That’s when a well-made Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) comes in handy. It’s not just a useful tool; it’s the basis for a focused and scalable go-to-market strategy.
What does an ideal customer look like?
An Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is a detailed description of the type of business that would be your best customer—one that would bring the most value to your business over time.
An ICP looks at the big picture and defines what makes a company as a whole a good fit for your product or service. Buyer personas, on the other hand, focus on individual decision-makers. Consider things like the industry, size, revenue range, location, and compatibility of the tech stack.
Your ICP becomes your sales team’s guiding light. It helps with prospecting, messaging strategies across departments, and even setting priorities for product development.
What is the difference between an ideal customer profile and a buyer persona?
It’s easy to mix up ICPs and buyer personas, but knowing how they are different can help you get everyone on the same page:
- ICP’s main goal is to find the best companies for your solution.
- Buyer Persona focuses on specific people within those companies, such as CTOs or Heads of Procurement, and what they need or want.
For example, if your ICP is mid-sized SaaS companies with about 200 employees, you could target specific roles within those companies, such as Finance Directors or IT Managers, as separate personas, all of which would fit into the larger ICP.
Why You Should Never Skip Your ICP
Still not sure if making an Ideal Customer Profile is worth it? Here are some strong reasons why every organisation that wants to grow should make it a priority:
Better Lead Qualification
You don’t have to give all leads the same amount of attention. Sales can quickly tell if someone meets the criteria for success with a clear ICP in place. That means you won’t have to spend as much time chasing prospects who aren’t a good fit and more time closing deals that are worth a lot. Learn more about the basics of getting leads here.
Better targeting of campaigns
When campaigns talk directly to the right people, marketing works a lot better. If you know exactly who you’re targeting with your ICP lens, from the specifics of the industry to the budget you expect, you can write messages that really hit home. Look into services for account-based marketing.
Better Lifetime Value
Not only do ideal customers buy more, but they also stay longer. These accounts tend to keep customers longer and have a better chance of making more sales or growing in the future, which increases total revenue over time.
Less work for support
When you sell things that aren’t in your sweet spot? That often causes problems during onboarding and support, which makes it more likely that people will leave. An accurate ICP makes sure that you only get customers that you can serve well from the start.
How to Make a Profile of Your Perfect Customer Step by Step
Making a good ICP doesn’t have to be hard, but it does require planning and teamwork between teams. This is how you get started:
Check Up on Your Best Customers
Start by looking at clients who have been happy with your work so far. These are clients who have been very involved with you or have long-term contracts. Look for patterns based on things like:
- Business
- The size of the company
- Where you are
- Band of revenue
- Compatibility with tech stacks
- Aligning the budget
This information will help us figure out what “ideal” really means based on what has happened, not what we think it should mean.
Use feedback from current clients
You can find out if your current top-tier customers really value what you’re offering by using surveys like NPS (Nett Promoter Score) or CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) and getting qualitative feedback from interviews or reviews. You can also find out if there are still gaps that need to be filled.
Check for operational fit
Be honest with yourself: Can we always give this type of customer value? Do we have processes in place inside the company, from implementation to support, to meet their needs?
Get Ideas from All Teams
Sales sees things differently than Marketing does, and Product gets different feedback than Support does. When defining attributes, get everyone together so that each department can share its own point of view and find things that other departments might not see.
Use the same template for all of your documents
Use structured questions like “What vertical do they work in?” to keep things in order.
- What is their location?
- How many people work for them?
- How much money do they usually make in a year?
- What problems do they have to deal with all the time?
- What tech tools do they use every day?
Need help writing this down clearly? Get our free worksheet template from our lead generation kit.
Starting from the beginning? How to Make Your First ICP as a New Business
Do you not have any clients yet? Don’t worry; you’re not out of luck. Instead:
- Do research on your competitors: Check out case studies from other companies in your field that are similar to yours.
- Read reviews and testimonials: Find out who other vendors are able to attract.
- Use reports from the public and industry standards
Keep in mind that your first draft won’t be perfect! Think of it as something that changes over time based on what you learn.
Things You Shouldn’t Do When Defining Your ICP
Even experienced teams make mistakes when making their profiles, so keep these in mind:
Going Too Far
If everyone could qualify, then no one really does! Specificity always wins here.
Not Paying Attention to Negative Fits
Don’t just say who belongs; also say what types of people don’t belong and why. Knowing what makes someone unqualified saves a lot of work later on.
Letting the Data Get Old
Your profile needs to change as markets change or products change. Depending on how fast things move inside and outside the company, plan regular check-ins every three or six months.
Believing in your gut Trust Your Gut Over Evidence
Anecdotes aren’t enough anymore; use hard numbers whenever you can before making a choice.
How an accurate ideal customer profile makes every part of your GTM strategy stronger
A team that is on the same page and has the same definitions gets better results everywhere:
Department Benefits Sales
- Put your energy into things that are likely to work out.
- Tailor outreach to each role and vertical match-up
- Assign territories in a smarter way
Advertising
- Write clearer copy that fits each profile’s traits.
- Target only companies that match to get the most out of your ad spend.
- Make the metrics for segment-based conversion better
Customer Success
- Use proven playbooks to get new users up and running faster.
- Find early warning signs that are different for each group.
- Surface logical expansion paths in a natural way
Team for Products
- Put feature requests that are closely related to recurring themes at the top of the list.
- Check roadmap ideas against audiences that are statistically relevant.
- Stop wasting development time looking for edge-case situations
Last Thoughts
Making an Ideal Customer Profile isn’t something you do once and then forget about. It changes as everything else in modern businesses does. But once you know what it is?
It gives clear instructions for every step of the GTM process, from generating leads to making customers happy after the sale, something that few other frameworks do consistently over time.
Are you ready to define yours today? Use our free content calendar template to start building right now!
Check out our insights on intent marketing services and our B2B marketing guide next to learn more about how we help top brands get more people to know about and engage with them.
