Buyer persona
A buyer persona is a brief portrait of the individual who evaluates, recommends or signs off on your product, written from real conversations rather than guesses.
Read more1. Targeting
What is an ideal customer profile?
An ideal customer profile (ICP) is a written description of the type of company that gets the most value from what you sell and is easiest to win and keep. It is about companies, not individual people, and it tells you whom to put on a prospect list and whom to leave off.
The parts
- Company traitsCompany size, sector, place and the software it already runs. These are facts you can check before you write a single email.
- The problem and its triggerThe situation that makes your product urgent, such as opening a second location or switching a system. A trait list without a trigger finds companies that fit on paper and never act.
- Proof from your own winsThe best ICPs are built from the customers you already keep, not from a guess. Look at who stayed longest and who closed fastest.
- Clear exclusionsA good profile also says who is a poor fit, so a list does not fill up with companies that will never buy.
Worked example: Ledgerline, payroll software for dental clinics
Ledgerline is a made-up company. It writes four ICP criteria and tests three candidate accounts against them. A candidate that meets all four goes on the list first.
By hand
- The criteria are: 10 to 80 employees; Two or more clinic locations; Uses a practice management system; Pays staff hourly.
- Harbor Smile Group meets 4 of 4 criteria.
- Oak Street Dental meets 3 of 4 criteria.
- Summit Orthodontics meets 1 of 4 criteria.
- Only 1 candidate meets every criterion, so that account is contacted first.
| Account | 10 to 80 employees | Two or more clinic locations | Uses a practice management system | Pays staff hourly | Criteria met |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harbor Smile Group | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 4 of 4 |
| Oak Street Dental | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | 3 of 4 |
| Summit Orthodontics | No | No | Yes | No | 1 of 4 |
Three candidate accounts tested against four criteria
How to apply it
- List your five best customers and write down what they share: size, industry, tools and the event that made them buy.
- Turn the shared traits into three to six criteria that can be checked from public information.
- Write two or three exclusions for companies you have lost or churned, so they stay off the list.
- Build your prospect list from the criteria, and review the profile after every batch of replies and closed deals.
Mistakes to avoid
- Describing a person ("a busy founder") instead of a company, which cannot be turned into a list filter.
- Making the profile so wide that it matches nearly everyone, so no message can be specific.
- Writing it once and never revisiting it after real replies and closed deals show who actually buys.
Related terms
Firmographics
Firmographics are the facts that describe a company, such as its industry, number of employees, revenue band, location and age.
Read moreList building
List building is the work of collecting the companies and contacts you plan to reach, then cleaning and filtering them until every row matches your profile and has an email address you can use.
Read moreQuestions
- How is an ideal customer profile different from a buyer persona?
- An ICP describes the company you want to sell to. A buyer persona describes the person inside that company who evaluates or uses your product. You need the company first, then the person.
- How many criteria should an ICP have?
- Three to six is a workable range. Fewer than that matches too many companies, and many more makes the list too small to be useful.
- Can a company have more than one ICP?
- Yes. If two kinds of company buy for different reasons, write two profiles and use a different message for each.
- How often should I update it?
- Review it after each batch of outreach and again when you close or lose a deal. Replies and wins are the best evidence of who really fits.
Tell us what you sell and who buys it
What you sell
Who buys it
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