What is an ICP?
An ICP (ideal customer profile) is a B2B marketing and sales term for the type of company that fits your product or service best, described by industry, size, market and the problem it needs solved. It decides who you reach out to and what you write about, and that matters: according to Gartner, 73% of B2B buyers actively avoid suppliers who send irrelevant outreach.
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What goes into an ICP?
A good ICP answers a few simple questions, precisely enough that you could build a list of companies from it:
| What | The question | An example |
|---|---|---|
| Industry | Which field are the companies in? | Software companies, retail chains |
| Size | How many employees or how much revenue? | 50 to 500 employees |
| Market | Where do they sell, and where are they based? | Israeli companies selling into the US |
| Situation | What is happening there right now? | Recently raised, entering a new market, hiring executives |
| The problem | What hurts, in their own words? | "Our pipeline relies only on referrals" |
| Who decides | Who says yes, and who influences it? | The CEO and founder, the VP of marketing |
What is the difference between an ICP and a buyer persona?
The ICP describes a company. A buyer persona describes a person inside it: their role, what they need to prove, what they worry about and where they read. First you define which companies to target, then who in them.
This matters in B2B because several people take part in the decision. The CFO and the person who will use the product ask different questions, so one ICP usually has two or three personas.
How do you build an ICP?
- Start from your best customers: the ones who paid on time, stayed and referred others
- Look for what they share: industry, size, market and the situation they were in when they met you
- Write the problem in their words, the way they put it on the first call
- Define who decides and who influences the decision
- Also write who is not your ICP, so you don't spend time on leads that won't close
- Check it every quarter against meetings and deals, and update it
An example
Say you sell shift-scheduling software. A weak ICP: "companies with employees". A strong one: "retail and food chains with 200 to 2,000 employees across several branches, who manage shifts in spreadsheets today. The VP of operations decides; HR influences." From the second version you can build a list, write a post and draft a message.
How do you use an ICP on LinkedIn?
In your list: in Sales Navigator you can filter by industry, company headcount, title, seniority and people who recently changed jobs. That is your ICP and persona, as filters. In your content: write about the problems your ICP knows, not about what you want to tell them. In your outreach: every message is written for one person at a company that fits, so it doesn't read like a mass message.
You can measure it too. LinkedIn shows who views your posts by job title, company and industry. For one B2B CEO I worked with, 7% of impressions came from their target audience. That sounds small, but on LinkedIn it is a lot, because most people who see a post are not your audience.
How it relates to Velut's work
I don't start an engagement without an ICP. Before the first post, I build a plan with the CEO: the messages, the edge over competitors, their tone, and the ICP and its pains. That produces the list of decision-makers for outreach, at least 100 personal messages a month, and the topics for content. The goal is to bring the ICP into the inbox, not just to collect views.
Frequently asked questions
What does ICP stand for?
In marketing and sales, ICP stands for ideal customer profile (sometimes ideal client profile). In medicine the same letters mean other things, such as intracranial pressure.
What is an ICP in sales?
It is a description of the type of company that fits what you sell best. Sales teams use it to decide who to reach out to and to avoid spending time on leads that won't close.
What is the difference between an ICP and a target audience?
A target audience is usually a broad description of people. An ICP is more precise and describes companies: industry, size, market, situation and problem. You can build a list of names from an ICP.
What is the difference between an ICP and a buyer persona?
The ICP describes the company. A persona describes a person in it, such as the CFO or the person who will use the product. One ICP usually has several personas.
How often should you update your ICP?
Check it every quarter against the meetings and deals you closed, and update it when something changes: a new product, a new market, or customers arriving from an unexpected direction.