One of the terms I hear a fair amount from entrepreneurs is Ideal Custom Profile, commonly shortened to ICP. ICP, as it sounds, is a way to hone in on your desired customer by describing as many elements and attributes as possible. When I ask an entrepreneur about their target customer, and the response is vague, I know that they haven’t developed a strong ICP.
Here are a few questions to help develop the ideal customer profile:
- What’s the typical company size and geography?
- What’s the target job title?
- How much money should they already spend on a related element?
- What’s the required technology stack?
- What are some other defining characteristics?
For last couple years before the Pardot acquisition, we defined our ICP as follows:
- Company or division with 20 – 200 employees of which 5 – 50 are in sales and marketing
- At least one full-time in-house marketing manager
- Already run an email marketing newsletter program and purchase Google AdWords for lead generation
- Job title of Marketing Manager, Marketing Director, or VP of Marketing
Build an initial ICP, socialize it with team members, and continuously iterate on it. The better the ICP, the higher the close rate.
What else? What are some more questions to develop the ideal customer profile?
David Cummings on Startups 