value input available and also the one clients most often skip. Your last few months of closed-won and closed-lost, in whatever form it exists. Patterns in who bought and who did not are more honest than anyone’s recollection of them.What you will have
A document of a few thousand words covering the structural profile, the psychographics, the events that trigger a buying decision, the exact words your audience uses and the words they distrust, where they actually spend attention, the objections that stall your deals, and an explicit statement of who is not your customer.How long it takes
About two weeks, most of which is scheduling the conversations. The writing is quick once the interviews are done.Next: messaging refresh
Keeping a settled message current as the business changes.