Ideal Customer Profile (ICP):
Guide & Resources for Developing ICPs
Table of Contents
Ideal Customer Profile Resources
Overview
A strong Ideal Customer Profile is the foundational building block of an account-based marketing program. Account-based marketing (ABM) is a B2B sales strategy in which the revenue team narrows their efforts onto a set of high-value accounts.
Key to this strategy is having a method for determining which accounts are most valuable.
What is an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)?
An ideal customer profile is a detailed description of the attributes and characteristics of accounts that are likely to do business with you. It includes details such as:
A well-defined ICP provides businesses with valuable insights into their target customers’ behaviors, preferences, and needs, and enables them to focus efforts on creating tailored marketing campaigns.
An ICP helps to inform various sales and marketing activities, including:
- Identifying patterns: By looking at historical customer data, you can pinpoint the most common buying signals of your customer base.
- Segmenting prospects: Group your accounts into segments based on firmographic details, behavioral characteristics, buying stage, and more.
- Tailoring outreach: Create personalized campaigns with relevant messaging and content that engage different segments of your audience.
ICP Best Practices
Devising an ICP starts with taking a look at commonalities in your closed-won accounts, such as industry, size, and location.
AI-powered account engagement platforms can extract even deeper insights like intent data and predictive data to further narrow the criteria of prospects ready to buy. An ABM platform can also spot signals that let you know when a new company has joined your ICP, or when a company in your ICP is showing buying signals. This saves valuable time and allows you to start engaging target accounts right away.
6sense has pioneered account-based predictive models — including account fit, contact engagement, and account reach — to help our customers understand not only who to target, but also why, when, and how. We use AI and machine learning to eliminate guesswork from B2B sales.
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