Discover how you can start selling more faster with an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). This step-by-step guide covers everything you need to know to develop, implement, test & optimize your ideal customer profile. You can view the original blog post here: http://hydeparkangels.com/ideal-customer-profile/

1. A COMPLETE GUIDE TO
CREATING AN
IDEAL CUSTOMER
PROFILE

2. WHAT IS AN
IDEAL
CUSTOMER
PROFILE?
ICP is a pre-defined set of demographic, technographic,
and sales trigger characteristics which indicate a
potential customer will receive the maximum value from
your product/service.

3. HOW CAN AN ICP BENEFIT YOU?
▸Sales & marketing can team-up to
create a strategic customer acquisition
plan
▸Sales team won’t waste time on
unqualified prospects
▸Reduce customer churn by attracting
only customers with product-fit
▸Product development team can more
easily decide on which features to build

4. 1.
FINDING YOUR
NICHE

5. WHAT MAKES AN ACCOUNT THE
BEST CUSTOMER FOR YOU?
▸Low cost of acquisition (CAC)
▸High lifetime value (LTV)
▸Low customer support needs
▸Brand advocate
▸Provide referrals
▸Chance for upsells, cross-sells, and/or
expansion over time
▸Clear value prop and realization of
product/service value

6. Your “best” customers will not
only happily pay for your
product or service, but may also
become brand advocates,
provide referrals, and/or benefit
you in other ways.

7. WHAT MAKES YOU THE BEST FIT
FOR A CUSTOMER?
▸Help them make more money
▸Help them cut costs
▸Help address pain points
▸Help them increase productivity
▸Help them become more successful

8. While your product or service
may benefit customers is many
ways, it’s important to hone in a
single, clear value proposition.

9. 2.
DEVELOPING
YOUR ICP

10. CONSIDER YOUR CAPABILITIES
▸What type of customers can you best
serve?
▸Example: if you can’t support multiple
product versions, enterprise clients may
not be your ICP.
▸Example: if your product relies on team
functionality to provide value, single-
users would not be part of your ICP.

11. CONSIDER PAIN POINTS
▸Identify which major pain points your
product addresses.
▸Consider what key characteristics
indicate a customer has and is aware of
the pain points your product solves.

12. CONSIDER CAC AND LTV
▸What type of customers meet your CAC
and LTV expectations?

13. FIND YOUR BEST CUSTOMERS
Current
Customers
An effective way to
develop key traits of
your ICP is to look at
your current
customers.
Churned
Customers
Churned customers
can provide
valuable insights.
Try conducting exit
interviews to get as
much information
as possible.
Competitor’s
Customers
If you don’t have an
existing customer
base, analyzing your
direct competitor’s
customer base can
be helpful when
developing an ICP.

14. UNCOVERING YOUR BEST
CURRENT CUSTOMERS
▸Which of my customers have the
highest LTV?
▸Which of my customers have been with
us the longest?
▸Which of my customers had the
shortest sales cycle/was an easy sell?
▸Which of my customers are low
maintenance?
▸Which of my customers have advocated
for my brand by providing a testimonial,
giving referrals, mentioning us on social
media, and more?

15. Try to pinpoint 5-10 best
customers. These will help you
in the next step.

16. ANALYZING CHURNED CUSTOMERS
▸Why were they a bad fit for your
product/service?
▸Why did the value prop of your
product/service not align with their
needs?
▸How were they acquired as a customer?
▸How much support did they require
during their time as a customer?
▸What was the deciding factor as to why
they opted not to move forward with
your product/service?

17. Use churned customers to
identify the types of traits you
should exclude from your ICP.

18. 3.
DEFINING YOUR
ICP

19. EVERY ICP IS MADE UP OF
THREE PARTS
Demographics
Location, employee
count, annual
revenue, industry,
etc.
Technographics
Sales tech stack,
marketing tech
stack, developer
tech stack, HR tech
stack, etc.
Sales Triggers
Change in revenue,
restructuring, new
management,
revised strategy, etc.

20. WHAT ARE
TECHNOGRAPHICS?
Technographics take into consideration the technology
solutions a company uses to power its operations. This is
particularly important if you offer a product or service that
integrates with other technology solutions.

21. WHAT ARE
SALES
TRIGGERS?
These are traits which are timely and related to events or
situations which prompt a prospect to be ready and
willing to buy.

22. MORE EXAMPLES OF SALES
TRIGGERS
▸Company Expansion
▸Company Relocation
▸New Product/Service Announcement
▸Restructuring
▸Job Postings/Hiring
▸Mergers/Acquisitions
▸Additional Funding/IPO
▸Press Coverage
▸Good or Bad Financial Quarter
▸Increase in Costs/Expenses

23. PUTTING THE
PIECES
TOGETHER
While demographics and technographics
pinpoint prospects who might be a good fit,
sales triggers help indicate those who are
most likely to convert.

24. DEFINING YOUR ICP
Identify overlapping characteristics
that fall into the categories of
demographics, technographics, and
sales triggers.
These demographic, technographic, and sales trigger
characteristics will make up your ICP.

25. BEST CUSTOMER
DEMOGRAPHIC,
TECHNOGRAPHIC,
& SALES TRIGGER
TRAITS
BEST
CUSTOMER #3
BEST
CUSTOMER #2
BEST
CUSTOMER #1
IDEAL CUSTOMER
PROFILE

26. EXAMPLE IDEAL CUSTOMER
PROFILE

27. 4.
TESTING &
OPTIMIZING
YOUR ICP

28. When developing an ICP it’s
important to understand that it
isn’t a static metric. Your ICP is
fluid and can change over time.
It’s important to test your ICP so
you can refine and optimize it.

29. SET A TIMEFRAME
▸Determine how long you will test your
ICP before evaluating its accuracy.
▸4-6 months usually works well.

30. SET A GOAL
▸In order to measure the effectiveness of
your ICP you should set a goal to work
towards.
▸Examples: increasing MRR by a certain
amount, generating a certain amount of
new leads, or reducing churn by a
specific percentage.

31. MONITOR SUCCESS TOWARDS
YOUR GOAL
▸Specify metrics you’ll use to track
success towards your goal.

32. ANALYZE SUCCESS & REFINE
▸At the end of the timeframe you
established in step one, determine your
progress towards meeting your goal.
▸Decide if you should take steps to refine
the ICP before moving forward.

33. 5.
NEXT STEPS

34. After developing your ICP, you
should take steps to implement
it across your organization.

35. NEXT STEPS TO TAKE
▸Develop buyer personas: Develop personas for
the key purchase decision-makers your sales
and marketing teams will be targeting.
▸Align all teams: Ensure the ICP is clearly
communicated across your sales, marketing,
customer success, and product teams.
▸Find customers that align with your ICP: Use a
prospect database to research and identify
customers that match your ICP.
▸Continue to refine your ICP over time: Use the
testing methodology we outlined to test and
optimize your ICP over time.

36. +500,000
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