ICP(Ideal Customer Profile)
Strategy and planning
Strategy and planning
An ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) describes the type of customer best suited to your offer. In B2B, it usually describes companies rather than individual decision-makers.
An Ideal Customer Profile defines where your offer can deliver value and where serving the customer is viable for you. In B2B, this means describing company characteristics such as needs, size, industry, existing systems and purchasing prerequisites.
A buyer persona describes the people within that company: their roles, questions and considerations. Your ICP describes the organisation. A company can fit your ICP without wanting to buy right now. Keep customer fit and purchase intent separate.
Support the profile with customer interviews and evidence from won and lost deals, usage, retention and profitability. If you have little evidence, treat your profile as a hypothesis to test rather than a proven selection rule.
Tip
Record the evidence behind each criterion. Compare lost customers and less suitable enquiries too, so you do not simply reinforce existing preferences.
Related terms
- Buyer personaA buyer persona describes a typical buyer: their role, goals, doubts and the questions they ask before deciding.
- Target audienceYour target audience is the group of people or companies you want to reach, described by characteristics, situation and buying behaviour.
- PositioningPositioning is the place you occupy in your audience's mind: who you're for, how you differ, and why that difference matters.
- Lead scoringLead scoring assigns points to leads based on who they are and what they do, so you can prioritise follow-up.