How to create an ideal customer profile (ICP)

An ICP is exactly what it sounds like: a profile of your ideal customer.

It’s the customer in the back of your mind when you’re thinking of product development, account-based marketing (whether to prospects or customers), or sales strategies.

Your ideal customer is the one who benefits the most from what you’re selling and gives you a lot of value in return.

What exactly defines your ICP is something that only you know (which is what we’re about to cover).

ICPs are often confused as user personas—these are not the same thing.

Both are important and you’ll definitely want to develop and use both during marketing campaigns, but your ICP is actually what your user personas are based on. Think of it this way—your ICP defines the type of company you’re targeting, while user personas focus more on individual people within those companies.

For instance, if your ICP is a tech company, your user persona might be someone like Alex, the VP of Sales, or Sarah, the CMO.

So, if you’re a SaaS company, your ICP might consist of B2B companies in the tech industry with a company size of 100 to 500 employees. Your sales and marketing teams can use this to tailor messages and create campaigns that resonate with this target audience.

If you’re an American clothing retailer, on the other hand, your ideal customer might be consumers within a certain age range living in the United States. Your user personas would narrow this down further, allowing you to target potential customers like Paul the hipster.

Makes sense, right?

While ICPs are meant to serve as an overview of your ideal customers, don't shy away from making yours as detailed as possible. The more detailed your ICP, the better you can identify and target your ideal customers as you focus on marketing efforts. The more detailed your ICP, the better you can identify and target your ideal customers.

Here are a few more benefits you can get from creating and using an ICP during marketing campaigns:

• It’ll make you more money. Because you’ll know exactly who you’re targeting, your marketing spend will be allocated accordingly so no dollar is wasted chasing the wrong leads. You’ll also rake in leads that are more likely to become customers, increasing your win rate and helping you close more deals and make sales.
  
  
• It’ll increase customer lifetime value. Knowing who you’re catering your sales process to will allow you to streamline your acquisition efforts and reduce customer churn.
  
  
• It’ll get you more referrals. Building positive relationships with your customers from your target has never been more important than it is now. One of the reasons for that is when a customer is truly happy with your brand, they’ll tell their friends about it—who just might fit your ICP as well.

• You'll have a shorter sales cycle: When your sales team knows who they’re dealing with, it’s easier to move leads through the funnel faster.
  
• You'll have better alignment between teams: Your sales and marketing teams can work together smoothly when they’re both focused on the same target audience
  

Step 1: Make a list of your “best” customers

Before diving into new leads, look at your current customer base. Who are your top customers, the ones that get the most value from your product and contribute to your company’s bottom line? These are the customers that should serve as the foundation for your ICP.

You should (hopefully) have a lot of customers who love your brand. You can narrow this down to around 10 existing customers by looking at who’s getting the most value out of your product or service: value not only in terms of how you impact their bottom line directly (in the case of B2B companies) but indirectly as well, such as by alleviating pain points, increasing productivity, or otherwise helping them achieve their objectives.

In other words, how much does your product or service contribute to their overall success with existing customers?

Some questions to ask yourself to help you narrow down your customers are when you use marketing efforts:

• Which accounts are your most profitable with customers?
• Which accounts have been with you the longest?
• Does the customer make significantly more money using your product than they spend on it? (Aka. return-on-investment or “ROI.”)

Step 2: List their attributes

Looking at your list of “best” customers, next to each one, list all the notable attributes about them.

For example:

• Industry
• Geography
• Number of employees
• Number of customers
• Budget

As you’re writing these attributes out, you’ll notice you have more information about some current customers than others, or that you’re missing some details that would be very helpful to include in your ICP such as budget or the number of customers they serve.

These attributes will help paint a clear picture of your ideal customer and ensure that your sales and marketing teams are aligned in their efforts.

That’s where customer interviews come in, which we’ll go into next.

Step 3: Interview them

Remember, these people love you!

So, they’ll probably be more than happy to agree to hop on a call where you can ask them a few questions about their experience with your brand or product.

Shoot them an email asking if they have time to chat. For example:

Hey {First Name},

Hope you and the whole team at {Company Name} are doing well!

We just want to say we appreciate you being a long-time customer, and would love to set up a few minutes to chat with you about your experience with {your product or service}. We’re always looking for ways to improve, so we want to hear what you’re liking the most and where you think we can improve.

Let me know if one of the following times works for you:

• Thursday, March 28 at 10:00 am PT
• Friday, March 29 at 11:30 am PT

Looking forward to getting your feedback!

Cheers,

{Your Name}

{Your Company Name}

The goal of this call with the perfect customer will be for you to fill in any missing information and get a detailed account of their buying experience, from how they discovered you to why they decided to buy from you, and their experience with your product now.

Here are some examples of questions you can ask during this call:

• How did they hear about your company?
• What was their buying process like?
• Who was the decision-maker for this product?
• What were their primary pain points they were trying to solve?
• What are their objectives now?

These interviews will provide invaluable insights that can inform your marketing messages and refine your ICP even further.

Step 4: Compile data and fill out our ICP template

Now that you’ve narrowed down your top customers, listed all their attributes and what makes them “the best” and interviewed them to get the full story, compile and organize all your findings together into one universal document—this will be your ICP.

Finally, after talking to the perfect customer, it’s time to fill out that ICP template we mentioned with the data you gathered.

How CRM and ICP Work Hand in Hand

Creating your ideal customer profile (ICP) is a great starting point for understanding who your best customers are. But after that, it’s all about managing and nurturing those relationships—and that’s where a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool becomes your secret weapon!

A CRM helps you keep all your customer info in one easy-to-access spot, making sure your sales and marketing teams stay in sync. Here’s how pairing your ICP with a CRM can supercharge your customer relationships and growth:

• Better lead qualification: With your ICP in place, your CRM can filter out leads that don’t fit your ideal customer criteria. This means your sales team can focus on the high-quality leads that are most likely to convert, making the sales cycle quicker and smoother.
• Personalized outreach: Your CRM lets you segment your audience based on all the details in your ICP, like company size, industry, or location. This helps your sales and marketing teams create personalized campaigns that really speak to your audience and boost conversions.
• Account-based marketing made easier: CRMs work hand-in-hand with account-based marketing (ABM) by storing all the key details about your most important accounts. This allows your team to keep track of every interaction, making sure your outreach is always personalized and on point.
• Sales and marketing alignment: One of the biggest perks of using a CRM with your ICP is how it keeps your sales and marketing teams aligned. Both teams will have access to the same customer data, meaning everyone is working toward the same goals—finding and converting the right leads.
• Smarter decisions with data: CRMs give you detailed reports and analytics on customer interactions, helping you see what’s working and what’s not. This data helps you refine your ICP and your strategies as customer needs change over time.

By combining your CRM with your ICP, you’re not just guessing who your ideal customers are—you’re actively managing relationships with them. The result? Faster sales, happier customers, and long-term growth!

Use your ICP to start targeting better today—here’s how.

Having an ideal customer profile in place will benefit multiple departments within your company, helping them to help your customers.

Here are just a few ways you can use ICPs to improve your business operations with new and current customers:

• The Product team will be able to ensure the features and functionality of their products accommodate these profiles.
• The Marketing team will have a better idea of what kinds of ads to produce, using language to evoke emotions that would cater to these profiles. They’ll also be able to use them to develop user personas to target ads even better.
• The Sales team will qualify leads more effectively with a more detailed description of what they’re looking for, and know how to prioritize them.

Ready to Get Started?

Creating an ICP doesn’t have to be complicated, and it’s one of the best ways to streamline your business efforts. Once you have a clear picture of who your ideal customers are—and you pair that with a powerful CRM—you’ll see more sales, faster results, and happier customers.

Ready to dive in? Download our free ICP template and start identifying your dream customers today!