> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.getseam.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Personas

> Define target roles and automatically find the right contacts within your accounts

Personas are defined groupings of target roles and titles that represent the buying committees or decision-makers you want to engage. They answer the question: **"WHO should we talk to at each account?"**

## What Are Personas?

Personas help you identify and target the right individuals within accounts by defining:

* **Job titles** - Specific roles you want to reach (e.g., "VP of Sales", "Director of Marketing")
* **Seniority levels** - Minimum level required (e.g., Director+, VP and above)
* **Keywords** - Terms that appear in LinkedIn profiles for further refinement
* **Exclusions** - Titles or keywords to avoid (e.g., exclude "Content Marketing" when targeting "Marketing")

<Info>
  **Example:** A "Revenue Operations" persona might include titles like "VP of RevOps", "Director of Sales Operations", and "Head of Revenue Enablement" while excluding "Marketing Operations" and "IT Operations".
</Info>

## How Personas Fit Into Seam

Personas work with other intelligence features to complete the targeting picture:

```
Fit Scoring → Which ACCOUNTS to target?
     ↓
Intent/Signals → WHEN to engage?
     ↓
Personas → WHO to engage?
     ↓
Plays → HOW to engage?
```

**Example Flow:**

1. **Fit Score** identifies Company X as an A-fit account
2. **Intent Signal** detects they visited pricing page 5 times
3. **Personas** define which roles to target (CMO, VP Demand Gen, Director Growth)
4. **Play** automatically finds those people, enriches their data, and adds to sequence

<Card title="Build Plays with Personas" icon="play" href="/guides/actions/plays">
  Learn how personas power automated workflows
</Card>

## Configuring Personas

### Title-Based Targeting

Define personas using specific job titles:

**Example: Data Engineering Persona**

* Include: "VP of Data", "Head of Data Engineering", "Director of Analytics", "Chief Data Officer"
* Exclude: "Data Analyst", "Junior Data Engineer"
* Seniority: Director and above

**Example: Growth Marketing Persona**

* Include: "VP of Growth", "Director of Demand Generation", "Head of Growth Marketing"
* Exclude: "Product Marketing", "Content Marketing", "Brand Marketing"
* Seniority: Manager and above

### Keyword Matching

Add keywords that appear in LinkedIn profiles to refine targeting:

**Example: RevOps Persona**

* Titles: "VP RevOps", "Director Revenue Operations"
* Keywords: "Salesforce admin", "revenue architecture", "sales operations"
* Exclude Keywords: "customer success operations", "support operations"

This catches people with non-standard titles who still match your target profile.

### Priority Ordering

Order personas by importance to your business:

1. **Priority 1:** VP of Sales (highest value, hardest to reach)
2. **Priority 2:** Director of Sales Operations (strong influence)
3. **Priority 3:** Sales Development Manager (user/champion)

When Seam prospects, it fills contacts in priority order until reaching your specified limit per account.

### Contact Limits

Set how many people to find per account:

* **High-value accounts (Tier 1):** 5-7 contacts across all personas
* **Mid-tier accounts (Tier 2):** 3-5 contacts
* **Programmatic accounts (Tier 3):** 1-2 contacts

More contacts = better buying committee coverage but higher costs (credits per contact).

<Tip>
  Start with 3 contacts per account. This ensures you're not single-threaded but keeps costs manageable.
</Tip>

## Automated Prospecting

When triggers fire, Seam automatically prospects for contacts matching your personas:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Trigger Occurs">
    Account visits website, shows intent, or signal fires
  </Step>

  <Step title="Persona Matching">
    Seam searches for people matching persona criteria at that account
  </Step>

  <Step title="Multi-Provider Enrichment">
    Uses 20+ data providers in waterfall approach to find best contact info
  </Step>

  <Step title="Data Validation">
    Validates emails and phone numbers for deliverability
  </Step>

  <Step title="Deployment">
    Pushes contacts to CRM, sales sequences, and ad platforms
  </Step>
</Steps>

This happens automatically—no manual list building or contact searching required.

## Use Cases

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Website Visitor Outreach" icon="computer">
    **Scenario:** High-fit company visits your pricing page

    **Personas Triggered:** CMO, VP Marketing, Director Demand Gen

    **Actions:**

    * Seam identifies the company
    * Automatically finds 3-5 people matching personas
    * Enriches with emails and phone numbers
    * Adds to targeted outreach sequence
    * Pushes to LinkedIn matched audience

    **Result:** Engage buying committee within hours of website visit
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Intent-Based Buying Committee" icon="users">
    **Scenario:** Account shows high Bombora intent on relevant topics

    **Personas Triggered:** Multiple personas across buying committee

    **Actions:**

    * Find executive sponsor (CRO, VP Sales)
    * Find economic buyer (CFO, VP Finance)
    * Find champion (Director RevOps, Sales Manager)
    * Find technical evaluator (Sales Ops Analyst)

    **Result:** Multi-threaded engagement across decision-makers
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Job Change Triggers" icon="briefcase">
    **Scenario:** Target persona gets promoted or changes companies

    **Personas Matched:** Based on their new title

    **Actions:**

    * Detect job change signal
    * Verify new company is A/B fit
    * Automatically initiate congratulatory outreach
    * Add to new executive sequence

    **Result:** Leverage warm relationship at new company
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Mid-Tier Account Air Cover" icon="cloud">
    **Scenario:** B/C-fit accounts showing intent but not worth AE time

    **Personas Triggered:** Primary decision-maker only (1-2 contacts)

    **Actions:**

    * Find highest-priority persona only
    * Add to automated nurture sequence
    * No manual sales follow-up required

    **Result:** Coverage on hundreds of accounts without SDR time
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Event Follow-Up" icon="calendar">
    **Scenario:** Conference attendee list needs follow-up

    **Personas Triggered:** Based on attendee titles

    **Actions:**

    * Match attendees to defined personas
    * Enrich with additional buying committee members
    * Route high-priority personas to sales
    * Route others to nurture

    **Result:** Systematic, persona-based event follow-up
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Expansion into Existing Customers" icon="arrow-up-right-dots">
    **Scenario:** Customer showing usage patterns indicating upsell potential

    **Personas Triggered:** Different personas than original sale

    **Actions:**

    * Find new stakeholders (e.g., CFO for enterprise deal)
    * Find additional departments (e.g., Marketing after selling to Sales)
    * Route to account manager for expansion conversation

    **Result:** Systematic account expansion motion
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Integration Points

Personas integrate throughout the Seam platform:

| Integration          | How Personas Are Used                                 |
| -------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- |
| **Onboarding**       | Configured during initial setup with CSM guidance     |
| **AI Prospecting**   | Automatically finds contacts matching criteria        |
| **Plays**            | Triggers target specific personas when conditions met |
| **Enrichment**       | Sources emails and phone numbers for matched personas |
| **CRM Sync**         | Pushes persona-matched contacts to Salesforce/HubSpot |
| **Ad Platforms**     | Deploys personas into LinkedIn matched audiences      |
| **Sales Engagement** | Routes to SalesLoft, Outreach, or other tools         |

## Multi-Provider Enrichment

Seam uses a waterfall approach with 20+ data providers to ensure the best contact data:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Primary Provider">
    Try highest-accuracy source first (e.g., ZoomInfo)
  </Step>

  <Step title="Secondary Providers">
    If no data found, try next provider (e.g., Apollo)
  </Step>

  <Step title="Tertiary Sources">
    Continue through provider list (Lucia, Cognism, etc.)
  </Step>

  <Step title="Best Result">
    Return highest-confidence email and phone number
  </Step>
</Steps>

This ensures comprehensive coverage across:

* Geographic regions (US, EMEA, APAC, LatAm)
* Company sizes (SMB to Enterprise)
* Industries and verticals
* Public vs. private companies

<Card title="View Data Providers" icon="database" href="/guides/configuring-seam/connections">
  See all available enrichment sources
</Card>

## Best Practices

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Start with 3-5 core personas" icon="users">
    Don't try to define every possible role. Focus on the 3-5 most important personas for your sales cycle. You can always add more later.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Use exclusions liberally" icon="ban">
    Be specific about what to exclude. "Marketing" is too broad if you only want demand gen—exclude "Product Marketing", "Content Marketing", "Brand Marketing", etc.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Align with your sales team" icon="handshake">
    Ask sales: "Who do you want to talk to?" Base personas on roles that actually convert, not theoretical buying committees.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Match personas to account tier" icon="chart-pyramid">
    * **A-tier accounts:** All personas (5-7 contacts)
    * **B-tier accounts:** Primary personas (3-4 contacts)
    * **C-tier accounts:** Single persona (1-2 contacts)
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Set appropriate seniority filters" icon="ranking-star">
    For enterprise sales, Director+ makes sense. For SMB sales, Manager+ may be appropriate. Match seniority to your deal size.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Review and refine quarterly" icon="calendar">
    Check which personas are converting. If "VP Marketing" never responds but "Director Demand Gen" does, adjust priorities.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Use keywords for niche roles" icon="magnifying-glass">
    If you sell to a specific niche (e.g., "revenue operations"), keywords help find people with non-standard titles who still fit the role.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Configuration Tips

### Similar to LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Persona configuration works like LinkedIn Sales Navigator search:

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Job Titles">
    Enter specific titles you want to target, just like in Sales Navigator's title field
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Keywords">
    Add profile keywords that indicate the right role, similar to keyword search
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Seniority">
    Filter by level (Entry, Manager, Director, VP, C-Level)
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Exclusions">
    Remove unwanted roles, just like negative keywords
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

If you're comfortable with Sales Navigator, you'll find persona configuration intuitive.

### Common Persona Examples

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Revenue Operations">
    **Include:** VP RevOps, Director Revenue Operations, Head of Sales Operations, Revenue Enablement Manager

    **Exclude:** Marketing Operations, Customer Success Operations

    **Keywords:** Salesforce, revenue architecture, GTM operations

    **Seniority:** Manager and above
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Demand Generation">
    **Include:** VP Demand Gen, Director Demand Generation, Head of Growth Marketing, Lead Gen Manager

    **Exclude:** Product Marketing, Content Marketing, Brand Marketing

    **Keywords:** ABM, pipeline generation, MQL, SQL

    **Seniority:** Manager and above
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Data Engineering">
    **Include:** VP Data, Head of Data Engineering, Director Analytics, Chief Data Officer

    **Exclude:** Data Analyst, BI Analyst, Junior Data Engineer

    **Keywords:** data infrastructure, data platform, ETL, data pipelines

    **Seniority:** Director and above
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Sales Leadership">
    **Include:** CRO, VP Sales, SVP Revenue, Head of Sales, Director Sales

    **Exclude:** Sales Engineer, Sales Operations

    **Keywords:** quota, sales team, revenue growth

    **Seniority:** Director and above
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Common Questions

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="How many personas should I create?">
    Start with 3-5 core personas that represent your typical buying committee. Most customers maintain 5-10 personas total across different segments.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I have different personas for different account segments?">
    Yes. You can define different persona sets for enterprise vs. SMB, different industries, or different product lines. Each play can target specific persona combinations.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="What if a persona title doesn't exist at a small company?">
    Seam will find the closest match based on your criteria. At a 20-person company, you might get "Head of Marketing" instead of "VP Marketing" if that's the most senior marketing role.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Do personas consume credits?">
    Yes. Each contact found and enriched consumes credits. Setting appropriate contact limits per account helps manage costs.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I update personas after configuration?">
    Absolutely. Personas should be refined over time based on which roles actually convert. Update them in your settings and new plays will use the updated definitions.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="How does Seam handle companies with non-standard titles?">
    Keywords help catch non-standard titles. For example, "Growth Hacker" might not include "Marketing" in the title, but keywords like "demand gen" and "pipeline" help identify them.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>