Profiling Ideal Customers

Five years ago, Warburg Pincus LLC invested in BetterCloud and urged us to work on a project to narrow our ideal customer profile (ICP). It's the most impactful thing I've ever done to improve conversion rates, shorten sales cycles, increase deal size and ultimately transform the company. A big mistake many CEOs make is believing their product is for everyone. It’s tempting. More potential customers should mean more sales, right? But in reality, chasing too broad a market drains resources, distracts your team, muddles messaging, confuses your product roadmap, and kills go-to-market efficiency. Being laser-focused on your ICP drives alignment across product, messaging, and the go-to-market motion. When the right prospect engages, they’ll feel like you built it just for them. Anyone who has built a product or service knows that the things a small business needs are very different than what a huge enterprise needs. A company is different from a school. An IT buyer is different from a security buyer, a sales buyer is different from a marketing buyer, a director level decision maker is different than a C level decision maker… but we still believe we can sell to different segments and personas as the same time. The process to define and use your ICP is relatively straightforward but does take time. The larger your business, the more data you have, the more resources you have to crunch that data the more time you should spend to do it as scientifically as possible. The high level steps are: 1. Build a Customer Dataset: Gather all your customer data. Current and churned customers, won and lost opportunities. Enrich it with firmographic, business-specific, and buyer demographic data. 2. Engage Your Team: Your best sales and customer success people hold invaluable insights about your most successful (and worst) customers. 3. Analyze & Identify Pockets of Gold: Identify common attributes of high-performing accounts and avoid the traps of poor-fit customers. 4. Communicate the ICP to the entire company with the “why” behind the attributes that make up an ideal customer.  5. Rework your messaging to appeal to your newly defined ICP and narrow your growth initiatives to be focused only on the accounts that matter.  6. Assign the right ICP accounts to your reps and ensure they’re focused on the right buyer personas. 7. Product Development: Reassess your roadmap to align with the needs of your ICP. You should see impact fast. GTM funnel metrics will improve. Conversion rates should rise, with better leads turning into stronger opportunities. You may not get more leads, but their quality will increase. I’ve been discussing this with many Not Another CEO Podcast guests, so don’t just take my word for it. I wrote a deep dive on how to “Narrow Your ICP and Transform your Company”, with real examples from other companies. You can read the full article here https://lnkd.in/e5EN3XSR

Assumptions can lead to costly mistakes. My first SaaS company didn't go anywhere. I thought I was so smart, but going after the wrong people + building for wrong people cost me everything. Lots of hours put in, very little output. Most marketers think they know who their ideal customer is, and they think they know them. But until you validate your assumptions, you’re operating on guesswork—and guesswork is expensive. When I launched the first version of Wynter, I targeted copywriters... after all, who cares more about copy than them? Turns out most of them did not want any messaging validation work ("I don't like people judging my work" lol) + they didn't have any money. There was no pain they felt on their end regarding messaging validation. The pain was all in-house, felt by people hiring the copywriters: will this work? What does my ICP really care about? How can we make this copy stronger? My ICP research work had been lackluster, and I paid the stupid tax (six months of wasted efforts). A strong ICP (ideal customer profile) is built on real insights—validated, actionable, and directly tied to your audience’s needs. Avoid my mistakes and continuously refine your ICP: 1. Interview your customers: Talk to recent buyers or lost deals. Learn why they chose—or didn’t choose—your solution. Focus on the specific triggers that drove their decision and the language they use to describe their needs. 2. Survey your target market: Use target market surveys to dig into pain points, priorities, and decision-making processes. If you're in B2B, Wynter will deliver responses in 48 hrs. 3. Analyze sales conversations: Dive into sales call transcripts using tools like Gong or Chorus. Spot patterns in objections, common themes, and recurring questions your prospects raise. 4. Test your messaging: Use tools like Wynter to test key website pages with a vetted audience that matches your ICP. 5. Study competitor positioning: Analyze competitors’ messaging to uncover what they emphasize and where you can stand out. For example, if their messaging focuses on efficiency, can you carve a niche around customer experience and support? 6. Audit internal data: Review internal resources—support tickets, chat logs, and retention data. Who uses you the most, who gets the most value out of you? 7. Create iterative feedback loops: Insights aren’t static. Use tools like Wynter and Gong regularly get a pulse on your ICPs changing needs and perceptions. Building a strong ICP isn’t about guessing; it’s about listening—through tools, conversations, and data. The payoff? Better targeting, clearer messaging, and avoid paying the stupid tax.

🎯 Maybe our biggest mistake at Jem? Not really knowing who our customers were. I'm writing this because it's not just our story—it's a common theme among founders. Many believe their customer base is "everyone," or worse, they can't clearly define who their customer actually is. We were no different. For a long while, we cast a wide net: "Any organisation that employs frontline workers." Sounds comprehensive, right? It wasn’t. Though it made sense on paper—all these companies certainly need to digitise HR and improve employee benefits—this broad definition didn’t provide the focused impact we were aiming for. 🚀 Then, everything changed. Over the past year, we've zeroed in on our actual customer base, leading to transformative clarity: 𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐈𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬: - 𝐒𝐢𝐳𝐞: Large employers ranging from 200 to 10,000 frontline employees. - 𝐋𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Primarily South Africa. - 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲: Specifically outsourced services such as cleaning, facilities management, and security. - 𝐄𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐞: Low-income, blue-collar, frontline workers. - 𝐄𝐱𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐈𝐂𝐏 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬: Imvula Quality Protection, WastePlan, Securitas South Africa, Colossal Aviation Services Here’s how this clarity has revolutionized Jem: 1. 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭:  Focusing on our ICP makes decision-making around what and how we build straightforward. It’s no longer about pleasing everyone but about creating value for specific needs. 2. 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬 & 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲:  With a clear customer in mind, we’ve refined our positioning, messaging, and strategies. Our engagement and conversion rates have improved because when we reach out, customers know we’ve crafted solutions with their unique challenges in mind. 3. 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Tighter, more relevant feedback loops have significantly enhanced our offerings and customer service. Admitting that our target was too broad initially was tough—it felt like shrinking our market. However, defining our ICP wasn’t a step back; it was a a much needed focus on what really matters - our customers. In tech and HR, knowing your customer isn't just helpful; it's critical. For other people trying to figure out their ICP, I have a ton of great resources which we've found very helpful. Comment "Frontline Employees" and I'll send you the ICP playbook we've put together. It's not perfect, but hopefully it helps.

In my last post, I wrote about why nailing your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is the single most important move for any SaaS go-to-market motion. Here’s the nuance that often gets overlooked: Your ICP is not just “mid-market companies in the UK, 200–1,000 employees, in Financial Services.” That’s a starting point. But it’s not enough. If you stop there, you’ll end up with broad lists, noisy pipeline, and sales teams asking, “Why are we even talking to this account?” The most successful SaaS companies dig deeper. They add layers to their ICP definition. Some examples include: 1️⃣ Firmographics (beyond headcount & industry) 🫡 Org structure (centralised vs. decentralised decision-making) 📈 Growth stage (high-growth, PE-backed, IPO-track vs. stable/legacy orgs) 💰 Budget patterns (are they already spending in your category?) 2️⃣ Technographics 👩💻 Current software stack (what are they using that signals readiness for your solution?) 🧩 Integration needs (are they on platforms you integrate with?) 🧓 Maturity of their tech adoption (innovators vs. laggards) 3️⃣ Demographics (at the persona level) 👑 Job title, seniority, and role in the buying committee 💱 Change-readiness (are they problem-aware and motivated to act?) 🏅 “Champions” profile—what kind of individuals consistently back your product internally? 4️⃣ Routes to Market 🏇 Direct Sales: Which accounts are easiest to break into with outbound? 👯♂️ Partnerships: Which ICP segments are best accessed through resellers, agencies, or ecosystems? 🎁 Product-Led Growth (PLG): Which customer types are most likely to self-serve and expand? When you overlay all of these, you move from broad targeting to sharp clarity. Instead of 10,000 “possible” accounts, you end up with the 1,000 that are probable—and the 100 that are probable right now. That’s where sales efficiency spikes, marketing CAC drops, and product adoption sticks. 👉 The takeaway: ICP isn’t a static profile—it’s a multidimensional map. The companies that master it, win. What other criteria might be useful to determine your ICP? 🤔

If my CEO asked me to book more meetings with our ICP, here's the first thing I'd do: Build a proper target account list. I know, hear me out The biggest difference between winning and loosing GTM teams? Prioritization. Most B2B companies don't have an ICP, they have an ACP (average customer profile). They sell to too many verticals or personas Knowing with SURGICAL precision your ideal customer (pays you the most, stays the longest, easy to sell into, needs almost no support), allows you to do things your competitors can't Here's what I'd do: 1. Get CRM access & export a list of all of our existing and past customers 2. This list should have this info, broken down by customer: - Industry - Company size - Geography - Annual contract value - Sales Cycle Length - Job Title of our champion - Anything else you deem important, like tech stack, funding, department size 3. Add to Google Sheet 4. Group them by segments and calculate win rate by segment. I'd probably segment by industry and/or company size THE IMPORTANT PART: 5. Give this list to my CEO and have them rate each customer 1-5 from worst-fit to best-fit. 5 being “I’d want to keep this customer at all costs” & 1 being “If that customer canceled today, I’d almost be happy” 6. Next to that score, have my CEO fill out a “Why?” field to explain why they gave that customer that score. Can be just one sentence 7. Sort the list by score, best on top, worst on the bottom 8. Find the patterns. There’s no shortcut here. Look at the data, play around with it, form hypothesis and test them Eg. “my CEO thinks the best customers are those who pay us the most while having a short sales cycle, which tends to be mid-market companies in non-regulated industries where we have a VP champion” 9. Express & validate the criteria. Repeat it back to my CEO. I'm looking for a "that's it". Cross-check with Sales and CS 10. I'd use Sales Navigator (or whatever l have access to, ZoomInfo, Ocean.io) to make a complete list of ALL the companies who match this exact criteria. Could be anything from 50 - 20k companies 12. Next I'd pull a list of all the relevant stakeholders within these account. If we sell to SMB, it might just be 1 person per account. If we sell into enterprise, it might be 5-10 people per account 13. This list is now the basis of our GTM. I would for example: - Create content that's hyper-relevant for this newly defined person (focusing on the Champion), leveraging internal Subject-Matter Experts at our company - Build a custom feed in Sales Nav so we can track whenever one of our ICPs posts something and I'd send this to my CEO so they can engage - Run our best Linkedin posts as Thought Leader ads towards this list - Run Conversation Ads to book demos (highly underutilized) - I'd use a tool like Keyplay to score the accounts to feed to my sales team - I'd track signals like hiring, tech stack changes, content engagement to run warm outbound

Let’s set the record straight. Your ICP is not a one-time exercise. I don’t care if you’ve already “done the work.” If you haven’t revisited your ICP in the last 90 days, it’s already stale. The best companies treat Ideal Customer Profile like product or pricing, something that gets refined continuously based on real data, not gut feel. Why? Because markets shift. Personas evolve. Economic climates change. And what worked 6 months ago might already be irrelevant today. When we partner with companies, it’s one of the first things we look at… and almost every time, it’s either too broad, too outdated, or too aspirational. Your ICP isn’t who you wish would buy from you. It’s who actually does… consistently, profitably, and with high retention. The smartest CEOs I work with make sure this is done quarterly: – Analyze win/loss trends – Reassess segments by margin and churn – Interview both happy and churned customers – Validate assumptions with frontline sales and CS feedback – Refine outbound and marketing to match You don’t need a brand new strategy every quarter. You need to pressure test the one you have. If your pipeline’s soft or your CAC’s climbing, start with ICP. When you nail who you’re for, everything else gets easier.

If you are not hitting your revenue targets, do this today. 100% of founders miss this simple and important step. After helping over 100 startups transition from founder-led sales to scalable revenue engines, I've noticed a common pattern: the most successful companies aren't the ones with the broadest market appeal — they're the ones who know EXACTLY who their ideal customer is. Here's how to get specific: 1. Start with your happiest/most successful customers who: • Renewed without hesitation • Expanded their usage • Became vocal advocates • Had the shortest sales cycles (Aren't tracking? You're not alone. Start now) • Required minimal support What patterns emerge? Industry, company size, tech stack, organizational structure? 🎯 Don't forget psychological characteristics. 2. Follow the pain, not the features Your product has features, and your customers have pain points. The strongest ICPs are built around solving specific, acute problems for specific people. Interview your best customers about their pain points BEFORE implementing your solution. What language do they use? What metrics matter to them? 3. Map the buying committee 💡 In B2B, decisions rarely come down to one person. Who influences the purchase? Who has budget authority? Who implements? Who uses day-to-day? Your ICP isn't just a company — it's the specific roles you need to win over. 4. Quantify your impact What tangible ROI do you create for your best customers? The most compelling ICPs include clear metrics: 📈 "We help mid-market SaaS companies with 50-200 employees reduce customer churn by 30% within 90 days." 5. Validate through deliberate testing Create hypothesis-driven experiments targeting your proposed ICP. Set clear conversion metrics at each funnel stage. A true ICP will show significantly better performance across the entire customer journey. 🔥 Remember: Niching down feels uncomfortable because you're deliberately choosing NOT to pursue certain opportunities. But that discomfort is the price of focus. And focus is what transforms struggling startups into category leaders. Niche to get rich.

Why your "perfect" customer avatar is actually limiting your sales. I just killed a client's customer avatar. Revenue went up 43%. Here's what happened: They came to me with their ideal customer profile: "Female, 35-45, $75K+ income, yoga enthusiast, shops at Whole Foods..." Sound familiar? I built video funnels targeting this exact person. Conversion rate: 2.3%. Then I noticed something in their analytics. Their highest lifetime value customers looked nothing like their avatar. The Plot Twist: Best customers were actually: - Male contractors buying for their wives - Women 55+ buying for daughters - Corporate buyers ordering in bulk None of them did yoga. Most had never seen a Whole Foods. The brutal truth about avatars: Your "ideal" customer isn't always your profitable customer. I see this constantly: **Ideal Customer:** Who you think you want **Profitable Customer:** Who actually buys and stays They're rarely the same person. The Avatar Expansion Test: 1. Analyze your top 20% of customers by revenue 2. Look for patterns outside your avatar 3. Create "adjacent audience" test videos 4. Let data kill your assumptions Real client examples: SaaS company targeting "tech-savvy millennials" Discovered: Their power users were 50+ accountants Fitness brand targeting "CrossFit enthusiasts" Reality: Biggest buyers were physical therapy clinics E-commerce targeting "urban professionals" Truth: Rural customers had 3x the lifetime value What I changed: Instead of one perfect avatar, I created three customer buckets: **Core (40%):** Close to original avatar **Adjacent (40%):** One degree removed **Wildcard (20%):** Complete opposites Video funnel results: Single avatar: 2.3% conversion Three buckets: 9.7% conversion The uncomfortable truth: Most businesses are so in love with their ideal customer, they ignore their actual customers. Your avatar shouldn't be a prison. It should be a starting point. The new rule: Define your avatar tightly. Test your assumptions loosely. Let profitable customers teach you who you really serve. Because the customer you want and the customer you need are often different people. And only one of them pays the bills.

Most GTM plans start with a slide titled “Our Ideal Customer Profile.” Company size, industry, job title, ARR range, region… check, check, check. But here’s the thing: Your ICP doesn’t buy from you. A person with a problem does. I’ve seen too many teams obsess over demographics when what they actually need are buying dynamics — moments that trigger urgency, internal politics that shape decisions, small signals that reveal intent long before an inbound form. When I started running GTM workshops, I realized almost every team could describe who they wanted to sell to… but not why those people would care right now. So their campaigns were beautifully orchestrated — and totally out of sync with reality. Because the market doesn’t move on your quarterly plan. It moves on moments of pain. That’s why I stopped treating ICPs as strategy. They’re simply a filter — a way to focus once you already know what insights matter. My approach now starts with three questions: 1️⃣ What moments make your buyer realize the status quo no longer works? 2️⃣ What forces (internal or external) push them toward change? 3️⃣ What language do they use to describe that shift before they even look for you? Answer those three, and your GTM plan starts to sound like your customer — not your board deck. Because when you start with insight, everything else accelerates: • Messaging clicks faster. • Channel focus becomes obvious. • Sales stops “educating” and starts echoing what customers already feel. Every GTM success I’ve seen started with curiosity, not confidence. Start there, and the rest of your playbook writes itself. #GoToMarket #ProductMarketing #GTMStrategy #B2BSaaS #MarketingLeadership #CustomerInsights #RevenueGrowth #SalesEnablement #StartupStrategy

Most teams overcomplicate ICP. They build a fantasy list of companies they’d like to work with instead of looking at the customers who actually work. We’ve shifted clients from “Ideal Customer Profile” to Best Customer Profile (BCP) using three internal data sources: 1️⃣ Finance Ask for: 🔸 Top 20–50 accounts by profitability 🔸 Payment behavior (who pays on time vs constantly late) 🔸 LTV by segment You want to know: “Who makes us the most money without being a nightmare?” 2️⃣ Customer Success Ask for: 🔸 NPS by account 🔸 Product utilization (who actually uses the thing they bought) 🔸 Ticket volume + type You want to know: “Who is happy, sticky, and growing?” 3️⃣ Sales Ask for: 🔸 Win rates by segment 🔸 Sales cycle length 🔸 Real buying committees (not what we wish the org chart looked like) 🔸 Common blockers and champions You want to know: “Who closes fast and stays closed?” When you combine those three views, you end up with a Best Customer Profile that’s grounded in reality: 🔸 Profitable 🔸 Happy 🔸 Easy-ish to sell to 🔸 Expandable That’s a much better starting point for ABM than “these logos would look good on the website.” If you went to finance, CS, and sales this week, would they all describe your “best customer” the same way? ______________________________ Howdy 👋 I’m Mason. I lead Scrappy ABM. We’ve helped B2B teams generate over $100M in revenue in the past 3 years. If you want weekly ABM playbooks, frameworks, and real operator breakdowns, I share everything we’re learning in the podcast and newsletter. 👉 ScrappyABM.com/newsletter