Emmanuel Carpentier

WING A / STRATEGIC ARCHITECTURE

Knowing Your Customer: The Science of Deduction

Line art drawing of a detective, resembling Sherlock Holmes, in a deerstalker and cape, holding a magnifying glass

In Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet, Sherlock Holmes famously remarks: “It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.”

In the B2B SaaS world, many marketing leaders make this exact mistake. They build “theories” about their customers based on surface-level demographics—job titles, company sizes, and industry verticals. But as Holmes knew, the truth lies in the “details that others overlook.” A title tells you what someone does, but it doesn’t tell you why they wake up at 3:00 AM worrying about their department. The true science of deduction in marketing lies in uncovering the specific motivations, internal political frictions, and hidden behaviors that actually drive a purchasing decision.

Moving Beyond Demographics

My research in the Lab focuses on distinguishing between the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)—the organization that gains the most value—and the Buyer Persona—the human being navigating that organization.

Core Research Insights:

  • Psychographics over Demographics: We analyze attitudes, interests, and motivations. In B2B, a “Risk-Averse IT Manager” and an “Innovation-Driven CTO” may work at the same company, but they require entirely different messages to move them to action.
  • The 13 Common Persona Mistakes: Our research shows that most personas end up as “digital tumbleweeds”—static documents that teams never use because they lack actionable data. We focus on building “living” personas that evolve with the market.
  • Persona vs. ICP Alignment: We study how to synthesize these two frameworks. A great persona at the wrong company is a wasted lead; a great company with the wrong persona leads to a stalled sales cycle.

Documentation & Findings

Consultant’s Note: I use these deduction frameworks to help clients refine their targeting. If your current personas feel generic, we should look at the data again. Explore our GTM Services.