What's the best way to identify your ideal customer profile?

Identifying patterns in your existing customer base is a great place to start when developing your Ideal Client Profile (ICP). I often find that business owners don't give this exercise the attention it deserves. The reason I most often hear is along the lines of "I know my customers. I don't need to do any research or write them down." Nothing could be further from the truth. A robust ICP will drive informed marketing decisions, content creation, and outreach. Creating an accurate ICP is easier now than ever before thanks to AI. A good prompt will reveal characteristics of people who are actually interested in your services. Data beats anecdotes every time. Next step? Incorporate this into your LinkedIn Profile.

Aqui est?o algumas etapas chave para definir o ICP: Análise de Dados Demográficos e Psicográficos; Segmenta??o de Mercado; Análise de Comportamento de Compra; Feedback dos Clientes; Perfil do Cliente Ideal (Persona)

The ideal customer profile (ICP) can vary significantly depending on the specific business, industry, and product or solution being offered. For B2B companies in Engineering Services, the ideal customer profile will typically start by identifying businesses rather than individuals. Each business identified must align with your strategic objectives, and have the budget and resolve to solve the problem. Next, you still need to focus on individual contacts, influencers, end-users, and champions or company representatives within the client’s organization to develop and maintain relationships and generate leads. After all, simply targeting the business as a whole inevitably lacks that personal touch in business relationships.

??Pro tip: Analyse the existing customers and take it a step deeper, and create ICPs for different marketing channels. Eg. If you are going to advertise on Linkedin, find out what are the common attributes of the existing customers you acquired via Linkedin or that engage with your Linkedin company page. If you run a campaign in a geographical area, seek common traits of customers in that area. ?

If you have historical customer data, that's a goldmine for identifying your ICP! Collect a list of your best customers (highest ACV/ lowest churn/close the fastest/whatever 'best' means for your company) and analyze all of the attributes those companies have in common. Tip: Go beyond industry, location and employee count! These attributes are often way too generic, the more you can find the better - we aim to identify 100+ attributes! Once you have all of this data, analyze what attributes these 'best customers' have in common to start to form your ICP. Then create an account scoring model based on these attributes so you optimize efforts towards accounts that have the most attributes in common with your 'best customers'.

To identify your ICP, consider these key segmentation techniques: 1. Segment by engagement (recently engaged/not engaged) and buying behavior (frequency, spending level). 2. Find 'whales' (big spenders) by analyzing Average Order Value and recent purchasing patterns. 3. Target loyal customers ('Loyal Dogs') with consistent purchase history. 4. Identify potential new customers ('Rabbits') who are engaged but haven't purchased yet. 5. Re-engage inactive big spenders ('Lost Ships') with no recent purchases. 6. Focus on previously frequent buyers now inactive ('Loyal Pups'). → These methods enhance understanding of customer behavior, based on their 'role' — guiding targeted and effective marketing strategies.

One thing I have found helpful is to generate a list of high-value or key customers against their invoice gross total amount and industry. Next, calculate the Customer Life Time Value (CLV) for each customer and compare.

Defining your ICP means identifying the demographics and psychographics of people who seek out services such as yours. If you are a solopreneur who works directly with your clients/customers, I submit there is another factor that is too often left out of the equation: YOU. This is YOUR ideal client. This means that working with them should bring you joy. I call it the "joy factor". Life is too precious and too short to suffer clients who do not light up your day. Believe it or not, you can craft your LinkedIn profile to help you identify prospects likely to bring you joy. This creates a true win/win. Adding joy to your business makes for a better client experience. Identify your "joy factors" in your ICP to see your business grow!

Foster collaboration between your sales and marketing teams to ensure alignment around your ideal customer profile. Share insights, feedback, and learnings between departments to refine your understanding of your target audience and improve lead generation and conversion efforts. Collaborative efforts between sales and marketing can lead to more effective targeting and messaging, ultimately driving better results for your business.

Once you have your ICP - leverage it to create scoring model. This way, you can consistently uncover accounts that are 'entering' and 'exiting' your ICP criteria. This will also help your revenue team optimize their marketing + outbound efforts towards accounts that have the most attributes in common with your 'best customers'.