Horace Hegmann

Why this persona fits the audience

He runs the lead inbox and CRM journeys for a national used-car retailer, pulling in web forms, Meta lead ads, call tracking, and email nurture from HubSpot into one reporting view for the marketing director.

• Age: 41
• Location: Manchester, UK
• Occupation: CRM and Campaign Manager
• Income: £63,000 + bonus
• Education: CIM diploma in digital marketing
• Company size: 500-1000 employees (National Used-Car Retailer)
• Years in role: 6

“If you can't measure it, it doesn't exist, and if it doesn't exist, we can't fix it.”

Horace Hegmann is a 41-year-old CRM and Campaign Manager based in Manchester, UK, operating at the nerve center of a national used-car retailer. With a CIM diploma in digital marketing and six years in his current role, Horace has evolved from a basic administrator to the architectural backbone of the company's lead generation engine. He is responsible for the entire lifecycle of inbound leads, orchestrating a complex ecosystem that pulls data from web forms, Meta lead ads, call tracking services, and email nurturing campaigns within HubSpot. His primary output is a unified reporting dashboard that serves as the single source of truth for the Marketing Director. Horace's professional identity is defined by an almost obsessive need for measurement discipline and process consistency. In an industry notorious for messy data and inflated metrics, he has built a reputation for reliability. He recently led a critical initiative to integrate a fragmented call-tracking system with the central CRM, a project that required writing custom Python scripts to bridge legacy APIs. This decision, though technically demanding, eliminated a daily two-hour manual reconciliation task for his team. Despite his technical competence, Horce remains grounded in the practical realities of automotive retail. He navigates the constant tension between the marketing team's desire for volume and the sales team's demand for quality. He is not swayed by flashy new platforms unless they demonstrably reduce friction or improve data granularity. His income of £63k plus a performance bonus reflects his value as a stabilizing force, allowing him to maintain a comfortable lifestyle in Didsbury. Horace views technology not as a magic solution but as a toolset that must be meticulously maintained. He is currently focused on refining his automation workflows to ensure that no lead slips through the cracks, driven by a belief that operational excellence is the only sustainable path to growth.

Background & daily life

A day in their life

Horace wakes at 5:30 AM for a quick run or coffee before the kids stir. By 7:15 AM, he's commuting into Manchester, listening to a deep-dive podcast on attribution modeling. At 8:45 AM, he's already in the office, reviewing overnight lead flows and checking for any failed API syncs from Meta or the call tracking provider. The morning is a blur of Slack messages from sales reps asking why their leads are delayed, which he handles with calm, data-backed explanations. Lunch is eaten at his desk while configuring a new nurture sequence in HubSpot. Afternoons involve cross-departmental meetings where he defends his reporting logic against vague requests for 'more leads.' By 5:30 PM, he's running final reports for the director, then heads home to coach his son's football team or cycle. Evenings are reserved for winding down, occasionally tinkering with a personal automation script before bed.

Lifestyle

Horace lives a structured life in Didsbury, balancing family duties with a disciplined routine. He cycles 80km every weekend regardless of the Manchester rain, viewing it as non-negotiable mental decompression. His home is tidy, with a dedicated office space where he manages personal finances and side projects like home brewing. Financially, he is conservative; he maximizes pension contributions and avoids consumer debt, preferring cash reserves over credit. Socially, his circle is small but tight-knit, centered around colleagues and fellow parents at school gates. He values quiet evenings at home after long workdays, often reading technical manuals or watching football highlights rather than going out to loud venues.

Work life

His day is dominated by the chaos of inbound leads and the rigid demands of attribution. He spends mornings cleaning data from Meta Ads and Google Forms before 9 AM, ensuring the CRM is pristine for sales teams. The bulk of his afternoon is spent building complex automation workflows in HubSpot and debugging integration errors between call tracking software and the main database. He faces constant pressure from the Sales Director to improve conversion rates and from the Marketing Director for granular reporting. His coworkers are mostly sales managers who blame him for bad leads, and IT staff who view his custom scripts as risky. He thrives on solving these friction points through process optimization.

Relationships

Horace is deeply embedded in his immediate family, relying on his wife for emotional stability during stressful quarters. His professional network consists of other automotive marketers in the North West, with whom he exchanges tips on CRM configurations. He has little patience for social climbing; his influence comes from being the person who 'knows how the numbers work.' He defers to senior management on strategy but pushes back firmly on operational shortcuts that compromise data integrity.

How they decide

Cautious, evidence-based, and peer-validated. Horace rarely makes significant changes without a pilot phase, a cost-benefit analysis, and a clear ROI projection. He is skeptical of marketing hype and relies heavily on case studies, technical documentation, and feedback from trusted industry peers before committing to new processes or investments. He prefers incremental improvements over disruptive overhauls.

How they sound

Horace speaks with a measured, clipped Mancunian cadence. He uses precise terminology ('attribution window', 'lead velocity', 'API latency') but avoids jargon when speaking to non-technical stakeholders. He rarely raises his voice, even when frustrated, preferring to state facts objectively. He avoids absolutes like 'always' or 'never' unless backed by hard data. His tone is professional yet approachable, often using phrases like 'let's look at the numbers' to de-escalate tension. He dislikes hyperbole and gets visibly annoyed by vague promises.