Not every company is your ideal customer, and that’s actually a good thing. An ideal customer profile, or ICP, helps you figure out which companies are the best fit for your merch solutions. It’s not the same as a buyer persona, which focuses on the people inside those companies.

A blog post from Salesgenie explains that an ICP is critical for B2B sales growth. The reason is because buyers have changed. They expect sales teams to understand their challenges before a conversation even starts. A clear ICP gives your team that advantage. In this issue of PromoPro Daily, we share Salesgenie’s 6-step process for creating an ICP that will help you zero in on the right companies.

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  1. Audit your existing customer base. You find patterns by analyzing your current customers. The post recommends pulling CRM and revenue data to discern high-LTV and high-retention accounts. Look for common characteristics like industry, company size and average deal size.

  2. Gather firmographic data. The Salesgenie post says it’s important to collect key firmographic information like industry, employee count, revenue range, region and number of locations. This helps you build a clearer picture of the companies you should target.

  3. Analyze customer success factors. Consider how and why these customers found success. What pain points did you solve and what triggered their buying decision? The post recommends also thinking about who championed the solution internally and how long the deal took to close.

  4. Identify key stakeholders and decision makers. B2B deals rarely hinge on one person, the Salesgenie post says. Map out the typical buying committee by role: who initiates conversations, who influences the decision and who signs the contract? Document common goals, objections and motivators by role so your reps can connect more effectively.

  5. Validate with sales and customer success teams. Your ICP cannot live in a silo. The post says it’s critical to share your early draft with your team members. Their experience will help refine the attributes that really matter. This is also the time to call out non-ideal accounts to avoid in the future.

  6. Build and document the ICP template. Once you’ve nailed down the attributes, Salesgenie advises assembling them into a clear, shareable format. Your ICP template should include firmographics, buying triggers, success signals and red flags. Keep it accessible in your CRM and sales playbooks.

Your ICP doesn’t have to be perfect on day one. Start with the customers who already love what you do and look for the patterns. Then, turn those insights into a clear profile. The more you know about your best-fit accounts, the easier it becomes to spend your time where it matters most.

Compiled by Audrey Sellers
Source: A blog post from Salesgenie.