Little Glossary · Go-to-market
Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
The Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) describes the type of company that gets the most value from a product and brings the most value to the business: the one that buys faster, stays longer and expands its contract. It is defined by company characteristics, not individual ones.
The criteria that define it
- Industry or vertical: for example logistics, healthcare or software.
- Size: headcount, revenue or the size of the team that will use the product.
- Geography and language.
- Business model: B2B or B2C, subscription sales, direct or partner channel.
- Tech stack: tools the product integrates with or replaces.
- Situation or trigger: a funding round, new regulation, international expansion or a change of decision-maker.
ICP vs buyer persona
The ICP describes the company; a buyer persona describes the people inside that company who decide, influence or use the product, such as the marketing director, the CFO or the head of operations. You need both: the ICP tells you which accounts to go after, and buyer personas tell you how to speak to each person.
How to build one
- Pick your best current customers based on data, not gut feeling: retention, revenue per customer, expansion, short sales cycle and low support cost.
- Look for what they share using the criteria above.
- Compare them with lost deals and churned customers: what sets them apart?
- Write it on one page and share it with marketing, sales, product and customer success.
- Review it at least once a year, or whenever the product or the market changes.
What it's used for
- Segmenting campaigns and audiences on LinkedIn and other channels.
- Scoring leads and prioritizing accounts in the CRM.
- Choosing which case studies and messages to show on the website.
- Designing account-based marketing (ABM) strategies.
Related terms
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