Why Defining Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is Crucial Before Hiring a Sales Team for Your B2B Start-Up

You are a start-up, perhaps in the B2B space, looking to kickstart growth by hiring a salesperson or a sales team.

However, you haven't yet determined your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). So, will this strategy work?

Maybe not, and allow me to explain why…

Without figuring out the ICP, your salesperson/team will be less effective. They'll have to rely on conjecture and make numerous calls/outreach attempts, just to understand what your customers desire (or who the true customers are).

If you’re short on budget and time, this will suck up your resources. So what are your options then?

ICP and Product-market-fit are connected. So, configure or fine-tune your ICP first.

1/. Become your own first customer. Understand which pain points of your/your team/people you know, does your product/service solves. This provides a starting point for your ICP hypothesis.

[ Remember this famous quote of Ogilvy? Your customer is not a moron. She's your wife?].

But relying on your own experience, can induce bias, so while it’s a good starting point, you will need to validate your ICP extensively

2/. Validate. Once you have a hypothesis, it's time to hit the ground running and start talking to a broader set of potential customers. Use the Jobs-to-be-Done framework to dig deeper.

[ “I went in thinking we were in the business of new-home construction,” “But I realized we were in the business of moving lives.”] Instead of asking "What pain points are we solving?", ask "What job are you trying to get done, and how can we help you do it better?"

[There's a very interesting article in HBR on the jobs-to-be-done framework, do read: https://hbr.org/2016/09/know-your-customers-jobs-to-be-done ]

During these conversations, gather as much information as possible about their habits, interests, aspirations, and information sources. This intel is pure gold for your marketing and outreach efforts. Your ICP definition will evolve, and you may want to iterate as much as possible.

3/. Leverage Existing Data (It's a Goldmine there!) Look at your current power users (if you have any) and analyze their demographics, firmographics, psychographics, and behaviors. Identify patterns and similarities to refine your ICP. Your existing data, from analytics tools to CRM data to customer feedback, to leads generated, can reveal valuable insights.

4/. However, if you do not have any/enough power users- you may want to explore followers of a few influencers in your category. Influencers' audiences often represent a concentrated version of your potential customer base. Study the demographics and engagement patterns of these followers to extract insights about your ICP.

[At dotConverse.com , we often analyze hundreds of thousands of comments/queries across YouTube and Quora to get granular details about the nature of pain points & aspirations of the followers of influencers across categories. This gives not only a good indication around demographics and engagement patters but also about potential/current use cases and the need gaps.]

5/. Templates, Tools, and Testing (Your friends in need) There are fantastic resources available to help you define your ICP. You can find templates from Hubspot or explore ICP generator tools, to activate your process. The "Mom Test" offers precious advice on conducting insightful customer interviews.

["You shouldn't ask anyone if your business is a good idea. It's a bad question and everyone will lie to you a bit. As a matter of fact, it's not their responsibility to tell you the truth. It's your responsibility to find it and it's worth doing right."

Read this interesting book to learn more: The Mom Test Book, about the art of interviewing customers/prospects.] Remember, your ICP isn't set in stone. It will evolve as you gather more data and feedback. The more you do this, the more refined will be your investigation and you will receive better insights.

[In a B2B scenario, your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) development process typically involves creating a blend of profiles encompassing various functions, such as decision-makers, users, influencers, and committee members.

This means you may need to develop multiple ICPs tailored to different stages of the decision-making process.]

So, don't be afraid to experiment with different segments, monitor their usage, and iterate your ICP as needed.

It's a Process, not a Destination . . . . . .

P.S. Which ICP are you figuring out currently?

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